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I'm trying to figure out what part it is.. the car had some slight passenger side damage but I can't tell if the passenger side light is not sitting flush with the bumper because of the bumper or something else got pushed back because when I screw the headlight in behind the grill it sits like this.

 

IMAG0449-1.jpg

IMAG0447-1.jpg

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just a quick look at you r pic -

 

arrow A - broken mounting tab

arrow B - crease in upper radiator support

 

between those two things, that could account for the alignment problem

but not being able to physically see the car, hard to say...

post-89-136027647996_thumb.jpg

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This is one of the may downfalls to plastic lexan lensed headlights. The lexan is too strong to break when the headlight is hit, so the weak link is the mount bracket for the housing.

 

A glass lense the buckets/brackets were not the weak link the glass lens was. On those, a nudge would be replace the cheap standard light lens, standard square or standard round, and the bracket would be fine.

 

On these new ones, you have to replace everything and even the junkyard ones have broken mount tabs 75% of the time.

And if you find one with intact mount brackets, the lens is yellow 90% of the time and won't buff out nice.

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hmm I swear the other side has the same looking crease but I will check in the morning.

 

it may have a similar looking crease on the other side, but the chipped paint is a clue that something is out of whack here.

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IMAG0473-1.jpg

 

IMAG0474-1.jpg

 

Not so sure it's pushed in because I think the bracket that goes down on the radiator bracket (the silver part) it would have a gap, no?

 

it's obvious it's pushed down but given the gap just pushing it back up is not going to be enough and I don't want to push it forward if that's not the case.

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Not so sure it's pushed in because I think the bracket that goes down on the radiator bracket (the silver part) it would have a gap, no?

 

it's obvious it's pushed down but given the gap just pushing it back up is not going to be enough and I don't want to push it forward if that's not the case.

 

ok, after seeing the other side in comparison - yeah, it is pushed down and probably back a little too - the rad bracket will move with the support quite a bit before being noticably tweaked.

I am willing to bet that if you measured both sides - say from strut tower forward, there would be a difference.

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I thought about this.. what about replacing the upper support bar?

 

Ah wait seems like I'd need to drill out the spot welds?

 

yup, you would - not to mention that there is metal behind the headlight housings, too, that is all a structural part of that...

 

honest truth is you probably have more "bent" than just that little kink in the upper rad support - in fact i would put money on it that there is more.

Take a tape measure to it and you will find it...

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Not really trying today I decided to put a screwdriver in one of the holes of the radiator support and I think I know where I need to pull forward at.. the bracket behind the light next to the radiator.

 

I put my finger on it, it's more pushed in then the drivers side.

 

IMAG0543-1.jpg

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