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Few days back I hit a truck with my Toyota Solara 2003 SLE V6 coupe. I hit the hitch on the truck’s rear and the hitch pushed through the grille and bent the radiator support of my car. The radiator broke and the coolant drained. I took it to the body shop and the quote that I got exceeds the current worth of my car. I just graduated and I am broke. I am planning to rent few equipments and do it by myself. i need to pull the radiator support back to its original position and replace the radiator with an used one. I am little afraid that I will mess up the cooling system and damage the engine. The engine is fine and the car still works but with no cooling system the engine runs hot. I am expecting some help regarding the parts diagram of the cooling system for this particular toyota model. And also suggestions regarding how to pull out the radiator support frame to its original position, will be highly appreciated. Please help me out!!
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No surprise that the insurance company wrote it off. I hate to say it, but this isn’t really worth your time trying to fix. Your headlights will never aim true, all your body lines will be so far off. Looks like you need a cooling fan assembly, quite a few other small parts.
It doesn’t take special equipment to knock a rad support back into the ball park. A big sledge hammer will do just fine. Don’t expect anything to line up afterwards.
The upper rad support craddles the rad and A/C condenser, aswell as mounts the headlights and the front of the fenders, front bumper.
Once the geometry is thrown off in a hit like that, it is highly unlikely you will square off the front end.
Ever used a Porta Power ? Harbor Freight sells them, but you can probably rent them too. Look for whats called a Pull-back ram. If you set this up right it will pull your will be able to pull that support back out correctly. Here is what you have to do, figure out the angle and point of impact and start from there backwards. I know that sounds elementary, but it works. Some people have hooks in the floors as anchors, others use trees, maybe in your case find another really heavy truck with a hitch of approximatly the same height, and hydraulic pull it back out using that the tool I suggested. I despise body work, but have done my share because like you, I am totally put off by body shop prices.
Just..no.
It just doesn’t work like that in collision repair, I’m not sure where you got those ideas from.
There is no pulling that metal out ‘correctly’ As it pushed it, it pulls both ends of the upper rad supports meeting the inner fenders inward with it. Metal has a memory and that front end has one hell of a memory. There’s no angle of impact to figure out, you use reference points and chassis specifications to measure the front end, and how far out it may be, and in which direction.
As for anchoring the vehicle down, what you are thinking about is actual structural repair. An upper rad support is very mild pulling in terms of unibody structure. Pillars, posts, and inner tie bars are what take LOTS of force to bend, and even more force to get back in place. Those are procedures that require proper equipment and exact math and measurement. Vehicles can literally be torn apart if done incorrectly.
This RX-7 is a perfect example. Got t-boned at the track, crushed the rocker panel, but pushed the A-post (fender meeting door) inward a good few inches. Somebody tried to pull it out with some hydraulic equipment and ripped the welds out of the floor panel, along the windshield, and put the door frame way out of whack. Poor thing has sat for 4 years since, we just recently started working on it.
As for body shop prices, there is a reason you pay what you do. However, MANY body shops don’t give you quality for that price. If you can’t find a shop with a LIFETIME warrenty, don’t even bother. Our door rate is between 55-65 an hour, and you get every dollars worth, and more. It’s hard to really wrap your head around the numbers until you sit down and run through a few estimates, parts lists, and break it all down.
I agree with the points above, completely. However, if the support is bent in, and it didn’t pull the surrounding structure inward with it, then a straight pull back out should fix the issue. No, probably wont ever be RIGHT again, but will probably work. Are you headlights angled in, if so, then the issue is probably to is too severe bother with. As for use of hydraulics, well common sense would dictate how far to go and where to anchor it so it doesn’t cause worse damage. Misuse of rams and stuff can indeed totally ruin a fast, fast. Use common sense. Door alignment, glass fitment, and all that other nasty geometric stuff does indeed require special training and tools, however to just get a car back on the road and running is what I think you are seeking. Some cars and repairs just don’t justify the cost of skilled body and men, shops and expensive equipment therefor you don’t have much to lose by trying it yourself since you cannot use the car at the moment anyway.
I know plenty of people that have used trees to fix members like that, however they are never the same. As stated, iron and it’s alloys have a “metal memory”. Something like that can be “hacked” but it will never be the same without proper body repair.
True, yes. The question is this. If the car still functions and doesn’t track down the road crooked, then what is right ? If it was vintage Mopar or something of value, right may be the consideration for resale potential, ect. However, that being said, there are lots of old cars in the world used for transportation that are not RIGHT. It depends on resources. I bought a very wrecked Nissan truck for 150 dollars some years ago. We fixed a smashed tierod end in a press, reset toe by eyeball, I pulled out the smashed inner fender put a new grille and fender on blew some paint on it. And no, it was not as good as new, but functional yes. The idea of taking a 150 truck to any body shop was out of the question, it just needed to function. The worst functional damage the truck had was the bent driveshaft from a forklift moving it around whatever storage lot it was on. Frame damage, never knew, or cared. Likelyhood of ever seeing that truck at Barrett Jackson, probably not -wasnt really concerned about resale value or history..LOL. Next guy I sold the truck didn’t care either he just drove it, as I did. I think you guys are assuming this Toyota in question has other structural damage, maybe it doesn’t And if the core support is straightened out and all it does is hold the radiator in the car anyway, and doesn’t bang the front of the engine, whats the different if still functions. My two cents worth on that.
If it’s a matter of simple function, why are you here? Simply yank it out, hang your parts, and be down the road.
I only included information to make you aware that in no way will you be able to line up everything on front end of the vehicle. I totally understand the fact that it isn’t worth to fix “right” However, there is not a whole lot you can do with that damage that is worth any time or effort.
I just have the philosophy of fix it once, fix it right.
There’s more to be concerned with than whether things line up – it’s safety. Before airbags, passive restraints and such – yeah, you could safely yank things back into place (maybe use a little heat), bang em into position, throw some paint on it and go.
Not anymore. Well, you can still do that, it’s just not right. The radiator support in this car is mild steel – it *can* be pulled back into place if slightly bent with no ill effects. But this is severely bent and even though mild steel cannot be pulled back into place without kinking or bending so it should be replaced. Just yanking, pulling of pushing it back into roughly where it once was does more than just affect that part – it affects parts that are attached to and in the vicinity of it.
The part did what it’s supposed to do – absorb crash energy. Not restoring it to it’s proper integrity greatly affects how it performs in a subsequent crash. Of most concern is airbag timing. In a subsequent hit, this area will be able to absorb less energy than it did before which can make the airbags less effective and potentially go off at the wrong time (too late). (This one doesn’t look particularly bad and really isn’t likely to make much difference, but do you want to take that chance? Personally I don’t)
The newer the car, the more high-strength steel there is and the more crucial this becomes. There’s a reason good bodywork is expensive – it’s typically time consuming when done correctly.
You reminded me of another point. I’m assuming you didn’t file an insurance claim? Just walked in for a quote?
If you were to have filed a claim, and the vehicle declared written off, you would really have to fight to keep ownership of the vehicle. An accident like that would brand the vehicle and deem it unfit for the road. The vehicle would than need to be inspected, authorized, repaired, and re-inspected before being allowed to have a rebuilt or resalvaged title. This needs to be done by a licensed shop.
The reason this happens, is your insurance company doesn’t want to be liable for an unfit, or unsafe vehicle. They would much rather put you in something of equal value and send the car off to auction. You would “buy back” the vehicle from the insurance company, and than need to cover the costs of repairs out of pocket, the situation you are in now.
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