Question for you body work guys

[Daca214]

So at some point, the PO must have hit someone and pushed in the bumper you can see ithe passenger side is crooked in the pics. Everything is off just enough to where the headlight bezels dont line up quite right.
My question is can those little shocks or whatever they are that the bumper is mounted to be brought back out to square or is it one and done?
I am not sure how to go about realigning everything in front but it annoys me to no end to see the crooked bumper

You can also see where someone pulled it out at some point based on the paint damage

 

[pagrunt]

We used to use a near by telephone pole & a good strap to it & the bumper at the shock. Then carefully tug it out easing the car away from the pole. Not the right way but it's a way to pull it.

 

[ck80]

Headlight bezel shouldn't have anything to do with the bumper and/or bumper shock absorbers. It mounts to the rigid fiberglass header panel.

The rubberized bumper filler also mounts to the rigid header, and on the side to the fender. If the body panels are aligned themselves it all just kind of goes into place

Now it's hard to see from the pics some of what you are saying is misaligned (grille pic?) But it's possible the car was apart and redone with aftermarket pieces in some spots which could explain some issues. Likewise, there could be some frame warp in a worst case.

The bumper shock absorbers are slotted up and down. The bumper reinforcement is slotted left and right. There are shim/alignment plates that caninstall between the shock absorber and reinforcement. Combined you can shim and slide the bumper different directions. If/when it hits/makes contact it can also slide those ways and lose its alignment.

If you go underneath and loosen the 4 nuts each side where the shock and reinforcement attach you can gently move things around untilnsatisfied with alignment and then tighten. To space in and out you can add or remove shim plates.

The shock absorbers are designed for a piston like effect and meant to spring back out to original depth when the impact pressure is released. If they remain compressed and didn't spring back then you should replace as part of the energy absorbing protection for a crash is lost.

 

[Daca214]

Headlight bezel shouldn't have anything to do with the bumper and/or bumper shock absorbers. It mounts to the rigid fiberglass header panel.

The rubberized bumper filler also mounts to the rigid header, and on the side to the fender. If the body panels are aligned themselves it all just kind of goes into place

Now it's hard to see from the pics some of what you are saying is misaligned (grille pic?) But it's possible the car was apart and redone with aftermarket pieces in some spots which could explain some issues. Likewise, there could be some frame warp in a worst case.

The bumper shock absorbers are slotted up and down. The bumper reinforcement is slotted left and right. There are shim/alignment plates that caninstall between the shock absorber and reinforcement. Combined you can shim and slide the bumper different directions. If/when it hits/makes contact it can also slide those ways and lose its alignment.

If you go underneath and loosen the 4 nuts each side where the shock and reinforcement attach you can gently move things around untilnsatisfied with alignment and then tighten. To space in and out you can add or remove shim plates.

The shock absorbers are designed for a piston like effect and meant to spring back out to original depth when the impact pressure is released. If they remain compressed and didn't spring back then you should replace as part of the energy absorbing protection for a crash is lost.

Thanks for that info. What i meant about the bezels is i believe the hit moved everything out of alignment. So i thought moving bumper back into place would allow the panels and such to be able to be aligned properly. I will try your suggestion and try to get that bumper aligned

 

[fleming442]

<----- NOT A BODY GUY, but as far as the headlight alignment goes, it may have been pushed in (deer hit) and stripped the adjuster. Pull the bezel, and play with the screws; it might straighten up. Worst case scenario is that the header panel is cracked, but you might get lucky by replacing the adjuster inserts.

 

[Daca214]

This might help to show you guys what I mean.

tomorrow I will try to realign the bumper, maybe remove it and the grill so i can look closer and the bumper fillers and header panel. the screws on the side of the light bezel, only one lines up with the, and in the front one of them top screws is off by just enough to not allow the screw to go in straight.

i will let you guys know the outcome once I try to tackle this tomorrow.