I have a question on a Ford, a focus not a truck. Hopefully no one will mind its a urgent type question. My daughter was out yesterday and a woman pulled out in front of her then stopped. My daughter almost stopped but hit her. She hit her less than the speed a airbag went off. I will have to replace the hood,headlights,grill,radiator,and radiator frame holder that the hood latches into. I did take the radiator out to see the damage and from what I can tell the only damage that there might be to the frame is the ends where the radiator support bolts in. If it is bent it is not much and looks to be only on the top. I feel confortable in my skills that I can get this straightened out and be able to put in another radiator support with no trouble. I was thinking about finding another one with a bad engine or hit in back and put its parts on this one. My question is should I just go ahead and forget it? It was a great little car and had a almost new engine in it. But I don't want to fix it if it would be dangerous. I have rebuilt a few before but not in the last few years and I am not familiar with this type yet. You can see the damage at this link.
tiffany's wreck pictures from family photos on webshots

To me it looks worse than it is. I had a station wagon I rebuilt that was worse when hit. So any suggestions would be appreciated.

 

You need to dig further to see if it's worth saving. If it were me, I'd pull all the bent stuff off, then see what's what. It doesn't look too bad, but what's an un-wrecked Focus going for? As for replacement stuff, I've had very good luck with aftermarket stuff. I get my stuff from a local salvage yard, and while it is made in Taiwan, it's got an ISO number, which means they hold it to OEM specs, so it will bolt right on, and it's less than half of what OEM stuff costs.

 

If I can fix this car and it be safe thats what I hope to do. We just got it a few months back and it was liability only due to age. I also got laid off a few years back and I am now working for about half what I was. Add that she is going to college this fall and we are trying not to spend any more than we have to. But I do want it to be safe. I have not had a chance to take all the rest off but I plan on doing it this weekend. I did hop out to to a yard and look around today. I know its not something to go by 100% but I did measure the frame between the engine to get an idea how it is off. It was exactly the same as the one not hit in the junkyard. I think the radiator support across is designed to give and thats exactly what it did. I did look more and other than the hood,fenders and radiator support there is not any more bent or warped damage. I may check for parts like you do at a local yard that are new. I got a new hood locally new for less than a local yard wanted for one with dents. The yards around me want more than I can get new for. I don't see how they stay in business. Thanks for the reply.

 

Id rebuild it. But i would check the spacing betwen the doors and the fenders to see if its pushed anything back. You can also look at the body lines from the back to front to see if any of them is off. Ususally if it bends the frame/unibody any it will most of the time mess up the body line. Ex: put a crease either dent in or out. Then if everything measures out measuring around the engine bay. Id go on and install everything. After installed id get it aligned. Just to be sure that nothing is out of alignment. Hope this helped a little.

 

 

that looks almost identical damage my girlfriend did to our focus when she rear-ended a car. for me removing the rad support was a pita but i did not remove the bumper. A parts car is always nice to have around. and just a heads up the SPI engines tend to blow up due to a valve seat coming loose (more so if they over heat) Good luck with gettin her back together.

 

We lucked out and I found a front end on a trading/sales site. It was about two hours from me in Chattanooga so we went on Friday to get the clip. It was only 375 and I got to spend the day with my daughter. As far as the damage on her car there was none on the frame from what I could tell. I have all the parts on except for the headlights and grill. I will get them on tomorrow. the front worked out really good as far as what we needed. What wasn't on the clip I could salvage on hers. For example the front nameplate was bad on the new one but hers was good. Then the new clip had a broken light on the bumper but hers was good. So I pieced and put the best on hers.

We plan on redoing the brakes,get new tires and having it aligned. I know of one that will check it for any frame issues. I did have all the stuff on it yesterday that I needed to be able to drive it so I pulled it from the field to my workshop. It drove great, so I think from driving it to the parts lining up it hopefully will be ok. I have pictures at the link below. The parts are a little off but we have to do the final alignment of panels and tightening down. I just laid the headlights and grill in to get an idea. They are off due to that. So I hope this mess is about over. We had the same insurance and they are going to settle for the damage to the other ladys truck bumper. So it should be over with that unless she tries to act like she got hurt. She told the EMTs and trooper that she was fine, she also signed a release.


So hopefully its over except for paint and a new windshield. I think the reason it looked so bad was due to the hood going up and bending in the middle. When it went up the hood corner cracked the glass. You can see where the corner of the hood meets the place where it cracked.
Here is the link to the pictures. The last two are the latest with the new front end. I told her she should paint the back end white so people would think she was driving a cop car and not pull out in front of her. The woman she hit ran a stop sign then hit her brakes because the car in front was turning to the left.

tiffany's wreck pictures from family photos on webshots