jsmooney

here's a link to the album on image station. i have the high-res if anyone wants them. and the ruler is in inches.

so about 2 years ago, i slid in the rain into the back of a mercedes. long story short -> i got new hood and new bumper

the body shop did a fairly decent job. the gap in between the headlights, bumper, and hood is bothering me.....A LOT now. The imagestation album http://www.imagestation.com/album/?id=4050555093 has pics of it. I know there is supposed to be a somewhat small gap, but not this big.

Please, take a look, and post pics of your cars in the front, stock bumper stock headlights so i can get an idea. i took it back to the body shop today and the manager said "oh, its supposed to be this way. all hondas have a [BIG HUGE] gap like this." I think he is trying to feed me BS, but who knows. If you have an answer to how i can fix this, please enlighten me!

Thanks in advance,
Jonathan

spin_r_g

Can you take a picture with the hood opened right on top of the bumper where the gap is? There should be a couple of supports there. Maybe they didn't screw them back or they're loose.

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siklude

yeah he's BS'ing you, he just sucks at his work....to fix it it really depends on what kind of damage you had, mine was like that but it was because of a bent front steel reinforcement and made my hood not shut completley and sag, ive since then changed it and it looks good now, mind you i had a bad accident and a aftermarket fender so there are parts that dont line up perfectly. but the hood and healight gaps are good.

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apparently im a junior member although ive been here since december 2000...ehh go figure

jsmooney

the parts were "genuine" honda parts. the supports (the plastic ones at the top) are tight, i've tried to adjust them, tried everything i know of. I guess i will just have to take it apart and add a few goodies to it while i am fixing it. (dixie horn anyone?) but sure, ill go snag a pic right now, i need to get my backpack anyways.

jsmooney

the pics you requested:

spin_r_g

There are to missing screws from the supports behind the nostrils. But I doubt thats the problem. If nothing is bent out of place I would try losening the bumper support bolts and try lifting the bumper. If it moves back into place tighten it from there. If everything is straight theres no reason why the bumper shouldn't fit perfect.

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jsmooney

where are the bumper support bolts that you speak of?

spin_r_g

Remove the turn signal and you'll see 4 bolts 2 on each side. Then there are 2 bolts behind the headlights in the engine bay one behind each headlight. They're kind of hard to find but look hard and you'll see them.

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jsmooney

the ones behind the headlights are accessable from the engine bay?

spin_r_g

Yes they are, on the passenger side you might need to remove the coolant overflow tank to get better access to it.

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jsmooney

damn, thanks, i may even try to do it myself this weekend. can i just loosen the bolts and move the bumper instead of taking them out?

spin_r_g

Yup I have a feeling its the bolts and who ever did the work on your bumper didn't align it correctly.

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92-h23a1

It could be frame damage, check your bumper support. You said you were in a front end accident? Could possibly be slightly off cause of some frame damage.

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H-Series

jsmooney

is the bumper support hard to realign?

Preludeian

Feel lucky on how little your gap is. I pulled my lude from the salvage yard and have mad gap under my headlights after fixing everything to this day. To fix this I got a new bumper. As for you, I believe you have the same prob as I do. In order to fix it you need to make sure the legs/arms of the actual bumper itself are straight and not crooked in any way. If they are off by a slight margin it'll show. Either; a) get a new one like me that was never wrecked or b) try your best to straighten those legs/arms. Then again it could be it's just not put on right. My ol'man played with mine a lil, he killed some of the gap by putting it on correctly but it's still off So, soon as I get ready to paint my car again (this month I hope), I'll do the bumper swap.

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