Making 1-pice front clip.

[Corrupt_Reverend]

So I crashed my '91 4 door on Monday. It's totaled and I'm not seeing a cent since I rear ended the other guy. Over the week I've been pulling it apart and assessing the damage. Luckily and unluckily the damage is just the front "core" and the driver's side... everything from the firewall up.

post of the damage with pics

I've decided that instead of pulling it straight (tried to little success), I'm just going to cut everything from the fire wall forward off the car. The plan is to build a new support frame for the fenders and hood, bolt everything together, and mount it all to a hinge on the front body mounts and just have it flip forward to access the engine and whatnot.(I'll cut the fender at the rear to allow the flip up)

I ran the idea by a fellow at fiberworx and he said it sounded alright. So Now I'm here to try and gather more input. Any inherent flaws I am missing? Has anybody done this on an explorer?

Thanks in advance,
~Rev

 

[IZwack]

I see no flaw but if you're going to run a 1-piece clip, you dont need the supporting structure to pivot with the clip. Instead, what I would do is keep the support with the chassis and just let the fiberglass clip pivot - it should be stiff enough but if its not, you can always epoxy more fiberglass support to the underside to stiffen it a bit.

 

[MONMIX]

structural integrity would be my initial concern...

 

[Tbars4]

...I would get this in the one piece...
http://www.mcneilracinginc.com/off-...Explorer/95-00_2dr/05SportTracConv/index.htm#

 

[Corrupt_Reverend]

thanks thus far for the input. This is going to be steel oem body panels. I'm broke as a joke and hence, no cool fiber fun.

But I am now thinking about keeping the support structure stationary.

Keep the ideas flowing.