Help! got into a fender bender

[red9535]

Hey guys.. My buddy has a 97 v8 explorer. He rear ended someone yesterday, and theres a bit of damage.

The most noticable being that his bumper, the bottom part below the grill thats seperately attatched, is bent down like half way towards the ground. We looked under his car and saw that the bumper is held onto the chassis by 4 frames that we assume are supposed to be straight, but they are all bent into weird S-like shapes and thats why the thing is crooked.

If we took those off, bent them back relatively straight, and put the bumper back on, would that work? Or should we send it to a body shop?

Its pretty rusted. should we be worried about breaking the metal? Should we just get new ones for him?

Also, his front right tail light stopped working (after the accident). Is it possible we jiggled something loose, or did we break the bulb? How should we troubleshoot that?

Thanks!

 

[bp1506]

The bulb may have just just burned out, i would just check that first. As for the bumper you can probably fix it yourself if the bumper is pretty straight. When i rear ended a guy a few months back all that happened is my bumper kinda mashed up towards the top grill and the bottom part by the fenders sagged down. so i took it off and straightened out the part it mounts to just with a pry bar. After i put it back it still looks a little wonky but not a bad as before.

But the bumper itself was fairly good. Every accident is different so you just have to look at it more closely. The bolts for the bumper were a pain to get off.

 

[dynamite196]

you can get a used bumper from a junkyard for a couple hundred bucks mounts and all. You can probly find it painted the same color if you look too, wayyyyyyyy cheaper than a body shop. good luck.

 

[ProjectAviator]

Not real sure about a 97 but I know the 95-96 is held to the frame by 4 bolts. 2 each side. Best to pull the bumper and see what is bent and damaged. That is what a body shop will do, but charge $xx per hour.

 

[MONMIX]

the frame ends are pretty stout on the explorers. You will need a few bowls of wheaties if you think you are going to bang them into shape with a hammer.
If you have acess to a " Port-A-Power " and or some oxy-acetylene torches you are ahead of the game.