06' V70 Front End Damage Repair

Post by **850 LPT** » 04 Sep 2023, 13:20

Hello everyone,

My daughter had a little Ooopsie last Thursday with my V70. She loaded it all up with her stuff and headed out to Boston to go back to college, then she crashed into a pick up truck a few miles from home. Luckily no one got harmed, but she was obviously pretty shaken by the whole thing. We had the car towed home, then transferred her stuff into the 240 and the 850 and went to Boston the next day.

My initial thought was to take off what I can and get rid of the car, because this is going to take some patience and time to fix, both of which I do not possess at this moment in time. But after things sunk in and calmed down a little, I thought maybe I should attempt to fix it, provided that I find the right donor. The alternatives just aren't really viable, and the car is in very nice shape overall. So the purpose of this thread would be to document things as I go along, which might help someone else in the future.

One of the first things I want to do before spending money is to make sure the engine did not get damaged. After the incident my daughter pulled off the road into a parking lot and ran the engine while loosing coolant for about 20 - 30 secs. Then the tow truck driver decided to back up the car and line it up with the tow truck and ran it for another 10 secs (at least that's what he told me). At this point probably without any coolant.

Hopefully next weekend I can spend some time and try to open the hood. The locks are totally jammed up, so this might require some force. After that I want to start it up with a garden hose feeding a constant supply of water into the cooling system and see what happens.

Just from peeking in I can see that the cross member with radiator support, radiator itself and fan are toast. Passenger headlight is cracked, but the driver side looks salvageable. Since the impact was just above the headlights, the bumper itself was not affected. I do not anticipate finding frame damage, but we will see.

Any suggestions on what to look out for are greatly appreciated.

Thanks, Dirk

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Post by **BlackBart** » 04 Sep 2023, 13:45

Ohh no!

Yeah, it went right over the bumper. So radiator and coolers are trashed, radiator support / upper crossmember....
Did it shove hard on the hood hinge area on the cowling? Did the upper crossmember pull in on the fenders as it folded?

You might take a crowbar or a cutting disk on a grinder and cut through the hood pins and open it. Crude tools are appropriate.

Post by **850 LPT** » 04 Sep 2023, 13:58

Hi Bart, thanks. It looks like the fenders did not get pulled in, but it's hard to tell. And it might be hard to figure that out until a new hood is fitted. Or perhaps if I can get the dimension between the front edges of the fenders from another car and then compare?

You are right, the hood hinge area got shoved really hard.

Post by **jonesg** » 04 Sep 2023, 15:13

that took quite the hit.

time to start watching bodywork videos,

a comealong winch with steel cable helps pull things back into position.
anchor it to tree.

Post by **Krons** » 04 Sep 2023, 15:39

I would highly doubt running the car that long caused any damage. Any overheat codes or warnings on the dash? Recently had a water pump go on 02 S60 and ran for a couple short periods too.

I think that is very fixable, especially if you can find a cheap donor car. Once you get the hood off you can see what could cause you to rethink that plan. As others mentioned at, getting panels to line up may be the hardest part.

Post by **abscate** » 04 Sep 2023, 16:57

Totally fixable and worth it. Understand the usual time balance.

I see nothing indicating frame bending. Fender measurements coming

Engine will be fine, not to worry

Volvo’s >>>>>>> other cars

Safe daughters >>>>>>>> Volvos

Post by **850 LPT** » 04 Sep 2023, 17:39

Krons wrote: ↑04 Sep 2023, 15:39 I would highly doubt running the car that long caused any damage. Any overheat codes or warnings on the dash? Recently had a water pump go on 02 S60 and ran for a couple short periods too.

I think that is very fixable, especially if you can find a cheap donor car. Once you get the hood off you can see what could cause you to rethink that plan. As others mentioned at, getting panels to line up may be the hardest part.

Thanks for the encouraging words! I have not had a chance to hook up Vida, but I will try to do that next weekend.

Post by **abscate** » 05 Sep 2023, 04:12

I’ll check with my old neighbor today. He has a junk 200x p2 that we can get for free for spare parts needed if we give him his alloys back eventually. That might be the thing to do here.

Post by **vtl** » 05 Sep 2023, 05:22

It will cost some $, but the damage is actually minor.

Post by **Blacklab467** » 05 Sep 2023, 07:52

The car looks like a good one and certainly worth fixing, it doesn't look like a beater. There's so many of these in the wrecking yard right now that repair is just a matter of cataloging a parts list and doing a lot of R&R. Kelly Blue book value doesn't apply as far as I'm concerned with these cars, particularly if you're a Volvo enthusiast as we all are. There's a beautiful '04 V70 in one of the yards here that nobody seems to be interested in, shout out if you need some hard to find parts for your repair. It would be a shame to take that beauty off the road!