i recently got into an accident where i was hit on the drivers side fender...Along with the fender and front nose clip damage, the frame shifted or "bent" a couple inches towards the passenger side of the car...i was planning on doing a lot of the body work myself until i discovered the frame damage, could anyone tell me a ballpark estimate that a body shop would give me to straighten the frame?

 

Its probably gonna cost a lot. It depends on how bad the damage is. If it is really out of whack the best thing to do would be to get a new front subframe and weld it on. As far as an estimate, I can't help you, but heres what you can do to reduce the cost, remove anything that is in the way now, like fenders, hood, front cap, and any accessories that bolt to the inner fender. Remember, shops usually charge by the hour, so any time spent fighting to remove trashed parts so they can work on the frame will cost you money.

 

yea it doesnt really seem to be out of whack, it looks like it just bent a couple inches...and i already took off the fender and the front nose clip so you can see all the damage right away, im going to have my girlfriends brother tow it down to the shop early this week to get the estimate.

 

Good luck. If it turns out to be a lot of money, don't be afraid to look to another thirdgen. You can always use your parts on another car.

 

yea thanks...if it would be too expensive to have the frame straightened, do you know around how much it would run me to have another sub frame welded on?

 

Up here in Canada it's 60-70/hour to get your frame straightened. Without seeing it, it's tough to say. But I had a rolled over Talon that had the frame really shifted bad and it only took 8 hours .... Of course, I only paid 20/hour too...

 

Just an FYI, I dated a girl whos father owned a frame shop. When he would take 2 cars and splice them together, First thing he had to do was straighten both of them if they were bent, then cut them apart and weld them together. If you do not striaghten what you already have, then nothing new will line up anyway.

I looked at a 92 T/A Convertable, It was hit all down the driver side, looked like someone ran it down a guard rail. Anyway, looking at the car I noticed that the front wheels were off center. I called around, explained what it was, and it would have cost me 3-4K to get it straight & right. It was only a 1/2" off. They took $2500 for it, because it only had 79K

It will probably be easier & cheeper to get another car at this point.

Just a thought.

John

 

As posted before the cost will depend on the time involved. It cost me $90 for the shop to put it on the rack and see what needed to be done. With the new lazer equipment they can put if back to within a few millimeters of factory spec. I ended up just scrapping the car beacuse the car was too far gone but the cost to find out was minmal comparted to putting any more time or money into the prodject.