Dumber than I give myself credit for.

[GPster]

I've been making my truck ('89 Ford Ranger) drivable again and today I got far enough to think I'm in over my head. I got a price on a front body clip and the guy that priced it told be it's the same from '89 to '92 and it didn't make any difference if it was 2wd or 4wd. He knew I needed the radiator support and he priced it accordingly and I was supposed to do the work. With that knowlege I went and found what I needed cheaper because the bumper needs straightened but with the engine and radiator out of the donor my work will be easier. I worked  pulling parts off til my hands quit working and I gave up for the day and came home. after a late lunch I went outside to pull some bent pieces off my truck. Because the donor vehicle was locked I couldn't start pulling the fender but I went ahead and pulled the fender off of mine. SURPRISE!! You would have thought thatwhen  seller knew that I needed the radiator suuport he would have told me it was welded to the inner fender braces which were welded to the firewall. What I thought was a bolt together deal isn't. Now I suppose a body shop would have totalled this truck because their plan of attack would have been to go with new stampings as far as the factory welds but I'm unfortunately in a lower income bracket. What I need to replace is from the center of the radiator, around the corner(behind the headlight ) going back to over the wheel. I can get that much off the donor vehicle (probably more). Can These pieces be welded together maybe with some overlapping and provide a feasible repair? I've only put 12,000 miles on this vehicle in 4 years and it's use probably won't be any more than that but I hate to be without it. GPster

[enjenjo]

Sure it can.You can even pop rivet it back together. But before you get too far into it, is there any chance you can pull it out enough to get the new parts on? Chain it to a tree, and back up.

[wayne petty]

porta power

camper jacks.

high lift jack.. 4X4 or tractor style...

bottle jack...

engine hoist high lift jack. (think of that cherry picker that almost never gets used.....

old fashion heavy duty scissors jacks....

big thick pipe in the ground with a chain to the bent part,  part way up ... and another chain to the top to pull with...



on of the guys here in the building had an accident... bent the nose of his toyota sideways by about 6 inches...   that took about 2 hours to fix..
jacks and porta powers going all different directions...

one could even make a jack to push with water pipe, a length of acme thread all thread with several nuts and a stack of washers...


there was one guy at a gas station with a chain around the pipes that were located there..    backing his car away till the chain got tight...  i did drive over and mentioned how handy those pipes were... ...  he agreed...  i said... do you know what they are hooked to?     NO!!!  i said... those are the storage tank vent pipes on thirty thousand gallons of gasoline under your car...... it was amazing how fast he unhooked and drove away...

[phat rat]

Using the ideas and tools that Frank and Wayne mentioned I know you can do it Joe. A way I used for pulling when I was on the farm was my tractor. Lots of low speed easy pulling with that rather than backing up the truck/car

[zzford]

When you do the pulling, be sure to match the angle the truck was hit, that way, you should be able to pull the damage out with out causing extra work.

[WZ JUNK]

A backhoe is a great pulling machine.  My neighbor and I once had a VW stretched in the air between a couple of trees and a backhoe.  

John

[Carnut]

heh, heh, dunno why, but for some reason this thread looks like it ought to be merged with the 'My Body Work Tools' thread.