Bent my frame

[nnorton44]

Hey I recently found out I bent the frame on my 1993 Explorer, the shop down the street is saying $500 for a re-alignment, is this a ripoff or a decent price? I don't want to overpay because I just had to pay damn near $1k for some brake bullshit.

 

[bipolarbob]

How bad and how did you do it?

 

[RMBranch]

A lot depends on the "how did you do it" question. From there, it may also eliminate the "could it be something else" question. Also, did they just give you a price or did they give you some breakdown? For instance, most body shops here in Connecticut are working (*roughly*) $44-$60 per hour for framework...So they're essentially telling you a day to setup on the machine, spec it, mount the hooks/etc for the pulls, do the pulls, spec it back to make sure they have it where the want it, and then dismount from the machine.

 

[nnorton44]

Well its not an issue anymore, my parents decided to go ahead and pay for it. It ended up costing $1000 I bent it pretty bad. Mostly from drivin too hard and towin ****.

 

[Blee1099]

Shouldn't have spend the money on the frame straightening.. Usually 70% is the cut off for a total. Chances are, your frame is diamonded unless your body shop has some quality technicians that know what they are doing.

 

[Haziness8]

how would you repair a bent frame??

 

[TxPlates]

Well shops are normally charging 45/hr for frame time. They get the first 2 hours at set up and measure. Which gives them time to put it on the frame machine, measure the points. That two hours also includes them after the repair is done to put it back on the same machine and make sure it's with in the oem specs. The normal charge for each point impacted is 1.5 hours at that same 45/hr. Then if they need to actually "repair" the frame, they get a normal body rate to repair it. The only way I can see it costing $1k is if they actually sectioned in a new piece of the rail, otherwise you were way over charged.

 

[Haziness8]

well i think my frame got twisted, its the only explenation. after offroadin i noticed my camber was real real negative. ive gotten a camber kit and its still close to like 5-8 degrees off specs. i remember bottoming out hard on this wup but i think it twsited the front part of the frame inwards and i guess now my upper control arms sit closer inwards than the bottom causing negative camber. is this repairable?

 

[Haziness8]

anyone know?

 

[RMBranch]

Bent Frame - or is it?

Sorry for the delay in getting back to you.
1) This thread started as problems with 1993 Ford Explorer - there are no upper control arms on this suspension. The front suspension on my '94 is essentially a spring with shock type of suspension with the top of the spring nesting in a spring perch (inverted cup shaped bracket) welded to the frame.

Now, I have a hard time imagining that the you managed to collapse the shocks far enough to actually bend the spring perch. Rather....

I would be suspect of bad ball joints. Excessively worn ball joints could cause play in the wheels with the camber going past the normal parameters. With the vehicle at rest, the weight of the engine/etc. with bad ball joints would result in dramatic negative camber.

Essentially, with the a vehicle that is going on 14 years ('07 will be out shortly) with mileage in excess of probably 160k that I would be looking more at front suspension components (maybe bearings?) rather than the idea of frame damage.

If anyone else has any suggestions I'm open here - don't consider myself and expert especially in the suspension/bearings arena. Keep us posted if you find the culprit.

 

[Dre]

check ball joints first but also look into possibility that you might of fried front wheel bearings. Gone wheel bearings will be noticable though - grinding noise. If you have landed hard after a few jumps then yes, there is a possibility that you have bent the frame, not twisted. I've seen an Explorer that had a bent frame after one hard landing while hopping sand dunnes...

 

[Haziness8]

why not twisted. the only reason i say that is becuase the hard bottoming out would hit the bump stop and strong force and push/twist inward the frame. i have no grinding noise so can be bearings. the cam kit helped a little.

 

['97 V8]

bottoming hard casn bend the frame. When i was at my uncles dealership a range rover came in with the front bent up....it bent right where the doors are. Thats why you dont bottom out your front too hard with out the riht kinda shocks or springs. anyways man this is an old thread.