Are you serious? I figured it was hosed for good. I might have to see if there are any good frame shops somewhat locally. Where are you seeing the tweek in the rad saddle? The owner said the piece that the grille bolts to is bent, but that the rest of the core support is OK. Granted he has a banged up truck that he's trying to get rid of but thus far he's been pretty honest with me (so it would seem).
I have no problem doing the work, I just don't want to end up with a $3-4K pile of parts instead of a truck that needs a little love.

 

Based on the 4 pics I have

I think the saddle is what may be making the r f fender to high,,,...In my Photo program ,you can see more detail...

The Rad support may straighten along with the frame ,,,

RF door to fender alignment is off ,,,looks like the door is bent....

 

Shoot, you can tell all that in the pic he has up. Look at the windshield, now look at the gap between the hood and grill. Look at windshield and grill relation, look at linear of hood. Front end is twisted, and as TJ said, I bet it tweaked the wall too. Still repairable, but for 6k, if I was the seller, I think I would have to have my head examined.

 

I have Three more pictures ...The hood isnt closed....

 

Superduty4x4 was able to email me a few more pics but not post them yet so I forwarded them to Rick. He does wreck repair for a living. He has a good eye!

 

I appreciate all the input so far guys, it really helps me decide whether this is worth tackling or not. When I looked at the photos, it looks to me like the pass. side frame rail got pushed up some (or the driver's side down) which is why the front end and core support appear twisted- looking at the rubber mounts you can see the pass. side one is tweaked quite a bit. So my thought was that the core support wasn't bent and could be re-used. I wish I was closer so I could get a good look at it!
Rick- I'm not seeing any bend in the doors, I assume when you say RF you mean passenger side front? I can see a small bend in the front of the fender behind the headlight trim, but I couldn't see any bend in the door. Now that I look though, right where that white line is drawn it might be bent just a tad... should be an easy fix though. Again I really appreciate the help, keep it coming!

 

I also noticed that one the windshield is written "no coolant". thats not a good sign for the Rad. maybe got lucky and the fan cut a hose but that is not likely. Also alot of misalignment of the left fender with the door and cowl. which lines up with the frame being bent as in the pic but it also looks like there is vertical movement. Might all fall back into place after the frame is pulled.

 

I asked the owner about the "no coolant" on the window- he said it had a slow leak that he thought was hose related, and that "Theirs no coolant in it because the shop removed it to see if there was more damage. Radiator seems to be fine but I would check to see if it leaks." That made me wonder too, but maybe that means they pulled the rad to check some of the stuff you had mentioned before (engine mounts, firewall, etc).

 

I don't buy it!! A shop would leave the coolant in to check for leaks or damage to the rad. They may have removed it to inspect but that would not really be needed to check for damage.

 

Well I sent the owner another email and asked if he could email/fax me a copy of the estimate from the shop and/or the name of the shop that inspected the truck, haven't heard back from him yet so we'll see what happens.

 

I threw together a quick estimate based on visible damage ,,,


4207.87 a used bumper assembly would lower the cost some...

Does not include any suspension damage , or a rad support....

 

Does it have to be 350 ? New listing on Craigs List in Medford area .. 97 White F250 Diesel 4x4 EC Manual Tran. $8000 OBO, runs good, selling due to divorce. !!

PostingID: 554784628

Jim

 

Preferrably F350 because (1) I want a long box and (2) I don't want a TTB with the heavy diesel hanging over the top of it, but worth looking into- thanks Jim!
EDIT- missed the EC part, I'm looking for a crew cab.

Rick- holy crap I didn't figure it would be anywhere near that high! Would you mind emailing me a copy of the estimate you came up with if you can? I can PM my email addy if needed.

 

I would have to fax it ,, my program is user specific

 

PM'ed you a fax number Rick.