Front End Collision Repair

[kev]

I had a thread going on this but it is in the 'Items Wanted' forum.   Pulling it over here.     

My son had a mishap with my driver CQ, so I'm in the process of repairing it.  

 

Copying over what was in the other thread:

 

The start:

 

Pulling the cosmetic stuff off:

Still unable to pull it into the garage bay due to a lingering other project...thanks to a parts supplier who can't seem to know how to count to eight.   Thus, that bay is tied up for another week until this last bolt lingers its way through snail mail.  Not really applicable to here, but if anyone owns a European car, avoid ECS Tuning.  I've utilized them three times now for parts on my kid's audi and mini and all I can say to summarize the experiences is; 'incompetent'.   

But anyways, I wasn't letting my Saturday go to waste.  So, I started assessing this damage in the driveway and got the cosmetic parts carefully pulled off but retaining the functionality of the engine operation...for I don't want to have to push this thing into the garage next week.   In all, the frame is indeed bent but it could be worse.  The damage is very localized.  As far as underhood parts, it did kink my oil cooler lines and my airbox is a bit bent up.   Radiator definitely has a twist to it being bolted to the core support plus noted very small leaks on both the inlet and outlet areas.    But that is about it besides everything that has to do with that headlight is smashed hard.    

I have some leads from members here on many of the cosmetic parts...thank you!    Next step is to get this in the garage and pull the radiator and everything in that corner such that I can start to assess the best way to bend this frame back and start to repair the core support area.    Again, if anyone knows of one of these things laying in a junkyard in PA or MD, or happen to have an old parts car in their back yard that they wouldn't mind taking a sawzall to a bit, please let me know.    As of now, I'm going to try to straighten as much as I can.   I've been very successful in things like this in the past.  

Also, haven't had a chance yet to assess my own parts stash.  My garage is a mess.  If anyone ever pulled a clutch out of a Mini Cooper, you know how much has to get removed in the process!  I got parts laying everywhere between that car and the front end stuff pulled from this car.   

 

 

 

 

 

Starting to assess/rebend the frame rail:

 

I'm plugging away on the repair...well actually only worked on it one day but it is coming along.  

Some pictures of it cleaned up and everything out of the way...yes, I even pulled the engine. 

The good part is that it is very localized.  The rail bent where it should have and didn't seem to deform anything back from the kink.   

 

With some fabricated steel to use as a prybar and some heat on the kinked area, I was able to get it much closer after only a few minutes of prying.   

 

 

 

 

In all, I have a bit to go both vertically and horizontally but I'm getting close.   I believe I'm fighting the crinkled core support and surrounding sheet metal when it comes to vertical.  Thus, I'm going to work on pulling those areas out a bit before going back to levering in rail downwards some more.   

As far as horizontal, I'm struggling to get the leverage without pulling the car off the jackstands.  I'll have to put it down on its wheels to work it some more but, at the moment, I have the car very level so I want to do as much as I can before taking it off the stands.   

I did mess with it about an hour more after these photos were taken and got that kink mostly pulled out.  But after working for 8 hours straight (including pulling the engine, etc.), I figured it was time to give it a rest.  Leaving the garage a pig-sty due to exhaustion and forgot to take more photos.    I probably will have to make some cuts with the whizz-wheel to do the final tweaks in the end but I'm trying to get it as close as possible by lever bars and pulling.  

 

Also, meeting up with a member tomorrow to hopefully acquire the rest of the bolt on parts needed. 

[kev]

Latest update.   I hit it pretty hard this weekend.   

Started with pulling out the core support to release some pressure on the rail.   Made up a quick bracket to attach to my slide hammer...which worked incredible!

 

Pictures stopped for a while as I worked like a dog.  Put the back of the car back on its wheels so I could put some leverage on the rail without pulling the car off the stands.  This allowed me to bend the rail back in the horizontal direction.   Vertical was still an issue, so I carefully removed the sheet metal that holds the header panel that is welded to the rail..plus removed the outer most one in the process.  This allowed me to pull the rail back down in position.   

Here are some photos of the body panels mocked up with the frame rail closer in position ( I still had to pull it down a little more after this mockup), core support straight, but with those two sheet metal panels removed:

This corner is still a bit ugly at this point but the core support is straight.  

 

 

 

So next step was to add back in those two sheet metal pieces.  Again, I'm missing many photos but I spent some time with the hammer/dolly/etc. to reshape them.  Also bead blasted them.    Re-mocking them up:

 

I have since tacked everything up.

It's getting there but I still am working on the gaps a bit.   The gap between the fender and the hood on the passenger side is still too wide for my liking, which I believe is actually due to the replacement fender.   The gap between the header panel to the hood is still a little off, which I believe is being caused by the outermost sheet metal panel (the one that was the most mangled from the hit). 

And the bumper still needs a little tweaking.   It almost looks like it is a bit off center..like the drivers side bent a little from the hit (although I see no kinks or anything).  I'll put the laser level on it next time and assess.   

 

 

 

 

[kev]

I'm still on the hunt for a passenger side marker light.  I can't believe I don't have a spare of my own.  I found three drivers side ones!  

I do want to try to find new oil cooler lines, for the hit kinked them a little bit.  Worst case is that I make up my own braided lines.   And the air can is a bit deformed, which I probably will be able to straighten but is very low priority at this point.    

Once I get the gaps finalized and everything welded solid, I'm going to attempt to restraighten the original steel bumper support.  It is basically rust free and I really would like to see if it is salvageable (but it is bent pretty bad).  As seen in the photos, my spare is a bit of a rust bucket.  

 

 

Also, can you believe that is the original hood that I haven't even touched!   By carefully pulling the mangled body panels off, it sprung back.  The passenger side corner is sitting a little high, but I believe I can correct it.  I'm hoping to retain this thing.   I have an available spare (would need to take 3 hour drive to pick it up tho) but it isn't black.  With the cost of paint nowadays, I prefer not to paint the underside.   I eventually want to put my spare 83 hood on this car, but not until after my kids are out of the house and no longer driving this thing.   So rather put the effort into that one in the future.  

 

[psu_Crash]

Impressive work Kev!

I played hell trying to get mine straight and get the passenger headlight to open/close smoothly and line up close. I can't believe you were able to pull that rail and get it so close without cutting and welding it up. Factory fenders were not made equal. Putting new to me fenders on mine did not line up well at all compared to the beat up stock fenders, which I later found out had been cut and rewelded to fit the terrible frame repair done way before me. I got rid of the hard lines for the oil cooler years ago and went with -an fittings. No regrets. 

[kev]

Thanks!  By drilling out the spot welds and removing that piece of sheet metal shown in the photo above, the one that is bare steel, it allowed me to bend the rail easily.   Also enabled me to reshape that piece of sheet metal on the anvil with a hammer/dolly.    I did fabricate a brace for my homemade lever bar such that when I pried, it transferred the load right back on the area that was kinked.  I forgot to snap a photo of this.   

A member is hooking me up with the marker light, just need to find the time to drive out to his place and pick it up!    But hoping to work a bit more tomorrow on the gaps.  Maybe get far enough to start working on the original bumper support.   I'm getting anxious to do a full front-end mockup with all the parts to verify fit up before moving into paint prep.   

My original goal was to do this so well that you'd never know it was hit.  But being that I didn't have replacement steel for the core support, etc., I'm not sure that will be fully possible.  But I'll get it such that it passes the sniff test...as in, with the hood open, I want it good enough that you would really have to look in detail to see evidence of the impact.   Wish me luck, haha

[kev]

Weekly update:   Spent a few hours on Saturday fine tuning my gaps.   I really didn't have to do much with the 'structure' here, I just spent some time adjusting everything.  

Pulled the bumper off so I could work the fender, headlight, header panel, and hood.    Found that the plastic inner fender was messing with me a bit on the fender, so go it out of the way.  That allowed me to adjust it into position and get a good fender to hood gap.   I will admit that I did open up one of the mounting holes on the header panel to get the header to hood gap more consistent...it is still slightly off.  I could cut a few spot welds and try to pull out the sheet metal but I'm worried about further effects of doing this.   So, I opened up the one hole slightly to get it within a 1/16"

For the hood, a little grabbing and twisting by hand plus a small rubber tap hammer on the one corner did the trick...It's sitting real nice now!  

And yes, I was able to acquire a black headlight cover for the passenger-side.  Actually, got it from the same member whom I got the headlight assembly from.

I know I said it before, but these bare steel sheet metal pieces are the original mangled ones which I was able to reshape!

 

Then it was back to the bumper.   The yellow tape shown, and the yellow tape on the header panel was the measured center.   Last week, I thought the bumper was off center.  Turns out the old remnants of the mitsubishi symbol on the header was not on center..creating an optical illusion that things were off.   Measuring where they should be and verifying with the laser level gave me confidence in this.

Although my bumper mounting holes aligned perfectly, the passenger side gap to the fender was tight, where-as the drivers side was pretty wide.   Most likely because the rail is still slightly pushed in.   I quickly made the conclusion that I'm probably not going to be able to pull that out without ruining other things, I simply opened up the outboard holes of the bumper support by 1/16" diameter.   This allowed me to adjust it in really well.      

Again, confirming level and with my laser level.

Green line is my laser level...wicked close for a plastic bumper cover

 

 

So, next up was a full front-end mockup.   Still haven't picked up the passenger side marker light, but mounted everything I had, including the hood latch assembly.  I will say that I had to add a 1/16" shim to the hood latch.  It was latching a little high at first.  Could probably bend down the bracket slightly to address this, but the shim did the trick.

Again, laser level confirming everything.  

This gap is so much better:

Same with this one.  If anything, the passenger side is slightly larger now..which can be addressed on final assembly.   forgive the broken marker light that is just lying there, angled.   

But holding the broken marker light in place, I don't see any issues.   Of course, will double check it once I get the replacement light.  The replacement fender is missing the plastic insert to screw the marker light to...I'll pull that from the damaged fender.  

Gaps...not perfect but pretty good given the situation.  I still will do some adjustments later on during final assembly.

I never even touched this headlight..I might eventually push it back just about a 1/16"

 

Haven't done anything to this spoiler besides bolt it up.  The collision tore a few of the mounting tabs but it isn't affecting anything.   Unfortunately, one crack on the passenger side.  

 

I know I said last week that I was going to try to restraighten the original bumper support.  After looking at it further, I think that effort will be futile...it's too bent up.  I may have to cut my losses on that piece and focus on patching up my spare.  

 

 

 

Next steps:  Going to try to get the marker light some time this week and verify it fits well.  From there, everything gets pulled back off.  Have a couple welds to do on the more outboard piece of sheet metal and up at the core support.   Have to grind down all my plug welds and then it is making everything in the engine compartment look visually better.  Again, I backed off on my original goal..I'm not going to get all of this perfect but I want to make it such that the accident isn't noticeable when you pop the hood unless you really start looking close.     

I do need to test fit the headlight motor assembly..for I used one of the mounting holes as a spot to slide hammer the steel back into position.   Plus have to see if I can bend back my air-can and verify alignment.   

As to paint preps of the body...I originally wanted to spray the entire front clip and passenger door (kind of continuing my respray efforts that I started last year).   The passenger door, drivers fender, and hood have many door dings but are original paint.     But now that I see everything, I believe I may just paint the off-color parts and get it back to the condition it was.   The replacement fender, header panel, and bumper cover have no issues at all..meaning it should just be a good sanding, prime, and spray without hardly any filler.   

Well, I'll probably fix that crack in the spoiler and respray it along with the bumper.  But all the other black parts will probably stay as-is.   The grill has two little imperfections (can see them in the close up above), probably from how it was stored for years.  Really easy fix but will require a respray...I hate painting these grills and probably will just let it be for this effort.    

 

 

 

[kev]

Some more updates.  

Spent a few hours working on the final welding/grinding in the engine compartment.   I must have test fit the outer body panels 50 times by now...maybe more!   I did run into an interference when I put the black plastic on around the headlight.  It was hitting the outermost sheet metal slightly, just enough to rub it a little.   Not the biggest deal but being that I only had it tacked in position, I made sure to address it.   I popped the tacks and spent some more time reshaping that panel.   Plus, with that out of the way, I was able to grind down my welds on the other panel easier.  Also, the bolt on the core support for the headlight motor wasn't lining up the best.  A couple minutes of work with the slide-hammer resolved that.     One thing I'm learning well....test fit, test fit, test fit!   Test fit everything, even the smallest part when it comes to a repair like this.  Don't want to find issues when everything is all painted and looking good.  This is the time to address all of these things, when it still looks ugly haha.

This is the ugliest visual of the repair but given the state it was in, I am very impressed I got it bent back and everything lines up.  

Although, this is the most noticeable spot of the repair (easily seen when you pop the hood).  I got the rubber bump stop functional again (not exactly like it was stock but it works).   I need to make this look a bit better.  I did some welding to build it up and grind it smooth(er)

 

I applied a little Duraglass on a few of the areas to help mask the repair some more.  And spraying a coat of quick primer on everything.   Still have some work to do to make everything look good before paint, but it is really close now.   

I also reshaped my air can.  The one tab on the body was bent too which required some manipulation but I was able to reshape it without drilling out the spot welds and rewelding.  

Still have a little sanding to do on the frame rail (mainly just the rolled edge), but the Duragalss took care of the ugly remnants of the 'kink'..hammer marks, etc.  I'll also put some seam sealer back in before final prime/paint.  i did make a custom nozzle to prime the inside of the frame from where I applied heat.  I'll apply paint there too and then follow up with some further treatment when it is all done to inhibit rust in the future.  

I still have to play with this a bit.  Will sand it a little more and get out the body putty..Duraglass is a bit hard to shape the contours.  I want this looking better than what it does currently.  

[techboy]

 Nice work kev. More importantly I'm impressed with you patience.

[kev]

This weekend's progress:   

It doesn't look like much but here is the result of several more hours of work.   Basically using some filler to smooth things out.   Mostly focusing on that upper right core support that will be most visible when you pop the hood but also putting a little on the frame rail and even on the front sheet metal supports to just mask the crinkled steel a little bit.    Also applied seam sealer and did a thorough washing of the engine compartment.  

Next up is epoxy primer and then paint.  My concern now is actually matching the paint.  I'm worried BC/CC will put too much of a shine compared to the rest of the engine compartment when is more of a dull black.   I'll start with my black epoxy and see how it looks.  May just BC the top of the core support with serbia black but not use clear.   We shall see, that is next weekend's project.   

Also, pressure washed off the 'new' body panels to start into the paint prep.   May first focus on the engine compartment and getting everything under the hood back together and getting the car running again.  I could definitely use the garage space that is being occupied by all of the parts from this car.   My other conquest is pretty much trapped in the garage and I haven't yet been able to take it out of winter hibernation as a result.   

 

This rail is pretty darn straight now and there isn't much Duraglass or filler in there!  

 

 

 

 

 

 

[kev]

This week's progress:

Got the affected areas of the engine compartment in epoxy primer.  The first coat laid a good satin finish, but I added two more coats heavy which resulted in some gloss...typical for the primer I use.   Normally this is a good thing, but I was trying to get more of a satin look to match the rest of the compartment.  I wanted to get the epoxy nice and thick though such that it does its job.  I drive this car, it isn't a garage queen like my other cq, so I want the coatings to be durable.

Still debating if I'm going to leave it as-is or lay a thin coat of just Serbia Black base (with no clear).  

 

That's as far as I went this weekend because I put my attention on my blue cq and got it going for the season (not bad because I did both of these in the same day).   Although, I did compare the core support on it to this car (not sure why I didn't do this prior).   In all, I probably should have spent more time on that corner to get it looking a bit closer to stock but I'm not fussing with it anymore at this point.  Everything lines up and the repair isn't too obvious.   

 

 

 

[kev]

Time for another update on the weekend's progress:

I think you all probably know that I can't leave things alone, haha.   I scuffed up the black epoxy.  Some of the filler work I did had pin holes in it (as expected because it was such a quick job), so I used a little glaze putty to fill them.   Then reshot with serbia black BC.  No clear, for I wanted it to have a more of a satin look to match the rest of the engine compartment.     

I think it came out good, although I still need to unmask to see how close it really is.  

 

I still don't like that corner, but I really need to accept it for what it is...for I'm not going back now. 

Sprayed the headlight bucket as well, which use to be burgundy.   The bracket on the left was bead blasted to bare metal, two coats of epoxy and two coats of BC.   The bucket itself was just a quick wipe down and one coat of BC (It's fully hidden but didn't like the burgundy overspray on it)

 

 

And while I had the spray gun out, I decided to work on my project that was in process prior to the collision..refurishing my spare set of 7/8s.   I had these all polished up over the winter but needed the insets painted.   I really do wonder if the accident would have ever happened if I had finished this project earlier (with new rear tires on).  

Really curious to see how these look after removing the tape...I haven't touched them since, just letting the paint cure well.

 

 

 

[techboy]

I love Starquest wheels. One if the few production cars that IMO came eith the perfect set of wheels.

[tux]

On 6/19/2025 at 4:08 AM, techboy said:

I love Starquest wheels. One if the few production cars that IMO came eith the perfect set of wheels.

I agree, but I kind of wish 17” and 18” were a thing in the 80’s.  Then they would be extra perfect

[kev]

Not too much to show after this weekend, although worked on it about equal time as the last few weekends.   Just starting to assemble the engine bay.   This alone cleaned up my garage a bit.   I'm very happy on the color.   A little road grime in a few months will match it all well haha.  

I did find a ding in the blue fender.  It's actually pushed outwards, most likely some minor damage from being in storage for years.   Fully fixable but I was really hoping the body panels would have been as simple as sand, prime, paint.  But good thing is that the header panel is looking that way.  

 

So, the big question..if you poked your head under the hood now (not knowing any of the history of this car), would you notice that it was hit?  

 

 

 

 

I have since swapped that rusty horn out with the original.

 

 

These are probably the most interesting of the weekend results..unmasking the wheels.  And this was simply unmasking, I still need to do the final polish which probably will wait until I mount the tires.

Example 'Before' photo (well after paint stripper):

 

And 'After': (the rim on the left is the same as the one above...which actually was an easier rim because it didn't have curb rash.  I forgot to take photos of the initial start on the rear wheels, which had a lot of curb rash and were in overall worse condition)

I was really debating the color of the insets...going with a more original gray vs black.   Black really does pop on a black car but my goal on this particular car was to retain it stock (although, I have been slowly deviating from this).   Obviously, I chose gray.  It is an early 90's Honda Pewter Gray, paint code NH-537M, if anyone is curious.   Looking forward to seeing them on the car.  

 

Speaking of retaining it stock, I believe I made the decision to yank out the A/C system.  There was absolutely no freon in there.  This car originally was an automatic which has the second condenser...which is mangled up good, someone hit a curb or something in the past (most likely the main source of the leak but I'm sure all the seals and crimped hoses really need to be repaced).    I'm not looking to try to revitalize the A/C system at the current time and being that a good portion of it was removed for the repair, I'm going to leave it out and open up the engine bay a bit.   Of course, I'll save and store the parts if my mind changes in the future.