Crash Damage- Options for Front End Repair?

Hit a patch of ice and slid down a hill into a telephone pole a few weeks ago. I have been weighing my options for repair. I have all the front end parts at this point, frame member, bumper bar, bumper, plastic parts.

The front passenger side frame member is bent slightly inward and does not seem to budge.

I have a radiator support panel I ordered, but then realized and did some research that a lot of spot welds have to be removed and replaced to swap the panel along with a lot of alignment- I don't have a welder or experience with one. Bolting it back on seems less than ideal.

I am going to replace the radiator and the truck is drivable without the front end attached.

What do people do in this situation? Cut out the wrinkle in the lower bar of the radiator panel and bolt on a piece of steel?

Just bite the bullet and drive it to the body shop?

Make it nice again with a new radiator support panel?

I

 

Would be a great time to get an aftermarket steel bumper!

P.S. Nice truck!

 

I would pull it back into shape with a slide hammer/tow strap/winch and call it good. Metal is harder to work in the cold though so i would put it in a heated garage and aim a Salamander heater at the area that you are pulling out if possible.

 

Bend it straightish and buy an ARB for the front. And fix the hood and you'll be good as new

 

If it's just the radiator core support that's bent, you can get a new one on ebay and replace it like I did.

I had to straighten out a few other things since the collision wasn't head on with my truck, but it's pretty straightforward and easy if you're somewhat mechanically inclined.

There's tons of youtube videos out there on how to do it too.

 

betterbuckleup- I looked through your front end work, I assume you welded the new radiator support back in place to the inner fender/skirts? I have a new support panel, but no real means to weld it back up, most likely only use nut and bolts. Seems like if I got it all in place maybe a shop would spot weld it or is there a lot of paint scraping and prep work to do between the two metal surfaces to spot weld it?

Anyone have any method or trick for bending that boxed frame member that holds the bumper reinforcement bar?

 

In the end it comes down to if an alignment can be done and the truck tracks straight.

Nothing worse then a Truck going down the Road side ways

You have no friends that weld maybe time to make some.

It has been years but I cut many spot welds Snap On made the best cutters back then by now I am sure the Patent has expired and others now make them

 

Currently in the Same boat as you the spots welds are the easy part imo. The more of the pita part is removing everything from the core support its self. I'm looking to get an oem core support to make life easier. Definitely want to do a rough pull basically reversing the point of impact it will help strengthen things you may not know were bent. I can let you know how many spot welds you have to drill as well as the locations. My progress as of yesterday.

 

The hood is shot, replace it. Leave the core support in for now and take it to a body shop to have them measure and pull the frame rail. Make friends with a welder or pay the same shop to prime and weld in your new core support. Aftermarket beefy steel bumper and you are good to go.

 

Not easy but it's doable. Take your time and measure test fit everything before welding it back.

 

No we actually just used nuts and bolts.
Drilled out the original spot welds and then used the same holes to secure the new one on.

You could spot weld it, but in my opinion there's nothing wrong with using nuts and bolts to secure it. Plus you would need a spot welder with a pretty long reach for some of the spots that get welded. You could easily spot weld it yourself too with something like this. Runs off of 120volt power too which is nice and easy. In the end, all that really matters is that everything reattaches to the new core support (radiator, headlights, etc) and that any new body panels you are replacing line up with everything and comes out straight. My inner fender apron still is wrinkled up front in some spots and I wasn't able to get one bolt hole to line up for mounting my intake air box, but otherwise everything looks great from the outside and i've had zero problems with the repair.

 

If you're local, I have a front crash bar available and I can weld it for you with mig and spot welder.