I took off my front fender liners yesterday and saw this. I knew something was off because the front driver's bumper shock seemed "off" and now I know why.

I intend to eventually run bumper-less anyway but how structural is that vertical channel that runs bottom to top?

the important parts that you need to check are the horizontal top and bottom frame rails. you kneed to go over the whole rail looking for compressed damage as the force is absorbed by them. up to the foot wells on both sides of the car.
the vertical small rail is not a major stressed member.
looking at your photo it looks like some buckling has happened underneath the rubber coating just before the shock tower.

Thanks. The damage did indeed seem to go back to just before the shock tower but they seemed to have done a good job of getting everything pulled back into place.

That LCA had a few more front shims (7 IIRC) than the other three points (4 each) which suggests they could have pulled it a few .010's further more, but certainly got it good enough to align properly with room to spare. Car drove really nice with no pulling on accel coast or brake. All tires incl. spare are the same (from '98 - need to replace those before I make it a driver) and no funny wear patterns. I guess I'll find out for sure when I get it aligned after the suspension refresh I'm working on now.

The frame rail and upper rail above the shock tower look almost perfect. You can tell it was pulled, if you look very closely, but none of that booger weld stuff is going on in those areas. That fender is also missing the waxy undercoating found on the rest of the car so it must have been replaced.

Thanks. The damage did indeed seem to go back to just before the shock tower but they seemed to have done a good job of getting everything pulled back into place.

That LCA had a few more front shims (7 IIRC) than the other three points (4 each) which suggests they could have pulled it a few .010's further more, but certainly got it good enough to align properly with room to spare. Car drove really nice with no pulling on accel coast or brake. All tires incl. spare are the same (from '98 - need to replace those before I make it a driver) and no funny wear patterns.

The frame rail and upper rail above the shock tower look almost perfect. You can tell it was pulled if you look very closely, but none of that booger weld stuff is going on in those areas. That fender is also missing the waxy undercoating found on the rest of the car so it must have been replaced.

The pass. rear was also pulled at some point but they did a good job there and there doesn't seem to be more than a skim coat of body filler according to my body magnet.

Seems like you are missing a piece of sheetmetal that keeps the air from going into the fender from the grille area.

im in janesville

vandor wrote:Seems like you are missing a piece of sheetmetal that keeps the air from going into the fender from the grille area.

Hmm I'll have to take a closer look at that. You have a good eye vandor.