Front of car frame bent, need help to straighten
 

Not sure what section this belongs in ill try here first

Well about a year ago i ended up tapin a wall at the track. It hit the drivers side fender and part of the bumper. At first i just thought it was a small amount of damage get a new fender and im good. Well i have been looking into it more and it seems the front beam off the drivers side is bent in. I measured a cross square off the fender bolts in the back, to the front bolts, and it is like a quarter in difference. I also have no gaps between my fender and hood they closed up which makes sense. Has anyone had any experience straitening something like this? I was thinking about taking a porta power hydrolic ram and pushing it out from the passengers side corner, not directly across so not to move the other side. I still have to take the motor out so i can get a better look at things.

Hope someone can help me or has mended this problem before.

you do not want to do that. that car needs to be put on a bench and pulled and measured correctly.Otherwise nothing will ever fit properlly Any local bodyshop with half a reputation should be able to do this for 3-4 hundred bucks. if either of those frame rails are kinked past 45 degrees they should realy be repalced. they can still be purchased brand new from mazda

300 - 400 isn't bad but you have to remove the engine and stuff don't you?

I dont know if it is neccesary to remove the engine. I did some research because my frame is tweaked. By looking at videos and pictures of the process, most cars still have the engine in the car. I am removing my engine regardless to have the engine bay painted and start new from some of the things done by the last owner.

i would think you would have to remove the engine, to get the best results. I dont know i still might try myself, i weld up frames that are plus or minus 1/32in flat and square so i think its just a matter of finding reference points and finding where to pull it isn't that far out. Plus im poor as dirt and 3 or 400 is not easy to come by. I know this sounds dumb coming from a fd owner.

No, you do not have to remove the engine. They put the car on a frame table and can pull the rail back into position. They have sophisticated equipment to do this kind of work reliably. Don't chance screwing up your car to save a couple hundred bucks. I don't mean to sound like a jerk, but if you can't swing $400 for a repair, a costly car like an FD isn't what you should be driving. If you have to save for a bit and get it done right, go that way.

You would have to take off the front bumper, headlamps, possibly fenders, and remove any parts that are in the way. As long as the frame rails are visible, most shop will be able to assess the damage and give you an estimate of repair on site. I would take it to a reputable shop that does work for major insurance companies and ask them to print out a frame sheet or have them pull it and fix it for you. Ask for warranties, go with shops that have life time warranties. Shop around

I own this car and i will never sell it i have a daily so it can sit for years if it has to. Just kills me not to be driving it in the summer. I guess ill get some quotes.

Yes the motor and trans should be out of the car and the front crossmember may or may not need to come out. I do this for a living if you can post some pics of the damaged rail i can point you in the right direction. the reason the xmember has to come out is because as your pulling the damaged rail the opposite rail that is also bolted to the xmember will want to move with it and that rail could kink if 1 rail is bent the opposite rail is more than likely bent also they will need to be straightened idividually. I can send you all the measurements if you would like so you can see where you stand

not trying to thread jack but you said this is your living, so this is my current situation. The wheel is back a bit, just over a centimeter. I pulled the motor today, and found a quarter inch plate welded to the frame rail. There is no obvious damage to the rail, but there is a slight crinkle by where the cruise control actuator mounts, on the top most metal. What are your thoughts?

I am very local to you and may need your services... and lots of it!

Davin, you crashed your FD?

engine does not need to be removed for this process unless they have an old frame rack.

When I purchased the car, the previous owner kissed a pole and messed up the rad support a tad. Just want to make sure everything is straight. This car is my "other girlfriend" and she needs a boob job in the front end to make her perfect. But right now, my car is in a safe place getting a lot of fabrication done... Think EWP with a v-mount and side mount alt bracket.

i need to see thepics of the frame rails and please if you want this to be right do not listen to these folks telling you the motor can stay in the car. but you have it out already so its a non issue the fact that someone already welded a plate to the rail leads me to believe the rail needs to be replaced, anything is fixable it all depends on what you want as a finished product and how safe you want it to be

I will take a picture of the rail tomorrow. I just think the previous owner half-assed it and figured tweaked and "strong" would be good enough, and cheaper. It also seems like he cut and rewelded the front area by the headlight, there is a seam there that doesnt seem quite right

hey thread jacker ha!!!!

I am going to pull the engine the rest of the way out tomorrow, but here is what i have found. It looks like the top half where the shock hooks up is what is bent and it is not the actual rail. I will post some pics tomorrow, but heck yes those measurements would be great to see if the actual rails are right im pretty sure they are cuz like you said it would take a lot of pressure to bend the frame rail cuz the sub frame would have to bend as well, and i dont see any damage in that department.

hey i was wondering if you could send me those measurements. I am pretty sure the rail isnt bent. I think what happened is when the front of the rim hit the wall it pushed in on the front of the a arm and brought the top part where the fender hooks up with it.

I picked these up from a thread a while back

now that I look at it I dont know what units it is in, maybe millimeters

Wow thanks man that should be very helpful, yeah it is millimeters all you have to do is divide it by 25.4 and that converts it.

you dont need to pull the motor, i also do this for a living. get it on a frame rack and get measurements, loosen the bolts on the subframe, if your off a 1/4 inch or maybe less by how your talking you will be fine to leave the motor in. do you think whenever a car has frame damage that you pull the engine? that would be ridiculous.

:(

I always figured it depended on the damage.