help me decide what I should do here....

Edited: 9/12/2006 11:05:14 PM by SunDown

alright guys, I am kinda stalled out right now on my truck and let me tell you why. The previous owner used the truck as a tow behind on an rv. at some point the truck got away from the rv and plowed into the back of it. it took out the grill, hood, both fenders and the core support is bent up a little, near the light buckets. Im not a body guy so i dont know what all is involved here but I can sure learn how quickly if someone were to say heres what I would do. I bought replacement hood, grill and fenders and while I have the fenders lined up ok the hood when closed sits below the top of the fenders. The new grill pretty mush is just lodged in place and it stays but is not lined up right.

So how do I correct this? I have contemplated sending the truck off to a body shop and let them deal with it but I am affraid they will want to change the core support and charge an arm and a leg, when this could be something I could do. Right now I cant get the headlights to fit, by this I mean it doesnt have anyway to secure itself to the support. The holes for the adjustment screws in the core support are all F'd up from the collision.

I'm not a body guy but this is why I got this truck, to learn. So should I undertake replacing the core support? make a new one? straighten the one I have? let the body guys deal with it? I have a front end pic but its kind of far away so you may not be able to tell much from it.

what would you do?

id say cut off the core support and get another one from a junkyard truck and graft it back on. my dad did this with his datsun cuz itd been in a wreck.

yeah cutting it off and putting a used or new one would be your best bet if you are not a body man and dont have professional tools. by the way i like the truck.

i would have to agree with these guys. it is to messed up to fix. just get a replacement and go from there. good luck

yeah when i called the body shop about getting a new core support put on they told me it wasnt worth it cuz my truck was totaled when all i did was hit a civic at 15mph. just pick up a new core support and cut the old old one out (cut unless you have a spot weld drill bit then drill but drilling sucks). so i take it you never sold your truck then eh?

alright, damn, thats what I have to do then.

Thanks for the compliments Jeff. Its my learning piece so I dont destroy my 53 f100 when I undertake that project, and yep I have 1.5 of those in my garage waiting as the next project.

Anthony, no I never sold it, I have too much sweat equity in this thing and think of it as a member of the family (even though my wife would dissagree). I think about now and again but thats becasue I havent been able to get down and make any progress on it for awhile. I flipped 1 house and now moved from Oregon to Iowa since those above pics have been taken.

I took it up into the small town I live in now to get the fuel cell filled for the first time ever, should of seen the people stare....heh, it was a blast. So that alone keeps me from kicking it to the curb.

haha dont ever tell a body shop your welding a new core support on, they are all about keeping the stock integrity of a core support. but yeah your best bet hit up a junk yard man. do your own thing! you'll figure it out

I had to replace the core support on my pup when the front end was smashed, I went to a local junkyard with a portable generator and a sawzall cut a core support off a truck at the middle of the front fenders. trimmed it down when i got it home then matched it up to the piece on my truck .really was'nt as hard as i thought it would be just make sure that you tack every thing in place and make sure that it all fits befor you weld it up. LV

Originally posted by NVRDUNIZU



I had to replace the core support on my pup when the front end was smashed, I went to a local junkyard with a portable generator and a sawzall cut a core support off a truck at the middle of the front fenders. trimmed it down when i got it home then matched it up to the piece on my truck .really was'nt as hard as i thought it would be just make sure that you tack every thing in place and make sure that it all fits befor you weld it up. LV

I guess thats really the biggest thing I am worried about is getting it all to line back up right. no way around it it sounds so I'll give it a go.