mjfuller53

My son modified the outward appearance of my 93 Camry by hitting a parked pick up truck at about 5 miles per hour or so. Don't ask how. He's a typical teenage airhead. The truck bumber hit above my bumper on the passenger side and crumpled the headlight, hood, and fender. It also buckled the cross bar (don't know what it's called) that the radiator is mounted to. However, it didn't break or crack the radiator and it still drives fine (for now). Since the car is only worth about $3000 with 164,000 miles, it isn't worth turning into the insurance company. They will just total it. I have an estimate from a cheapo garage to fix it with after market parts for $2400. Most of it is labor. Now I don't normally work on cars but I'm pretty good at following directions and figuring things out. I also have a nephew who could do this much better than I. Am I crazy to consider buying the parts and replacing the hood, fender, etc. by myself? Or is it so tricky I'd be stupid not to leave it in the hands of the professionals?

SteVB

I do minor repairs like this ALL THE TIME. i`m not a body man , but have friends that have body shops, so i have just watched them work on occasion. Let me tell you, theres ALOT you can do with a little confidence, common sense , a few tools(sledge hammer, hammers ,pliers, ect.) , & a tow rope/chain & a nice big solid tree, LOL !! Tie one end of the rope/chain to the affected area of the car & the other end to the tree & put the car in reverse slowly taking up the slack in the rope until its tight. then just slowly & gently apply the gas to create a pull. you can turn the car at different angles to get different angle pulls.
Just do pulls until your parts look straight, or have new parts that you can try on & just make pulls & adjustments until your replacement parts line up. Also check gaps between fender & hood ect. to make sure these line up as close as possible.
As for the radiator & the a/c condenser in front of it, you will want to unbolt them from the radiator support before pulling on the radiator support, so as not to cause any leaks that aren`t there already, then bolt them back up carefully after all metal puling is done.
I know this sounds horribly backyard monkeywrench, but you would be amazed with the results i have achieved for FREE, only costing time & a few replacement parts. Then you can pay a body shop to paint your replacement parts for you so the car looks more professionally done.

WRG

I bought my daughter's 93 Camry back from the insurance company after they declared it totaled. It had hit another car broadside and damaged the hood, fenders, headlights, grill, etc. For $400 I bought the whole front clip including radiator, fans and radiator support that they cut off for me at a salvage. The parts are very easy to change. You'll mainly need a few metric tools and a phillips screwdriver. I used a tree and a chain to pull the radiator support out to the correct position. I now have $1000 and 2 Saturdays in it and drive it all of the time. I should have looked a little harder and found the same color sheetmetal though. I now have a green body with a blue front end,

Recently my sister in law ran into the back of a car in her Mom's 92 Camry and sounds like it did the exact damage to it that your car has. I've bought it back since they totaled it too. I'm going to fix it up also. It looks like I might need them to cut the corner section of the radiator support off for me at the salvage but other than that it should be real easy to repair.

I don't think you will have much trouble making the repairs yourself.

SlingXShot

I don't 5MPH would do that damage, this is the speed it moves when you first start the car and let go of the brake. he had to go at least 10 I would say