I got into a front end collision on sat, I'm trying to get the hood off to replace it, but the latch won't open, the way the accident was, theres enough room under the hood to get my hands in and reach the hand lever for the latch, but it doesen't do anything, anyone ever had a problem like this? Or should I take it to a shop and get someone from there to look at it?

 

Whats so difficult?
Just use a cutoff wheel on a grinder and cut around the latch.

 

Well the latch mechanism as you know is in the front. You probably squished it. Look at it from underneath and see what is going on.

 

get the sawzall!!! just cut the latch. since your replacing it already/

 

Often the hood won't open after an accident because its bent and loading up the latch.

Try getting a helper to tug at the release handle while you press down/jump on/lift up/pry on the hood. Work it around while they tug on the handle and it'll usually come open.

You also may have busted the cable mount, in which case you'll need to pry and push on the hood while someone reaches from underneath to pull on the latch release itself.

Failing that - cut it off.

 

Thanks for the help. I got it off by unbolting it from the front bar, too bad it looks like my cars going to be a write off, the rad support is bent, the driver's headlight is screwed, I'll try buying it from the insurance company once they write it off and getting a new shell.

 

Damn man. I hope you're able to get a new shell and get back on the road.


Got any pics of the car now?

 

I'll get some tomorrow, been a sad time for me.

 

If this ever happens again and you can't get the hood up at all..do this
Remove the belly pan,and that way you can access the hood latch from under the car.
you will need a 10mm to get at the bolts.shine flashlight up there and you should see it.
You should also see a Rubber piece on the Latch that if you can grab a hold of it at that location,Pull straight Down and it will unlatch your hood.
If the Hood ever gets Stuck and doesn't allow you to Open it with the cable,you can stick a 10mm socket on a Long extension and you can get at the bolts on each side of the Latch assembly easily by putting it between the hood and the Front Bumper...use a Flashlight it is easy to see.
The hood will then open with the latch on it.Then you can take the cable off and figure out what you have to do to fix ir from there.
I hope that helps.

 

Before the accident:


After:






One things for sure, I now have the world's best cold air intake :P

 

That is easily fixable. I'll have to post some pics of a car I fixed after putting her into a ditch. The main frame rails were bent up...

 

lol how is that a write off? thats nothing dude....

 

My insurance hates old cars, they value them at nothing, I had an 85' GSL-SE I smacked up a while ago and did even less damage and they wrote that off.

 

I agree it is probably fixable, but if you go through a traditional body shop and try to use your insurance, I also agree they will probably want to total the car. The adjuster will look at the book value of the car (not sure what book they use in Canada) and will certainly determine that the repair costs exceed the value. You may be able to negotiate with your adjuster to give you the money without requiring you to sign over your car with you paying the balance of the repairs out of pocket. Or you can do the work yourself or get a friend with body repair skills to help you.

Obviously you can round up a used hood and all the headlight parts for not a lot of money. The biggest issue will be straightening the radiator support and the cost of a new radiator, plus the cost to properly prep and paint everything.

Back in 2000 I had a similar front-end impact that occurred at about 5 mph. If you hit an FC slightly off-axis, it is easy to do a surprising amount of damage. My shop bill was over $3000. Luckily at the time, insurance valued the car at $4000 so they paid to get it fixed.

One option for the future is agreed value or stated value insurance. This is available for classic cars, at least in the U.S. Of course, some carriers require you to limit your annual mileage and have restrictions on use, so I haven't done this myself. It is a little risky driving a nice FC for exactly this reason.

 

Wow, that is NOTHING your insurance sucks. I got ran off the road by a ford explorer on the interestate @ 70 spun and went backwards into a drainage ditch! I was almost able to drive out but the grass was wet so I had to pay a tow truck to pull me 5ft so I could get traction. I then drove another 150 miles home.

The insurance company wanted to total it, I told them no, so they sent me a checklist that I had to get filled out by a mechanic verifying that certain things were in safe working order. Fortunately I worked at sears at the time, so that was pretty easy. I then replaced the rear subframe, driver door, mirror, fender and a few other tidbits at my leisure.

 

This is what I'm worried about, I may not go through with any insurance, and just replace the hood, and light, becuase it is mechanically solid, I'm starting school in a new city in under a month, I don't have the time to wait for my insurance to work out if its going to be a total loss or not. And I do have a good friend at a body shop who can help me with some stuff, but I also dont want to have a dodged FC thats improperly repaired that I'm not going to be able to sell in a million years. And what if I crash again, at speed this time? I don't believe the chassis' going to resist much of a blow to the front without some major repairs.

 

Your friend at the body shop should be able to tell you if any of the damage would affect the safety of the car. It almost looks like the car you hit slid over most of the front bumper and that most of the impact was absorbed by the radiator mounting brace and the hood. It may not cost that much to fix if you're willing to just do the structural stuff and live with mismatched colors of a used hood and headlight cover until you have the money to get it repainted.

Agreed safety is a major concern and you should take care of that. I wouldn't worry too much about resale value... As a fan of NA RX-7s myself, they don't really have any resale value.

 

your car is so nice

the rims are awesome as well!

 

You should have no problem. This took some effort to repair:

 

^That's some dedication. Especially for a n/a lol.

 

You can get the frame looked at by a collision shop.
The car I have right now,was an Insurance writeoff.I got it from a guy who bought it at an auction.
I spent 600 dollars to get the frame straightened,I bought All my parts on the Forum,
Total invested,With the car,about 1300 bucks.
Then I put a TII swap in it,and now.??..well here is a Pic!
More stuff is being added!.so Don't worry about the Frame situation,that looks like a mere Love tap.you should be fine!

 

i have a perfect n/a hood for sale to bad your far away lol

i was looking at a thread yesterday and i remember seeing this car i think it was the stock body thread or something i remember thinking damn i want some rims like that.

 

It was my only car and I had just rebuilt and ported the motor. And I'm kinda crazy like that anyway. I wasn't sure if I was going to fix it or not until several people told me flat out that it couldn't be fixed. Don't tell me what I can't do!

Oh yeah, for pushing the rad support forward (should you choose to do so) I put a 4x4 across in front of the strut towers and used a bottle jack against that to relocate the upper support.