well today i had an accident with a tow ball and as a result it has punched a hole through the bumper bar and pushed the rio into the radiator and the radiator has moved back as well as bent my bonnet up
it still drives but the radiator has a leak and the radiator fans wont engage cause the radiator is bent,also the top support (dont know what its called) is bent as well where the headlights screw into
after reading all the info ive supplied do you think it would be a write off? i cant believe this has happend to my pride and joy and just after ive spent almost $3000 on servicing , rego and new tyres. i only have third party insurance and am shitting myself on what i can do.

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how much do you think id be looking at just to get it drivable again?

If you are looking to pay for a repair, dont bother mate, will cost less to get another car, I buy cars with less damage than this one on a weekly basis to wreck

If you dont mind getting your hands dirty, you may find that once your front bar and reo are off, rad and aircon condensor is out, you can pull back the support panel far enough to get it roughly where it needs to sit. You will not get the 100% repair job but then again I have seen some reasonable work done by people who need to get a car back on the road safely.

That's repairable. Most of the metal in the front end is quite soft and can be straighted out by pulling by hand - or hammering with a wooden block between the hammer and the metal, or a block and tackle attached to a handy tree, or a crowbar pivoted onto the ground behind the bent bodywork lol - to the extent that a new radiator will fit correctly. If you have aircon and its radiator is bent but not leaking, you can space one side out so it sits properly. It won't be pretty, but the bonnet and bumper will hide it. Can't see damage to the bonnet, so can't comment on that, you may need to get another if it won't straighten. Reo bar will be weakened if straighted so another from the wreckers would be handy.

It's only a writeoff if you can't tackle the repairs yourself or can't get the parts. Worth a try anyway. Before you start straightening things, remove everything you don't want damaged, like the lights, plastic trim, etc. You will know when you have straightened things out correctly when the mounting holes/bolts for things like the lights and radiator line up correctly.

thanks for the responce but i think its a little out of my league to repair on my own, but as a rough guess how much do you think a smash repairer would charge just to get it drivable again ie straighten and re-fit new radiator and air con radiator and as for the bonnet it opened after the acident was a little stiff, but i cant close it properly now. any ideas?

used bonnet = 150 + paint
used rad = 70 + coolant change
used reo = between 50 and 250, depending on what your local repairer gets it from
grill and bumper = 150-300 + paint
number plate = 20
radiator support and other bent brackets etc = who knows, depends whats bent and how nice the wrecker is.
probably wise to allow 6-10 hours for the work

just this is around 1700 dollars, not including paint work or other bent brackets or any unseen issues.

remember alot of places wont let you supply parts, so the part may cost more or even be new parts (radiator etc)

so you would be looking atleast around the 2000 - 2500 mark.

this is to get it drivable, if anything else needs to be done, like remove ac condenser and things like that, the price will just keep going up

alot of the process is easy. removal/refitt of bumper and radiator alone will save a few hundred if you do it yourself.

post up more picture and let us see how bad the rest is, because if its just the reo, bumper, grille, bonnet and rad that need to be repaired, then its all pretty much easy.

you can also buy the parts and have a few different colors untill you can afford to paint it.

edit, technically, you only need a reo and bonnet and grille to make it drivable, so if you do that yourself, you could have a busted up bumper with a crooked radiator and a miss colored bonnet for a couple months and it wouldnt cost more than 500. just save for the paint and panel beating for later on

Radiators are $130 new delivered. Reo panel can come from any other TE-TF etc

Find an Embassy Pearl (HB) parts car, buy the bits you need, get some mates over + beer, and get it looking like it did before. Slide hammer might be needed for that lower panel.

Road Tested Spares has the front bar reo for $110 and a grille for $75 (and they aren't a cheap wreckers).
Ebay has new bar covers for $121 and new radiators for $129.

As wackywheelz said... a few mates and some gentle persuasion and you'll at least be mobile again.

thanks for the responce but i think its a little out of my league to repair on my own, but as a rough guess how much do you think a smash repairer would charge just to get it drivable again ie straighten and re-fit new radiator and air con radiator and as for the bonnet it opened after the acident was a little stiff, but i cant close it properly now. any ideas?

As is, the car is not usable and worth maybe $300 at a wreckers. So what do you have to loose by having a go yourself?

Any workshop doing a repair won't want to do a half assed job just to get you mobile again, its bad advertising for them.

The bonnet won't close because the radiator support bar has been bent back, a big part of a repair is to make everything line up so that the bonnet will close properly, the lights point in the right direction and the bumper sits right.

How much is a straight magna with a dead engine, and transfer all your goodies over to that, engine, wheels, any nice interior bits?

I agree with the above. You may have just spent $3k on servicing but most of that has gone into stuff you can move to a new car. If you transfer your stuff over to a car with a good body but a dead tranny or something, it will probably cost you less than what it will cost to repair the one you've got!

Always make sure you factor in registration costs though!

if he cant change a radiator and bumper and do a little hammering confidently, i dont see him wanting to take on a complete taredown of a dead magna's engine bay.

Yes. lets keep it simple. Do the repair work, or ask friends to help. Buying a second car and swapping bits takes time, and means there are two cars in the driveway in bits instead of one.

Whilst it looks (and probably "feels") bad at the moment, its very fixable and shouldn't be too-costly an exercise.

Got quoted the other day for $1800-$2300 to fix which im prepaired to pay considering the cars condition, only ponder i have now is that i want to drive it to the smash repairs which is probly 20 kilometers away, ive been advised to pull the fuse to the fans which sit behind the radiator so as to not burn the motors out because the radiator is bent and they wont engauge.
does anyone know what exact fuses to pull to disengauge the fans in question?
as per the fuse box which has illustrations on it looks to me like ''h'' ''k'' or 21/40amp and ''g'' doesnt have a fuse attached any ideas?

If I heard that kind of quote it'd definitely be a DIY job for me - my Altera cost less than that with new brakes all-round!

It sounds like a lot to me but then I'm used to getting the parts and doing it myself. New reo-bar, bumper, radiator and some spirited maneuvering (radiator support) and it'd be good to go. To me that comes in under $500 including cold beverages lol.

Also, is the radiator leaking at the moment? You could unplug the fans at their connectors if you cant find the fuse.

yeah i realise its expensive, but i dont have the patience to do it myself and i need it on the road asap.
and keep in mind its all going to be painted and my rear bar painted from a previous mishap, its probably cheaper than anywhere else considering its a family aquaintance.
yes the radiator is leaking, it wasn't as bad when i brought it home but as the radiator cooled its contracted and the leak was more prevelent.
i plan on taking a heap of water to top up the radiator along the journey to avoid the cost of a tow
and ill have a look at the connectors to the fans to see if it helps
edit: i cant disconnect the main fan because the plug is jammed under the lower half of the battery box, but i can disconnect the smaller fan no worries.
im taking it there tommorow and really need to know what fuse controls the larger fan???
help... :-(

I should have put in my last that I knew where you was coming from with regards to paying to get it done right, I like doing a bit of DIY but then I have lots of previous hands-on experience.

There are two fan plugs, located on opposite sides of the radiator (along the top):

Drivers side is between washer fluid reservoir and top radiator hose
Passenger side is between Air Intake and Battery cover