my radiator support beam on my '88 2.8 is bent slightly due to a wreck. it's causing my hood latch to not fit in the hole, and it's causing my radiator to lean towards the engine more. i'm open to any sugestions on how to pull it out towards the front a little bit. if that soulds impossible, how hard is it to replace?? thanks.

 

If its not real far back u can adj. the latch ethier on the hood or the support. If that don't work its easy to pull it out some.But if u don't have the tools than it makes it alittle harder.Would need a post some chains. Or the cheap way find a big tree tie your car up to it and back up real slow.. Post some pics if u do it that way.lol

 

make sure you use an oak tree, those are the stronger ones for pulling.

 

hahaha...i haven't thought about that...yeah, it's a little to far to adjust the latch. i might just try the tree thing. i'm crazy enough to do it.

 

well, i tried to hook up some chains to it and back up....it bent it a little bit back, but not near enough. i have a friend that just now tells me that he knows body work, he said to heat it up and then bend it, so i'm going to try that next....let yall know how it goes.

 

if its that bend i would put a new one in. When u heat stuff up it weakens it. U can but a little bit to it don't get it red hot.And be carefull don't set your car on fire. U should really just take it to a body shop and see if they could pull it out for u. At are shop frame rate is only 50 a hour so for a 100 bucks it might be better to take it in.

 

yeah, i thought that it would weaken it as well, but my friend said that he would help me out. he said that he went to school for auto body and knows a way to heat it up, bend it back, and somehow cool it off and make it stronger at the same time. i'm thinking about letting him do it and just play the part of handy helper.

 

well the only way to cool it off is to let it cool by itself. Do not spray water on. Thats a big no no

 

thanks, i'll keep that in mind

 

So did it work out for u? And did u take any pics with your car hooked to the tree? That would be a great pic lol

 

i'll try to get pics up as soon as i can

 

you would be ahead to take it to a shop that does frame work, when i wrecked my lumina back in november i ended up replaceing the whole lower radiator support while i had it on the frame machine, without seing pictures i really can't say if it needs replaceing or not.

 

this weekend i got back to working on it...sorry, but no pics yet...anyway, i took off the hood, both fenders, entire front bumper assembly and radiator. i hooked it up to a come-a-long, and hooked that to a tree. . it was bent about 2 inches at the top, and right now it's only got about 1/2 an inch to go, so it is working. i'll see about pics later.

 

i finally got it done. i hooked up a come-a-long (hand winch) to a tree and ran the cord through a pipe that was directly behind the support. i tightened it down, then used a propane torch to heat up the support, and it slowly came out. i reenforced it by bolting on another metal beem behind it and put everything back together. anyways, i got it done, thanks for the suggestions.

 

Thats cool. I would not of heated it up . But as long as u did not get it red hot should be fine. U get any pics really wanna see it hooked up to a tree. Going to blow it up and frame it for my garage

 

the only pics i have is the origional ones after i put the parts on and found out that things didn't line up....but it was attached to a tree. i'll see about getting those up soon.
p.s. there arent many oak trees around here.