Pulling Radiator and Upper Support?

[93redATX]

On our project '90, my wife and I need to replace the radiator, upper radiator support, and the front bumper supports and headlight support areas. Basically, all of the front end supports, except the lower subframe piece, has to be replaced. This car had taken out a fairly large deer, and it destroyed the grill, driver's side headlight, hood, and pushed the radiator nearly tight to the engine. We've got the hood off, fenders are coming off soon, but now we need to replace the upper support, etc. that I mentioned above. The support pieces seem to be crimped/stamped together in place, because I couldn't see any welds holding it together. I had planned on welding the new pieces together, but it may now just go into a body shop to have only the supports and such replaced. Anyone have any experience doing this? Am I fairly close to what actually needs to be done, or not at all?

BTW, we've got all the pieces that were bolted onto the upper support (hood latch, grill and headlight retainers, various ground wires, etc.) taken off, and everything is basically ready to go for the new radiator. Any help or input is greatly appreciated.

This thread is also in the engine and driveline forum, but we weren't getting many responses.

 

[JaySHOguy]

I can help you out abit, since I pretty much just went through the same thing.

The upper radiator support IS welded in. The welds look like about 1/4" in diameter(little round ones). These need to be drilled out, and everywhere that it attaches to the car.
Your best bet would be to take it to a body shop/frame repair shop and have them remove and replace these parts. My '89 was hit very hard. I had to replace the upper frame rails(where the fenders bolt to), entire radiator support, and parts of the inner fenders(metal parts).

The radiator support can be bought for about $100.
Labor was about $150 for me(i used to work at the bodyshop I had fix it).

Then, I did all of the prep work(any body work to hide the welds) and painted the entire structure.

Assembly was pretty straight-forward.
It helps if you have a parts car available.

Good luck.

The damage was ALOT worse than it looked. The support was pushed so far back, that it broke the ignition pack, and I have dents in the heatshield of the exhaust manifold.

 

[Porod]

Andy-let me know when you are working on it. If I have nothing going on, I'll come down and give you a hand.

 

[Bizzy]

Moved to troubleshooting - Body