Please Show me Pictures of your 2002 Mustang's Front Fame Rails and Core Support

[RED2001GT]

I think that I found out WHY I've got a gap between the top part of the passenger headlight assembly unit and the front pointed part of the front fender. My car was hit on the front bumper and I got it fixed at a small local bodyshop who doesn't have any state of the art measuring equipment. They fixed my car, but when I got my car back, there was a 3" inch to 4" inch long and a 1/4 to a 1/2 centimeter wide gap between the passenger side headlight assembly unit and the front pointed part of the front right fender. The bodyshop made out like they didn't know what caused the gap. I just found out that the front rail might be pushed down a bit causing the headlight to have a gap with the front fender. If it's not the front rail that's causing the gap, then it might be the core support. The front rail and/or the core support might need to get straightened out to correct the gap problem.
I need to find out how much this will cost and to find out whether or not any paint work will be required to do this type of repair? I know that the front bumper will need to be taken off my Mustang to do the repair, but what else is involved? How much do you think that it will cost to straighten out the front rail/core support and to put the front bumper back together again? I am hoping that I can get all of this repair work done at a Maaco for under $300. What do you think?

I need someone in here to take pictures of the front rails and of the core support on their Mustang and post the pictures in here for me. I would like to know exactly what they look like.
I have a 2002 Mustang V6. It's the V6 which has this problem.

 

[RED2001GT]

Anybody?

 

[RED2001GT]

Anybody?

 

[Turbo92PGT]

show us some pics of it. First of all. Pull the bumper off and adjust your headlight mounting panel. Should be a number of 8mm's. Or when it was repaired you either got an aftermarket (keystone etc) Headlight and or mount panel. Post some pics and I can get a better look at it. Im a tech at one of the largest collision repair shops in the north west. Theres no way maaco would only charge you 300 bucks if it was something difficult to do. So how bout those pics

You can email them to me at [email protected]

Thanks

 

[mustang90]

Damn dude your car is totaled! You better put an insurance claim in now!

 

[BennyBlown2v]

More than likely you just need a new fender, and new bumper. If they didn't actually replace the bumper, just "fix" it, then that's probably why its messed up. The front bumper cover mounts to the fender via two screws behind the air filter (and again on the opposite side of the car in the same area), then one in each fender well holding the inner fender well splash guard on. If the fender is bent, then it's probably just not mounting to the fender properly - or it might even be the case that the front bumper alignment tabs (which go under the headlight housing area) are not lined up right.

The best suggestion anyone can give is go to a PROPER frame and alignment place (NOT tirebarn, firestone, sears, local Jim Bob's garage). They will be able to tell you if your frame is aligned and can fix it for you if it's not. Most frame/alignment places have a paint shop affiliated/recommended by them RIGHT next door, or sometimes have in house services...so do that...

 

[RED2001GT]

UPDATE!! UPDATE!!

I went by the local bodyshop this afternoon who originally did all the bodywork and who worked on my car. They told me that the front frame rail and the fender and the core support on my Mustang were NOT damaged. They checked these things when they took everything apart and they found NO damage. I asked them if they measured everything properly and they said that they did.

They told me that the only thing which was pushed in about 1" inch from the impact of the hit and run was the area on my front bumper cover which slopes upward just underneath the hood near the middle part of the bumper exactly next to the honeycomb grill. The bodyshop technician said that the bumper cover in this particular area was pushed in about 1" inch because the header panel behind it was pushed in with the bumper cover. He adjusted the header panel by adjusting it back to its original factory position via the clips/screws that it's got on it. He told me that after he made this adjustment, the bumper cover was straight again. The bodyshop technician also said that he measured everything and that everything was the correct hieght, length and width. So from these measurements, he was sure that there was NO damage done to the front frame rail or to the fender or to the core support.
He told me that the front frame rail, the fender and the core support were not bent or damaged in any way.

He does NOT know WHY there is still a small gap between the top part of the passenger side headlight assembly unit with the very front pointed part of the right front fender. This is a mystery to him. He said that the entire repair was done properly and that there is nothing more that he can do to correct the gap problem.

From the information which I just posted here, what do you think is causing the gap?
Do you think that the headlight header panel was not adjusted correctly when the bodyshop technician tried to straighten it out in order to straighten out the bumper cover? Do you think that this is what's causing the gap?

 

[Kilgore Trout]

Ford's build quality is not perfect. It is normal to see a small amount of misalignment in exterior body panels. However, a body shop should be able to correct any problems. Try a different body shop and see what they would charge to correct your issue.

 

[RED2001GT]

One more question that I forgot to ask is:

Can both headlight assembly units be put on and clipped on to the header panel "WITHOUT" having the front bumper on? I figure that if both headlight units are clipped on to the header panel while the front bumper is off the car that the header panel can be adjusted to eliminate the gap that exists between the top part of the headlight and the front pointed part of the fender. But I am not sure whether or not that the header panel can be adjusted while the headlight units are clipped on it? Maybe the bodyshop technician will be able to pinpoint the exact cause of the gap when both headlight assembly units are put on the car without the front bumper on. Maybe this will be the only way to see if the header panel is correctly adjusted. Will this procedure be able to correct the gap problem?