mrhalibut

Hokay so. I picked up this beauty for 2500.



It was hit at low speed pulling out of an office parking lot. PO decided to sell rather than pay to fix the body work. I was able to drive it back to my house (25 miles) with no issues, however it is out of alignment. Upon further inspection, this is what I am seeing.









Air pump is trashed and now removed, ill be ordering a delete kit for this.

Fender stay/headlight bracket was bent back pretty good so I pulled it off as well to be replaced.

Tip of the frame has a slight dent but nothing appears to be majorly bent of off whack.

My main concern is the radiator support/cradle. It is bent back pretty good and I have just noticed a very slow drip from the coolant system somewhere. But it can't be much and shouldn't be busted after driving for 30 min at full operating temp and no problems.

At this point I'm thinking remove the radiator and use a little brute force on the cradle, however you can see where it ripped the mounting tab right where it's welded to the frame.

Also I haven't taken it to get aligned yet, so I'm still crossing my fingers that nothing is off with the steering components.

Thoughts?

Orjinal

You can hammer it out to make it "ok" but if you want to fix it properly, drill out the spot welds and remove the damaged section. Then weld in a new radiator support. That bracket is very cheap.

mrhalibut

Oh and my hood is a little off. Im hoping I can just work it back to its original position. There isn't any dents or damage to it, just somehow shifted out of alignment.

mrhalibut

I plan on doing all this work myself with intentions on getting it back to stock as possible. I don't care about the radiator support being perfect so I believe my first step is to remove the radiator an start beating it back to "stock". My only concern is getting the bolt holes in that support back to their stock positions. I want my fender/bumper/hood jams to be as close to perfect as possible.


Also I think the hood is going to be a chore.

Any input is greatly appreciated!!

james0933

Id get it on a frame rack first.

92gli

Then beating parts with a hammer isn't the right option. At a minimum, you need to replace the lower cradle and make sure everything is square. Going by how the hood is fitting, I think you also have a tweaked fender support on the driver side. The bumper bracket also plays a big part in the front end lining up right.

civdaddy

Good job saving an s2000!!

Car Analogy

This. Trying to tweak bent parts back to proper shape is a losing battle. Fine if you just want a car that drives and isn't hideous. Not fine if you want it to not be obvious its been damaged.

Do the work you can do yourself to save $, buy the parts you need instead of trying to salvage bent stuff. Try to find used parts if you can. But get the stuff you can't do properly yourself done by a professional shop.

james0933

Right, and alignment is something you cant eyeball. It looks like the front end was resprayed too from the overspray in the crevices.

Save some headache and get it square first. Then replace, tweak parts yourself.

forust

Sorry for getting this post back again, I have an accident and I bent the radiator frame support, im trying to get it perfect buying all the new parts, but I cant find the side part of the radiator frame, it doesnt appears on the "Front Bulkhead" section, if somebody know, I will appreciate the help.

I can only find

Frame, Bulkhead (Upper)
60431-S2A-A00ZZ

Stay, Bulkhead Center
60434-S2A-A01ZZ

Cross-Member, Front (Lower)
60440-S2A-A00ZZCROSSMEMBER, FR. (LOWER)


need the side one, If Im im wrong please correct me. Thank you