2001 Corolla
Posted: Sun Jul 31, 2022 12:13 am
An in-law totaled their Corolla recently (they're ok) but did it in such a way that it was more or less repairable without a trip to a frame machine. The majority of the damage was the the FL headlight area above the uni-body frame rail. Since I have experience replacing a lower radiator support on a car with a tweaked front end (i30) I figured I would give this a shot.
My first step was disassembling the front end and measuring the bumper support height on both ends. The driver's side was roughly 1-1.25" lower but it wasn't pushed aft. I was able to get the driver's side up about 0.75-1" by a slide hammer then putting a man hole pry bar through the bumper support and lowering the car so that the bar rests on a jack stand first. Next I drilled out all the radiator support spot welds to remove it. From there I test fit an aftermarket radiator support and made sure the repair was possible prior to ordering all the other parts.
I ordered head/corner lights, radiator, condenser and hood latch from RockAuto. Then I went on a parts chase for at least a hood of similar color, eventually finding one after 150 miles and 3 junk yards. Most of the Corollas I came across were picked clean. None had bumpers or usable fenders. The hood I did get is the wrong color and faded but it's close enough for this repair. At $100 including gas it's far cheaper than any other option. When I went to put the hood on I realized the hinges were bent so I ordered those as well. With new hinges and good hood I made sure I was in the ballpark for the hood latch lining up before I plug welded the new support back in. I also bent back any deformed sheet metal on the driver's side before welding. Lining up the new support with the paint shadow of the previous support got everything lined up pretty well. I stripped the plug weld areas, sprayed with copper welding primer and plug welded away. Any copper overspray or welded areas I covered up with some black rust reformer rattle can paint I had on tap.
Getting everything to line up after the support was welded in took some work but eventually I got it pretty close. I was able to salvage the driver's side fender enough to reuse it, I opened up a few of the bolt holes here and there to get more adjustment and made new mounting points where the bumper meets the fenders since they were broken off. The hood actually opens and shuts better than it did before the crash.
The goal was to fix this as cheap as possible without compromising safety. The grand total ended up being $725 for parts including a $70 window reg/motor it needed anyway. It took me about 4 days including an all day junkyard run. To be honest, it turned out better than I thought it would and the front end is less tweaked then my old i30 was.
My first step was disassembling the front end and measuring the bumper support height on both ends. The driver's side was roughly 1-1.25" lower but it wasn't pushed aft. I was able to get the driver's side up about 0.75-1" by a slide hammer then putting a man hole pry bar through the bumper support and lowering the car so that the bar rests on a jack stand first. Next I drilled out all the radiator support spot welds to remove it. From there I test fit an aftermarket radiator support and made sure the repair was possible prior to ordering all the other parts.
I ordered head/corner lights, radiator, condenser and hood latch from RockAuto. Then I went on a parts chase for at least a hood of similar color, eventually finding one after 150 miles and 3 junk yards. Most of the Corollas I came across were picked clean. None had bumpers or usable fenders. The hood I did get is the wrong color and faded but it's close enough for this repair. At $100 including gas it's far cheaper than any other option. When I went to put the hood on I realized the hinges were bent so I ordered those as well. With new hinges and good hood I made sure I was in the ballpark for the hood latch lining up before I plug welded the new support back in. I also bent back any deformed sheet metal on the driver's side before welding. Lining up the new support with the paint shadow of the previous support got everything lined up pretty well. I stripped the plug weld areas, sprayed with copper welding primer and plug welded away. Any copper overspray or welded areas I covered up with some black rust reformer rattle can paint I had on tap.
Getting everything to line up after the support was welded in took some work but eventually I got it pretty close. I was able to salvage the driver's side fender enough to reuse it, I opened up a few of the bolt holes here and there to get more adjustment and made new mounting points where the bumper meets the fenders since they were broken off. The hood actually opens and shuts better than it did before the crash.
The goal was to fix this as cheap as possible without compromising safety. The grand total ended up being $725 for parts including a $70 window reg/motor it needed anyway. It took me about 4 days including an all day junkyard run. To be honest, it turned out better than I thought it would and the front end is less tweaked then my old i30 was.