i am almost disgusted by some of the things being said on this topic, a come along....a tree???? the core support is a key component to unibody construction, hacking it up and putting it back on the road for $3-4 hundred dollars is NOT SAFE, go ahead and go the cheap route if you want, or have the frame fixed RIGHT and ignore 90% of the ideas on this topic, or move on......$300 a month for a new car or your life...YOU DO THE MATH

I'll take the cover that says 3800 Series II on it! If your gonna gut the car.

OK, some of you, PREPARE TO GET DISGUSTED!

I had similar damage on my '88 Corsica about a year ago after my wife hit a truck... maybe it was an Expedition too!?

I actually went the come-along route, with the help of an '86 GMC 1500 and a maul(!) to beat the upper support back into some semblance of its original shape. I got a new headlight from the junkyard, rad seal for the pinhole in the radiator... the A/C lost its R13, so I let it go at that, but I ended up with a car that was still as ugly as it was before, but drove just as well and the headlights shined straight ahead for a couple hours' work and $20 in parts from the junkyard.

Disgusting, isn't it? Well, it WAS a $350 car when I bought it three years earlier, and 100K miles earlier. Sold it later last year for $350!

Now, it is back to swapping the engine in my Bonnie... the blown one, you know... with the help of that self-same come-along.

PS: Rather than suggesting that someone is going to DIE because the car has had a upper rad support 'straightened', esp. when it is unlikely that the entire car is going to fold like a cheap camera as it'* driving down the interstate... after all, Detroit engineers are notoriously conservative in their automotive engineering and don't generally design card houses on wheels, if you get my drift.

paul......a unibody car is a house of cards, and no it might not fall apart driving down the road but what about the next time it has an accident, in a unibody, all those plastic bumpers and styrofoam crap in the front isint just there to take up space, its there to realease energy during a crash, compare it to when an indy car crashes, and pieces go flying everywhere, the more of the car that breaks the better because that is energy from the impact being released. the rad. support is not just there as a support, its there as part of the design for saftey during a crash, when one of these types of cars crashes at 35 and the front end is destroyed, and yes i do know that is not always the case, but the extensive damage is supposed to happen, its not because its a cheap car, its part of the design. i stand by my previous post

I believe they call it a crumple zone. Even the steering columns are collapsable now so it doesnt end up going through your torso!!! If it were my car, I would fix it!!

I will amend my opinion, only by saying that you could have the cross member straightened by a body shop professional (ala JimmyFloyd). After that, the hood and lighting can be replaced using parts from the junkyard. Gee, I think I have seen most if not all of the parts for sale at a fair price right here at BC.

Someone mentioned the bumpers and the plastic bumper covers and the styrofoam. Once again, I would say the bumper looks fully intact, and will still be able to perform as designed in case of a worse crash.

I think if you still have the fire for your Bonne, then go ahead and get it repaired! If you don't have the desire, then you have to let her go.

Good Luck!
John

a friend of mine whos father is a mechanic took a rubber mallet and a brick for the other side to his to straighten it out and hes been driving his car for 3 years since his accident with a deer and no problems yet. personally id take it to a body shop instead of going the cheap way. if you just invested in a tranny why waste the money you just spent. id say junkyard for hood lights if you need them and any other parts and bodyshop to fix the crossmember shouldnt cost you more then 600$ and a few hours

Thanks for all the help. We just found out we have a THIRD on the way. Yikes. Who does that anymore?? Anyway, we're actually shopping for minivans now. Soooo, I have a body shop guy making a house call tomorrow to see about straightening the support, then I'll probably sell it repaired or not. Hate to see it go...

my 94 had far worse damage than that, and had to have the radiator support and passenger inner fender chopped off another car and welded into place on it, and that was only 300.00 plus he installed the fender, hood, bumper, headlights, and all that stuff for free(parts cost me 300.00) and then it was all good. I could never tell the difference and the car ran fantastic, and is still on the road 3 years later with no fail or no problems whatsoever, except that we don't own it anymore I personally think you should fix it for a car for yourself, or just a backup car, you can suspend the coverage on it if its just going to sit in the driveway undriven, it looks to be a good car still, nice looking and all and the 3800 will run great for a long time to come.

sell it or not....can I have the headlights ??? i'll pay shipping