Hello Acurazine my first post here , but honestly I've been lurking around these forums drooling since last July. Anyways about 2 months ago we had some really bad weather and I only had summer tires on, long story short, rear ended a Ford Escape, absolutely no damage to the escape, unfortunately my car not so much luck;


So anyways here's me stuck with a car i love to much to scrap so I decide to get it looking like new again, when I crashed the car I was pretty busy had school work and a court date to worry about anyways, I dropped 200$ got 2 new Headlights a new Rad and a new grille, needed the car ASAP so me and my brother took the hood off and beat with a hammer until it at least clicked into the hood latch, but the real dinger was the rad support, this thing was a royal pain in the ass my rad actually ended up being pushed towards the engine smashing my A/c Rad and everything in front of the rad so to fix the support i tied to the back of my dads truck and threw it in drive worked like a beaut. But I could barely get anything lined up with the bolts holes.

Anyways enough with story time here's my question, I've order a new rad support offline, the rad support is about the only thing i need to replace but, how easy is it to replace, would i just cut the old one off and weld this one into place or what? Not the most seasoned mechanic in the world so any bit of advice would help. I would want this car to look as close to brand new as possible, so would it be easy enough for me to do it in my shop? Is it as simple as cut, clamp, weld? Would i have to drop the engine? It's a 2001 TL all stock.

Also (didn't search just figured i'd ask in this post), I'm looking to put a CAI in and was wondering if I could get the under engine splash guard and the plastic trim around the front off the engine bay (covering the hood latch and A/C rad).

Any bit of advice helps thanks team!

 

Welcome Fresh871 !!!!!
Sorry for your present situation......but things happen, and all will work out !

From the pic, it appears as the upper frontal area took the brunt of the force when you rear-ended the higher Escape. Are your fenders and airbag ok ? The hood is designed to fold up upon impact. If it's only the rad support, hood, grille, headlamps and rad.....then it should be an easy fix. If the fender's inner area where they bolt on is undamaged, then the rad support should be simple enough to replace with the proper equipment and skills involved. If in doubt, sub the work out.

If the fender mounting area is compromised, it would be better to go to a pro. Otherwise, once the rad support is replaced.....everything should align up better. A salvage yard is your best friend in times like this. The hood must be replaced, along with the latch mechanism. Pop the hood and take another pic of the internal damage, as that's where shit hits the fan !!!! The motor should not require being moved at all during the work.

 

To my investigationg theres abosulutely nothing wrong with the fenders or the mounts. I can post a couple of picture from the engine bay trying to get a closer look at the fenders if that would help? I'd like to know if the mounting asrea is damaged cause if it is ill probably take your advice and bring into a body shop for reapirs, another quick question though, if my Fenders are fine would I have to remove them anyway to perform a repair on the rad support I coudln't find a front end sch

 

Yeah, some more pics would help....especially the driver's side front fender area. In order to properly replace the rad support, the fenders would need removed due to the fact that the crossbar ties in about 6" back on the fender support area. But, it's possible that the rad support could be spliced in closer if the sides were fully intact. The drawback here is that the repair would be more evident and not like "new".

How are the headlamp mounting buckets ? Bet there's a bunch of mangled plastic shit ! Gotta get to a salvage yard for all the miscellaneous doo-dads. A good hood is a must ! Some things can be shimmed if necessary. A frame repair shop will do all the basics quicker than guys like us. Let them do the fabricating and alignment, if ya wanna good result......then install the other stuff yourself and save some bucks.

 

Well I ordered a hood (http://www.ebay.com/itm/360592083347) and I ordered a new rad supprt IMO two things that should be brand new; and I have checked all the scrap yards around me and most of the splash guards and plastic is broken or torn off from people going for the trans and engine and such! Not sure what you mean about the mounting buckets but both headlights are in perfect condition (other then a little fog). I'll have pictures tomorrow needed to pick up some subs tonight and got home late. And what do you mean by letting them do the fabrication, I'm ordering an after market Rad Support and if it doesn't cost to much i'll get them to align it for me though