The new all aluminum radiator was trial fitted into the engine bay.
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The new radiator was moved into the 6 cylinder position in front of the radiator support bracket. This allowed for a bigger, better cooling fan, since the Wagon had still run hot.
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The front chrome was reassembled with the new splash pan and grill, but we noticed that things didn't fit quite right.
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They do love to be in the same locations. But in this case, they were trying to figure out the fitment issues. After much looking, a bit of measuring, and a whole lot of puzzling, we can to the conclusion that we had a frame issue from the accident.
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The chrome was removed and measurements taken. Yes, the frame horns were tweaked. Kurt used a hydraulic ram to straighten the horns . . .
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And a flame wrench . . .
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And a hammer.
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The new bumper came in and was assembled on the dining room table.
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Another trial fitment round and things still are not lining up correctly. This is with the new splash pan, new bumper brackets, and new bumper.
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The front clip was completely removed to gain better viewing of the frame. Then we found the problems. The frame rails had sagged and had some tweaking behind the horns. We don't have any tool in our arsenal to straighten this area of the frame.
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There was additional tweaking noticed under the A-arm. The sagging would also have caused the lack of adjustment in the front end and the uneven tire wear we had noted.
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After several discussions and a few phone calls, we decided to send the Wagon up to our son's work to get the frame pulled back straight. Which meant that the engine had to come out as well.
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All the front end parts were stored in the living room.
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More front end parts. I'm just glad this will be a quick turn around on the pull. The hood is the one that came with the Sedan Delivery.
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The Wagon was hooked up to the frame machine. This process can cause damage as well as repair it.
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The pull did tear the frame metal just a little.
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During the pull, the front of the car was off the ground due to the force being exerted by the machine.
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Back home, time to reassemble the front end and see if the pull was successful. The problem areas that we had noted previously looked better.
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The engine is back in the frame.
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This time everything fit much better. Time to change garage locations for the dirty work.
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She's looking almost normal again. Time to finish repairing the fenders, but at least we are down to minor tweaks, hammer and dolly work, and a little bit of putty to smooth out the bumps.
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I started prepping for body work. First up for me would be the repair of the passenger door were a pole had fallen on the car in the garage and made a small dent along with chipping the paint.
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The passenger fender will need a bit of putty to smooth it out.
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The driver side needs much less work than the passenger side, but the front edge is not correct.
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But the engine bay was listing to the passenger side and no matter what we adjusted, the hood hit on the driver side and the lines were not correct. Back to measuring. We determined that the radiator support was tweaked. While it might be able to be straightened, we choose to replace it. We tried the one that came with the Sedan Delivery, but it wasn't much better. This is the new replacement.
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On to the last of the sheet metal work, straightening where the front edge of the fenders meets the hood. A wooden block helped to get this straighter. We also noticed that the hood was arched wrong. As happens over the years with the opening and closing of the hood, the arch slowly becomes more pronounced as the center front is pulled on. We decided on a new hood as well.
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The new hood was installed and fitment checked. The arch is better and the passenger side lines up well.
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The driver side, not so much. Yes, this is less than a quarter of an inch, but that makes the difference between a good restoration and a great restoration. Time for more sheet metal tweaking.
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We also found that one of the inner fenders was tweaked and aiding in the front end alignment issues. We had picked up original replacement inner fenders for the Sedan Delivery. The driver one was donated to the Wagon, but had a small spot that needed repair work.
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Repair complete.
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