Anyone tried straightening a Vega unibody/sub-frame?

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Anyone tried straightening a Vega unibody/sub-frame?

Postby vegiguy » Sun Aug 19, 2012 9:03 pm

Has anyone tried to do this themselves? if so how did you do it and how successful were you. Mine is bent under where charcoal canister mounts and it has moved the front bumper back an inch or so on the left side. I know I should probably check to see what bodyshops charge to repair this sort of thing but I'm guessing it's many times more than I paid for the car. Any SERIOUS help would me appreciated.

And, yes, I've watched the funny Youtube videos on this topic.
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Re: Anyone tried straightening a Vega unibody/sub-frame?

Postby cjbiagi » Mon Aug 20, 2012 7:08 am

With most dents or bends you generally want to assess how the bend occurred and then pull it in the opposite direction. Not very easy to do without the proper equipment as pulling that out is a lot tougher than it looks. Not saying it can't be done and sometimes you can make some homemade tools with some threaded rod, washers, nuts etc to give you some leverage to push the metal out. It really depends how bad it is and if you have some way to leverage against it.
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Re: Anyone tried straightening a Vega unibody/sub-frame?

Postby vegiguy » Mon Aug 20, 2012 5:35 pm

On the Youtube videos people just hooked a chain up to what was bent, wrapped it around a tree (or some other stationary thing) and moved the car in the opposite direction of the damage. Although it looks pretty stupid most of them seemed to accomplish their goals so I thought it might be worth asking about on this forum. The only fear I would have would be that if I tried this I might bend something else unintentionally; then I would have two things to fix instead of one. Part of me thinks it would help to heat up the spot where the metal crumpled to soften it a bit so it would be easier to bend back.
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Re: Anyone tried straightening a Vega unibody/sub-frame?

Postby VegaGT » Thu Aug 23, 2012 7:59 am

You would be surprised at what stuff costs to have straightened. I recently had a car straightened from a hard front sway and had the rear quarter pulled back into place and it cost $500ish.

I think it will be cheaper than you think. I would check around and see if there is a frame only place near you.

**edit. Of course the more disassembly you do at home before taking it in will save you money. Just ask what they would want, they will tell you what needs to be off and out of the way to fix it properly.
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Re: Anyone tried straightening a Vega unibody/sub-frame?

Postby vegiguy » Fri Aug 24, 2012 2:16 am

Okay. I'll check around. Thanks.
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Re: Anyone tried straightening a Vega unibody/sub-frame?

Postby Monza Harry » Mon Sep 03, 2012 11:03 pm

You can always go to the back door and ask for the foreman and work a backdoor deal (with all it's risks) for a better price as well there are guys willing and able to do this for a good price if you are willing to wait and like mentioned above do some of this your self I recomend doing your own disassembly/reassembly this guarantees no lost/broken missadjusted parts as that would cost far more than you would ever save IMHO. Don't ask how I know this we don't go there. Harry
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