Front end damage

[zloetakoe]

So long story short, while travelling at speed limit going down a hill in a rainstorm I had an idiot stop short after travelling about 4-5 feet into the intersection. I totally thought he was going to make it through, AND I was determined to make it through the same light. When he hit his brakes I hit mine and.... I ended up hitting the back end of his truck.

my 4g slid under his bumber, mashed the driver headlight, the left side of the hood, the left fender and broke the corner light. Broke the clip holding the bumper on, broke the power steering resevoir and overall ruined my day. Just wondering, does anyone have a blown up diagram of the front end of these cars? It would be helpful to see what parts I can use to piece this thing back together if I make a run to the junkyard.

Let me know if anyone has been through the same thing and if there are any parts that are harder to replace on that left (driver side) than others... Would hate to junk the car.

Thanks all.

[Sandman]

Been there, done that. I crashed my first 4g a good decade back. Finding parts was easy(still is on this side of the globe). Getting them all to fit properly after a crash, that is the hard part.

[HondaCivic90ED]

[zloetakoe]

Thanks for the help. Finally got the hood open and took off the driver's fender. Worse than I though. The engine bay got crinkled at the same level as the power steering reservoir. There is actually a seam at that same location. Is it possible to just cut from that crinkle forward out of another 4g and weld in into place?


Can't stand the thought of losing my baby!!!!

[Sandman]

Or you could get it pulled out in a chassis robot. They do repair these with replacing the whole chassis rail.

[zloetakoe]

I've never heard of a chassis robot, but only get images of toys when I google it. What does a chassis robot do and what is the cost to use one?

[Sandman]

It's probably not the proper name for that. It's a direct translation of the name for it here. What it does is, it calculates the points of the chassis, where they are and where they should be. After that it pulls the chassis out to where it is supposed to be.

Specialist job - not that cheap.

[zloetakoe]

Used a tow strap as a makeshift "chassis robot". It did a decent job of straightening out that side of the car. I actually thin I'm only going to need to replace the hood, the headlight, the corner light, the fender, the radiator mounting bracket and the piece of metal that goes over the headlight that is marked "SH" on the top. Is that last piece part of any of the previous diagrams? I didn't see it on there, but it appears to just be bolted on.

[Sandman]

Nice to hear you nearly got it sorted. As for the parts you're asking about, if I understood the part you're asking about correctly, I seem to remember that it's not removable and the part that the hood latch is on unbolts from that and the other side has the fender bolts.

But again this is only the case if I understood you correctly

[zloetakoe]

Unfortunately, it sounds like you understood correctly.

Here's what I mean just in case...

So just above both headlights there is an area of metal colored the same as the rest of the engine bay (in the picture should be a maroon color). One side of it has the radiator mount bolts, the other side does appear to have the fender bolt holes. It LOOKS like it might come off with just removing some bolts, but maybe it's welded on there.... If I could replace that sucker, my life would be MUCH easier. Haven't done a ton of work on it yet, going to hit up the junk yard for a hood and a fender and see what I can get done as far as getting those on there. It will still require some tweaking and pulling on it for sure to get things straightened out. Looking a lot better already though.

[Sandman]

Right. Well here's a shot I took of Tursaanpoika's hatch when we were parting it out. Perhaps it helps.

[zloetakoe]

Update.

After many hours and trips to the yard, I've almost got this thing pieced back together and could probably start driving it tonight. One thing though...

The hood is not latching properly now. In fact, when I let the hood down there is about 3 inches (7.5cm) between the hood and the latch. I have to very forcefully push down on the front of the hood for the latch to deploy. It seems that the back of the hood (nearest the windshield) coming down and making contact early therefore elevating the front of the hood. It's an erect hood if you know what I mean. Any thoughts on adjusting? I tried moving the hood forward and backward to no avail. Maybe the hood is bent and thats how it sits? I got it from the yard and it wasn't closing very well on the car it was on, but I thought it was the hinges (replaced with my hinges). Also, the drivers side corner nearest the front headlight is elevated about an inch after I use enough force to close the latch...

Thanks for any advice!

[Sandman]

Is it possible that the front end is pushed in? Or possibly just the part with the lights and the hood latch? I would suspect these first when a car has had a front end collision. The hood would show damage immediately, you'd know if it was the hood.

I'd look in to the latch and it's connecting parts for damage first.

[zloetakoe]

Is it possible that the front end is pushed in? Or possibly just the part with the lights and the hood latch? I would suspect these first when a car has had a front end collision. The hood would show damage immediately, you'd know if it was the hood.

I'd look in to the latch and it's connecting parts for damage first.

Certainly a good place to look. Although, it appears that the hood is being prevented from closing near the firewall somewhere. It's also rubbing on the item labelled #7 in the above top diagram. The latch work fine, and it lines up well. It's just very difficult to get the hood down enough to get it to latch....

[zloetakoe]

any reason a 1991 sedan hood would not fit on a 1988 sedan? I've seen a few places report that the sedan's hoods were interchangeable... The new hood is hitting by the rear hood gasket/seal and will not drop enough to let the hood latch... hmmm.