ujm

I received the call at about 4:15ish -

It was my wife, "Had a fender bender.....".

My son had slid on some ice into a parked pick'em up truck.

2004 Ford F150

OK, I get home a few minutes after.

The car is crunched on the front passenger side, hood is toasted.

Ran smack into the left rear of the all might F150.

The crash bent the Ford Truck's bumper in a bit. When I talked to the owner, he said that was the exact same place it was hit before.

He went on to say how he collected the money from insurance the last time and never fixed it. Fine. He had called our insurance company before I even got home, I would of rather thrown cash at the guy. Anyway -

My son is 17, 1st accident, we've talked before, still, did not expect this.

He's fine, physically. It's his first car.

I go down and finish dealing with the owner, take care of the insurance - and then take my son to work.

Not sure he wanted to go to work, but that was my call, and I'll stand by it.

When I came back, I looked closer at the Maxima, the car took a poke.

A couple of years ago I was at a junkyard southwest of me, and they had the identical car there - great body - I'm having my son check first thing in the morning, if it is still there, this will be easy(errrr).

1st accidents always suck.

They suck even more when it is cold outside.

To fix or not to fix, that is the question!

ujm

I think it might be repairable - need to look closer in the daylight -

chrome91

iTrader: (1)

if it were my car, i would try and straighten out the rad support, get a headlight, grille, and hood from a junker and call it a day. depends if theres any more damage than visible in the pictures though

ujm

Thank you, good to hear - that's what I am hoping.

The radiator support appears to bolt in - be nice it is was not insane to replace.

The the car is not at the local salvage yard, I know there are several at the pick n' pulls in Kansas City.

Does anyone know what year body parts interchange?

Hope - there is hope!

chrome91

iTrader: (1)

89-94 are all the same. 89-91 have lighter colour rear center lights on the GXE than 92-94 GXE i believe. 92-94 are apparently a little bit shorter than 89-91 but that doesnt concern anything

for the parts you need, the only thing different is the grille. 89-91 have a different grille than 92-94, you need the chrome 92-94 grille

Max_Gator

oh, and make sure you tell your insurance co that the story about the other guy's damage.

DanNY

iTrader: (14)

close to the air bag sensor...good thing that didn't go.

if you're handy it's definitely fixable.

Hectic

iTrader: (20)

Radiator support is spot welded. I've seen worse, twice. Fixed both without replacing the support. Bend it back as best you can. Headlight alignment will probably be the most difficult part.

ujm

Many Thanks!!!

You can count on that - After I mentioned to the owner of the pickup I would of rather handed him a wad of cash than having this reported to my insurance company, and hearing his story of how he dealt with it last time, I said "I look forward to seeing your pickup fixed this time" and he said, Oh, yeah, I plan on it!" and I replied "Good, because if I don't see it fixed, Karma will probably get you". I wish I had not said that now, but a little late, love and learn....

Whew, I did not even think about that! Thank you, and we're plenty handy, good time for the decades of investment in tools to again pay off!

Thank you very much, we're starting the hunt for parts today - I'm having my son call the local yard I saw the identical year and color car at first, if it is still there, it will be a blessing!

James92SE

iTrader: (31)

I wouldn't be surprised if that beige color is more plentiful than any other color on the 3rd gen. I wonder if there's a list somewhere of how many of each color was produced. I seem to see more beige 3rd gens than any other color at the junkyards, at least here in DFW. And the paint always seems to hold up better on the beige color for some reason. Normally every car here that I see has peeling paint and a lot of any damage and that's usually not the case on the beige.

Anyway, grab you a new hood and headlight and whatnot and you should be good to go. Looks like an easy repair and should get good results

ujm

Bought a hoof, headlight and turnsignal/whatever that other light is to the side of the headlight - Ah......

The hood needs to be cleaned up, a couple minor scratches, it's far from perfect, but it was only $35.00

Headlight assembly ran $25.00 and that other light was $15.00

The grill will need to come from one of the pick'n'pull places in KC ($20.00)

Might be able to get started tomorrow -

Rods03Max619

iTrader: (5)

Chris Gregg

iTrader: (59)

I could fix most that just with what I go laying around in my garage.


Course, not saying much if you saw my garage!

Keep it. Fix it. Better yet - great learning opportunity for the boy to fix it. Have a shop repair radiator support and straighten things, then he can do hood, lights, etc.

ujm

I dug out my come-along and box of ratchet straps/tie downs.

My thought is to utilize nature, such as - the large maple tree in our yard - to assist in the repair.

My son gets off work soon, hopefully he'll want to get started.

I just finished posting the weekly items on eBay - 60 new listings today!

Must look away from computer screen . . . . . .

12/14 PM Yes, I am an idiot.

We were able to get the hood on and it is only a inch or so away from fitting in the latch.

When trying to square everything up, I managed to break the radiator.

Smacked it with a hammer, a chunk flew off the top, no repairing that - although I am a huge fan of JB weld..... Anyway -

The "new" hood is ratty, hopefully it cleans up. I'm concerned with getting the head and side marker lights in and somewhat aligned. Weather, sucks, 20's, may need to pull the garage queen out and work on the Maxima in a "controlled" enviroment.....

Hope this does not spiral downward rapidly.

12/15 AM Hood now opens and closes, needs only minor tweeking.

Asked son to button up the hood struts. He is liking his warm bed a little better than that idea.

If he was not such a good kid, great grades, nice girlfriend, no bad habits (video games do not count), I'd probably jerk him out and get him out to wrench on the car.

He'll get up in his own time.

When he does bolt those struts up (you know, they need to be replaced, now would be a good time...) I asked him to also look at what he thinks it will take to do the headlight and that other one.

Found a new radiator on eBay for $50.00 delivered, might see what the salvage yard wants for theirs.

Grill, if and when this all comes together, we'll think about the grill. I don't know how those clips that hold it in work, any help is welcomed.

Thanks everyone

ujm

My son was right on time and we made some more progress -





We're checking with the salvage yard in the AM for a radiator, can order locally and have one delivered for $109 or eBay with patience and about $50.00.

The grill is a given, gotta have one -

And some final pushing and prodding to make it all fit a little better, Hood needs to come down a hair, passenger headlight out a inch or so.

Some touch up paint, we'll call it good.

Be nice to find a better hood, but you know, for the price, I think we've done all right.

Oh! My son asked "Dad, who pays for the radiator?"

He was not real thrilled when I told him he did......

chrome91

iTrader: (1)

looks pretty good, it lives lol

Hectic

iTrader: (20)

These are by far the most difficult parts of the repair. I gave up years ago trying to align my hood perfectly, and for the headlights, I just ended up doing a custom job.

ujm

Getting closer -

Thanks for the honesty. It looks like we might have some nice weather this week.

Ordered a radiator from a local parts store today, I try to buy local when I can. It will be here tonight at 7:00PM, pretty good service.

I think it cost around $90.00, pay when picking it up -

Is the grill easy to remove? What's the trick to those clips?

Have to be in KC for business this week, might hit a u-pull-it, if time allows.

Probably need to make the time....

DanNY

iTrader: (14)

the trick...if they are not totally messed up is to turn those nubs in the back it 45 degrees.
the other alternative is to pinch them with vice grips or something.

regardless it's a total PITA.

car is coming together...nice job.

chrome91

iTrader: (1)

i think pinching with vise grips works best, but the grille can be a nightmare to remove

Hectic

iTrader: (20)

The proper tool to release the grille clips is the human hand.

James92SE

iTrader: (31)

Yep, just squeeze them from the back

ujm

Radiator came in last night, as promised. $84.00 locally. We could of saved $34.00 by buying on eBay, but you know, the guys at the auto parts store have always gone out of their way to treat me well over the years.





I'm hoping to be able to knock out all of my work early enough to get to work on installing it this afternoon. I know the car could use a thermostat, not sure I want to add more the plate right now.

The grill sounds like a *****, I had trouble removing the remaining pieces - makes a new one look better and better all the time....

James92SE

iTrader: (31)

Really the grille is easy. Squeeze the clips from the backside (backside meaning between the grille and the radiator). The clips need to be squeezed from both the top and bottom. What you can do if necessary if a clip is hard to compress is to apply pressure from the underside with a finger and use a screwdriver to apply pressure from the top. Then pull the grille (or remaining piece of grille) toward you (away from the radiator). This way the whole grille and clips come out together, and when you put the grille back on (or put on a replacement grille), it just pops right in.

Now - what you must do if you need to remove or replace a clip on the grille itself is get a long skinny flathead, stick the flathead threw the grille slats and turn the clip 45 degrees like Dan mentioned. The clip will then pop out of the backside. To replace the clip you need to install it from the backside and twist it 45 degrees while pushing it inward. But none of this is necessary if you remove the grille as a whole

DanNY

iTrader: (14)

i have a PS cooler sandwiched behind the grill so it's a little tight to get my hands in there...but yes james is correct that if you have small enough hands...you can squeeze the clips and it'll pop out.

ujm

I went ahead and threw the radiator in over lunch, piece of cake, no issues to speak of.

Also noticed a oil leak on my old but clean driveway. Further inspection lead to the valve covers, all of the screws/bolts were loose - rear bank was the worst and where the leak was coming from. Time will tell if snugging them down does the trick.

The car never has put out warm air, and I read to check the vacuum lines at the water control valve, middle firewall.

Sure enough, they were all loose. Simple fix, cut a tad bit of the end of each, now we have heat, after all these years.....

My son wants to go with a SE grill and paint it black. eBay has them new for next to nothing.

Me, I'm thinking about hood pins to level out the hood -

Oh - Headlights, aim - it adjusted out fine. The glass is not perfectly the same with the other side, but heck, I'm kind of the same way.....

ujm

Made some time while in KC to stop at "Pick-N-Pull".

It's worth the price of admission just to wonder around and look at all the stuff.

The first Maxima I looked at was a 90, the emblem on the grill was off centered, to the drivers side I believe, and said "nissan".

The next one was a perfect match - It had one small bubble in the chrome, for $25.00, I'm not going to complain.

chrome91

iTrader: (1)

everyone laughs at me for doing that some weekends ill grab a coffee and a cigar and just wander around for a hour looking through random cars

the off-center NISSAN grille was on 89-91 models, 92-94 had the chrome

ujm

I'm with you on that.

Here's todays find -



And you know, it was not hard at all to remove.

Just pinched the clips -

Sure, had to hold my mouth just right.....

ujm

"Gosh dern" alarm went off 4 times last night. My wife woke me and told me about it once, my daughter woke me and told me about it once, my son woke me and told me about it once - at least I was able to sleep through it one time.

It was 4:00AM, after the 4th time, that I went out and disconnected the hood switch.

Oh well, I'm up, never been good at getting back to sleep.....