Major repairs to the front end of a 2011 Model Patrol

[hutchy84]

Hey guys just thought you might be interested in this one

My pops front end of his nissan patrol got hit by a bus and cause his insurance run out and didnt put it back on again i have to fix it.

First of all a ford falcon hit the front left hand side and spun him around where a trans perth bus collected the car and did all the damage.

1. we removed the bumper followed by the guards which allowed us to see the extent of the damage.

2. On the front of the chasis they have sacrificial comonents that are to take most of the impact. The chasis was bent and pushed over to the divers side of the car.

3. We had to straighten the chassis a fair bit so to do this we got a fairly decent ( Glut ) and pu between the chassis and a tree so that the car wouldnt move on us then we then got a 2 tonne comalong and pulled the chassis straight which took a little bit to get there ( A little friendly persuasion ).

4. We then had to pull the divers side inner guard out as this had been crushed in. we did that by just welding a couple sections of angle line there and using the tree again to pull the section back out.

5. We moved the car to where it is now going to stay untill the repairs are finished as we have had to take everything out radiator, all the oil coolers and airconditioner condensor. Also we removed the sacrificial sections from the chassis for the new ones.

6. we removed the radiator support panel by locating all the spot welds and drilling everyone of them out wit a ( Spot weld drill bit ) NOTE - when drilling these sometimes you miss a little bit of weld so i just got a screwdriver and a hammer and broke the rest of the weld remaining. there are also spot welds underneath aswell. Also when drilling be careful as you only want to go through the first skin.

7. I removed all of the bolts holding the radiator support panel in underneath then removed the whole panel, That is as far as i have gotten so far.

8. After the removal of the radiator support panel we have noticed the the chassis has to go to the left more. Agh such a Piss off but anyways we will have to fix it a little more before the installation of the new radiator support panel.

[Bigrig]

Yep - definite interest mate. Sorry to hear it got jammed in the first place, but definitely keep us up to date on progress ... maybe some Bond style rockets behind the headlights as future "insurance" against this sort of thing in future!!!! lol

[hutchy84]

Honestly i cant believe all the stuff under the bonnet of these things compared to my td42t gu

[GUtsy ute]

Good on you for fixing it yourselves.
You certainly sound like you know what's involved in repairing it.
Keep us posted with more pics as it goes back together.

Some shots of the sacrificial parts of the chassis would be good too, please.

Cheers Gavin

[rusty_nail]

wow looks like a big job, but im sure all the hard work willl be worth it

[hutchy84]

Yeah no worries i will get those pics after work and post up on here for you.

[Maxhead]

Good on ya for having a go at it yourself mate. Was the sledge hammer in pic2 the " little friendly persuasion " bit...LOLOLO

[Hongie]

get a sling and a block and tackle onto the radiator support panel and just straighten it rather then replace?

[MudRunnerTD]

Bugger that sux mate.

To be honest I'd be giving serious thought to putting it on a trailer and taking it to a panel shop and hiring their Rack for a couple of hours to get it all straight and to tolerance mate. Even if you pay them to Rack it for you there is a heap of measurements that you need to be mindful of and you will Never get them right off a tree mate. No disrespect intended. If you ahve no opportunity to take it to a shop then so be it but it would be the preferred option mate. Food for thought.

Good luck mate

[hutchy84]

yeah the sledgy helped a little for the fine tuning but the come along with the sectiion of wood helped out the most

To far gone for a sling and a block and tacle much easier to just replace the section