92 Tercel body damage help

[kobelmar]

So, I crunched the front end of my 92 Tercel. The bumper is a bit hangy, the front quarter panel is pretty dented and the headlight and turn signal are gone. I thought I had a friend to help, but he bailed. I'm wondering how hard it would be to fix myself. I'm going to the junkyard to find parts, but how difficult is it to replace those things? There's a pic to show the damage, but it won't let me upload it here. If I buy all those parts, should I be able to replace them myself? Any help is greatly appreciated!

[noahthefrog]

How difficult it is depends on how nice you want it to look when you're done and whether any pieces of the panel are torn off. Are the mounting points (screw-holes, electrical connectors, etc) for the lights still intact? The lights themselves are easy enough to install if there's still somewhere to attach them. I'm not sure about the bumper, but so long as the place it used to attach still exists, you can probably bend things back into place or use giant zip-ties to bridge the gaps. You'll probably need a front-end alignment and headlight alignment when you are done to get everything aimed properly.

You can post pics using photobucket or similar service to host them.

I crinkled my '89 pretty bad driving up under the back of a Ford Explorer a couple years ago and was able to fix it myself with just a screwdriver, pliers, sledgehammer and a chain. I chained the damaged part to a telephone pole and drove backwards until I had un-bent the front end, then took off the hood and hammered it flat again with a sledgehammer. I had to replace the turn signal and corner marker light, but thankfully their screw-holes still existed and just needed to be bent back into place. It took me an afternoon and about $40 worth of junkyard parts, plus a front-end alignment to fix it. It was the first body work I ever did on a car and it turned out all-right, though it is still obvious that the car was in a crash.

[bkftl]

Best solution i found if you have space, is get a USED car thats cosmeticly great, same type of car, same configuration 2 or 4 door whatever u got. And swap parts from it. Take the "Donor" car appart first, it will let us see how stuff is supposed to look, and where the screws go. U will also have plenty of spare parts for later.

Check out if u can find same car that has a dead engine or sometihng, try EBAY, craigslist .com. or best bet is ur local newspapers or w/e u got.

Junkyards will rip u off on every damn part, that adds up to a lot, meanwhile u might be able to get a tercel for 400$. U can even swap interior! JY parts will be like 25$ here 50$ there, and the gas it adds up to just as much.

I did not do this with MY tercel but my previos car was a small SUV, it took me around 2 days to replace all stuff my self, and it had major damage.

All the stuff is realy eazy to replace, its made like that.

Once again, make sure its SAME CAR, DX or simular car might cause problems, stuff wont fit 100% but its still useable.

Small dents are fixable with that GOO u can buy at autozone in a can, u mix, apply and then sand it, I did this on my tercel. It works great but takes TOO MUCH TIME!

In the end u gotta have to Paint after BOTH methods (if you care how it looks), i would also try both methods, that goo costs like 5$ a can i think. And part swapping is much faster.

Goodluck

[3ee4banger]

I know how you feal hit and run