Need Tutorial or Help!

[PinoyRacer]

Ok...about two years ago i got into an accident with my car. :( This old guy made a left turn in front of my and i clipped him on the rear passanger side door. I only put a dent on him but my car was missing a big chunk. The accident did 9k dollars in damage mainly because my air bags went off after i got into the accident. Anyways, I got the car back a year ago and i noticed that the bumper and the passanger headlight were not put on right. The bumper is lower that usual and the headlight isnt as far up as it should be. Pardon my vague description. Well i have been wanting to just take the bumper and headlight off and position them myself. I am wondering if there is an online tutorial or if someone can please help me and give me instructions on how to remove the front bumper and straighten it out. Is it hard to do? What tools do i need? Please help!!! Thanks!

[hockeyman]

Was it his insurance company that covered the damage to your car? If yes, then take it back with a chip on your shoulder!

-Marc

[PinoyRacer]

Eh...I might if there is no way I can do it myself. But if I do decide to take it back to the body shop, will it still be covered even though it was a year+ ago? Yes it was the other guys insurance that payed for my car. I'd rather do it myself if possible. [img]smile.gif[/img]

[hockeyman]

Yeah, they probably wouldn't cover it after a year. You can try to do it yourself, but just hope that you don't have any serious bends on your frame. You'll never get it straight by yourself if thats the case. I don't know of any guides, just get under there and see what bolts hold what on. By the sound of it, you can't make it any worse by trying.

-Marc

[nda0602v6]

Yeah like Hockeyman said, you're gonna have to just start looking around for bolts and adjust things. Most body panels have mounting holes that are larger (slotted) than the actual fastener that secures them. Like the fenders for example, if you loosen up most of the bolts holding them on, you should be able to very slightly move it to fine tune the gaps between the doors and the hood. Maybe the same can be done for the headlight assembly and the front bumper. It just takes time and patience.

Got a pic of the gaps you're talking about?

[PinoyRacer]

CUT COPY AND PASTE IF NEEDED

http://www.cardomain.com/member_page...23_23_full.jpg
This is the before accident picture.

http://www.cardomain.com/member_page...23_22_full.jpg
This is the after picture. Notice how there is a bigger gap between the hood and bumper. also notice how the passenger headlight is postioned differently from the driver headlight.

[crasher]

the brakets that hold the bumper and headlight assbemly would have been bent out of place that is the only thing I can think of

[nda0602v6]

In the second picture, it looks like there is more of a gap on the (drivers side) between the headlight and bumper. But then again it's hard to tell from the picture.

You need to somehow move the entire bumper up slightly to fix the gap between that and the hood. It looks like the hood is even across the top two fenders so I wouldn't mess with the hood. I know on my firebird there is a big plastic panel underneath the front bumper area (not sure about Camaros). You may wanna remove the big plastic piece underneath to help you gain access to the bumper mounting brackets. I'm sure you can make it look a little better by tweaking a few things. There's probably not a tutorial for something like this because of the all the multiple adjustments that would need to be made; each situation is different.

Only other thing I could suggest and if the gaps really bother you, would be to have a body shop use one of those frame straightening machines. This way they could realign the front unibody structure back to factory specs. Thing is though, I "think" you would have to remove the bumper, both fenders and the hood for them to gain access to do that. Maybe someone on the board who does autobody work would know how much something like that costs or what's all involved. But if the gaps aren't too bad, it may not be worth all that trouble. Good luck.