Woogie

So my friend drives a 91 Ranger and he just got into an accident. He needs to replace the grill, headlights, fenders, hood, emblem, pretty much the front end. The damage isn't too bad and there's no frame/mechanical damage as far as i can tell; Mainly cosmetic damage.

The bodyshop is charging him 50 dollars per hour for labor. the total cost for labor was estimated to be 2700. The grand total on this project after paint is about 4900.

My question is, how difficult would it be for us to do it by ourselves? Would it be unbolt and bolt? We just want to get the body lookin good again and he'll throw it in a shop for some paint. What do you all think? Is it do-able? A weekend project, maybe?

PureDrifter

iTrader: (10)

most of the time taking panels off or on isnt the problem, its getting them lined up right.

Och

iTrader: (3)

or he can pick up another 91 ranger for $100 and save himself the trouble, heh.

O. L. T.

iTrader: (17)

bolting things on is any DIY guy's job. However any accident is going to pull things out of line and there is where a pro with the right tools is needed. My suggestion if it is wrecked is to attempt a DIY since it is already screwed. If you do not succeed you already have the parts ready for the body shop to do properly.

I actually owned an 89 ranger low rider once and did a lot of work on it. They usually have core damage if they are hit in the front and the core needs to be fixed properly or the fenders won't really even bolt on, the holes will be off. ....least you can try before you send it in, but knowing what I know about them,...... if the fenders have damage, the cores in the fenders are already gone.

Ramon

Have you taken all the panels off yet? If not, you'd be surprised how much damage there could be under the skin.

exvelocity

that is very true, the fastest way to find out if new parts will fit OK, is open the hood and measure between bolt hole on left front where fenders bolts to the structure and the right bolt hole near firewall and then vise versa,if the distance is the same then most likely you won't have any major problems ligning up the sheet metal, also make sure the truck is on level ground and check the distance between the ground and both frame ends as well as the front corners of the radiator support,

and FYI, you can pick up a 96-97 Ranger for about $1500, why in the world would you even want to invest your time and money in junk,period

Woogie

I've been trying to convince him to just give the truck the boot and get a new car. But i guess he really likes the truck because it's in awesome condition with only 60,000 original miles and the 4.0 V6 (i dont know if the size of the engine is accurate, i think he said 4 liter).

I'll keep on trying, but thanks for everybody's help thus far.