:( Someone blew through a stop sign and T-boned my 98 bonny SSEi in the front, just in front of the wheel, and pushed the front end over 2 or 3 inches. Can the frame rails be straightened? It needs a complete nose, but didn't break the radiator, etc. It still runes and drives! I was thinking it may be WAY too labor intensive once the frame bent, and just pulling the motor/tranny for a car with a blown engine, then parting out the rest. Any opinions would be great!! How do I post a pic?

pictures of the damage would be a great help, underhood shots, fender to firewall and front subframe to unibody mounting points. unibody behind front subframe.

if the whole nose is shifted the unibody is probably kinked behind the front subframe. anything could be fixed but is buying another car more finacially worth while? i'd bet so.

First off, follow this link to see how to post up pics. Picture Posting - Step by Step Guidlines (updated 5-1-07)






I think I may be just the guy you are looking for with a question like this :P Same thing happend to me last September. We were out for my girlfriends ( now wife ) 21st birthday and our DD ended up drinking. The only other option we had was a younger friend of hers that only had her permit.... better to let her drive then someond drunk right??? anyways she failed to stop at a red light and was hit by a Chevy Tahoe going about 70 MPH. The hit was pretty much right on the front bumper and threw both fenders and their inner supports over about 2 - 3 inches.

here are a few pics of mine after the accident. Does your car look anything like this?




( everyone walked away without a scratch )

I am not going to lie to you, it cost a bunch of money to get it to where it is today, but it was totally worth it. Here are a few pics of what it looks like now




I had a little over $3,000 into the repair which included ( luckily ) finding a parts car of the same color for $1,200. I repainted the hood and bumper, replaced the entire front clip, radiator, A/C condenser, oil and trans lines, windshield, pass. side mirror and pass. side back door. Plan on spending at least that amount if you have a body shop do the work.

My neighbors uncle retired doing body work, and he was able to straighten out the frame no problem. There was no damage at all to the subframe / engine cradle, just the sheet metal inner structure.


I would keep your options open for a while. Do you have anywhere to store the car? I stored my car for five months before I even started to repair it. I actually was going to part it out.

Lets see some pics and get a better idea on the damage.

One more thing.... you might have a hard time finding one of our cars with a blown engine. They don't blow up very often

i re-read the original post and caught a dyslexic moment i had this am. for some reason i read his car was hit "in the front wheel" not "in front of"

i'll retrack my previous statements. i was also shocked that he said it could run and drive after being hit in the front wheel as the lca and strut would never withstand that hit.

in any event cars look a lot worst with mangled sheet metal than without. start stripping it.

Don't strip it yet......

lets see some pics first and see how bad the damage really is before making any decisions. It will also depend on how attached you are to the car. I now have more then $5,000 into a 14 year old car with 193,000 miles on it, but I absolutely love this car and will not ever get rid of it, so it is worth EVERY PENNY to me

If you are very attached to your car, fix it.
If you can live with another Bonneville, or any other car for that matter, then stripping / selling it might be the better move for you.

Holy crap! Mine looks almost exactly like yours, except white! It bent the frame rails in FRONT of the engine to the right (engine, etc is straight). I'll post pics.

Try this: http://www.flickr.com/photos/15111335@N07/

I'll get some closer ones tomorrow.

ohhh, I don't know about that one. It looks like it was hit pretty squarely on the unibody structure. Mine was just basically hit on the bumper and it pulled everything over a little bit.

Could you pull the fender and bumper off the car and then take some pics??? I don't know if you even want to go that far, but it might be worth it.

Have you checked with your insurance company about getting any money and also checked with any body shops about a repair?

looks like a pretty good hit. A picture with atleast the hood up, and maybe one from under the front bumper and one of the passenger front side would also help, but it'* probably not going to be worth it.

If you decide to sell the whole car, I might be interested.

The bends in the frame rails start just in front of the engine. Engine, wheels, etc. are straight. I have not started taking it apart yet because of the insurance co. But I'll try to post a few more pics of in the hoodm etc. I was thinking of taking the nose off and seeing if I can straighten the rails after all the insurance BS is done, unless they take the car. OR I might find an SSEi with a blown motor and putting that one in.