I was in a low speed collision where I ended up rear ending a sentra. Now my hood is not aligning properly with my passenger side fender. I looked and my radiator support above the headlight is bent back and upwards around where the dimple is. I tried pounding it down with a mallet for a little bit but I was wondering if there was a better way to try to fix it. I will post pics in a sec. Thanks guys!

 

 

Kinda hard to tell from the picture but the passenger side is definitely higher then the driver side. All the brackets on the pass. Side headlight are also broken off with a small crack in the lens and the front bumper near the grill is broken off too can't afford a $1k deductible right now so I want to try to make my car as back to normal as I can without breaking the bank. Hopefully I won't need to cut and weld a new radiator support piece.

 

if you end up bringing it to a body shop bring it to my friends over at 515 autobody, they do some magic work over there. https://www.facebook.com/5FifteenAutoBody?filter=2 5 Fifteen Auto Body - Burlingame, CA

 

Yes there is a better way - a body shop. Since you don't know what else might be bent, better to have it looked at.

 

That looks fairly bent. I would think you need to take the fender off and try and pull it back straight. Hammering on the dimpled area is not going to move everything back into place it may make it harder to fix. This might be a job for a pro.

 

Dang alright. Anyone know how much a job like this would run roughly?

 

Block of wood and hammer should do the job unless you care about perfection. That's the method I used on my old car to get the hood to sit flush.

 

It doesn't look THAT bad, but as FXTbrah said, it depends on how perfect you want it fixed. If you want it right, a shop will likely have to do it. If you don't want to foot the bill, pull the fender and light and see how it looks. Like I said, other things that aren't obvious could be bent too.

 

A come along and a solid place to pull from will do ya. If you wanna be precise you can look up the datum points for measuring in the FSM. However... that looks like you may need a pro to have a look. Good luck!

 

I'm kinda strapped for cash right now. I would like to attempt to do it myself since everything lines up and is straight for the most part I just think the support is pushing the hood up a bit. Anyone with any experience can lend a hand? I just don't want to completely ruin my car by being a cheap *** and making it worse.

 

If it closes and not a safety hazard I would hold off until you can get it professionally repaired. It may turn out decent or it may get worse. Just ny 2cents

 

Yes it closes and doesn't look too bad actually. I think I'll try banging it out once more and if it doesn't work I'll call it quits.