ST165 Front End Damage

Sluice Box Hero

New member
well, i sold my cherry 165 2 year ago to a kid near by who recently hit a tree with it and i have the opportunity to buy it back cheap.

it was a front drivers collision and the car still runs and he was able to drive it onto a trailer. my question is: will the front body, inner fenders, core support, head lights, etc from a 162 work on repairing this car? im assuming the 162 is the same basic chassis with subtle 4wd difference, mostly where the rear sub frame and diff mount, but front on the other hand looks to be nearly identical. anyone have any experience fixing a car like this?

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Awesome-Trac

New member
Any frame damage? Cause that's usually the hard part to fix. Your Trac actually looks like my old corolla when it was hit head on the driver side front-end which I still brought back to life using junkyard donors overall it still took sometime to put back together which wasn't perfect but it all worked out fine So if you can get it back and all it required is body work I'd probably buy it back but again it's up to you
 

Ant1

New member
The bonnet and the headlight will go in no worries. For the quarter panel if using the ST165 front bar then you will need the black strip that the indicator sits into on the quarter and you will also need to drill 3 holes for the front bar side part.

I'm in Australia, so quarter = Fender in case you didn't know lol
 

GT4times2

Moderator
First mistake.. Selling to a kid. (I hate to see rare cars going to irresponsible kids who end up trashing them)

Next mistake, buying back a 20+ yr old car that was driven by a kid that hit a tree. I suspect frame damage, although I can't confirm it.

It'll take a while to get it right. It may never run the way it did. There's a guy parting out two Alltracs in TX. See if you can buy one of them from him and use that as a shell, versus the one you have.

Or make your life easier. Buy a local All Trac and use the red car for whatever parts you need. It'll be cheaper to buy an ST165 than fixing the one you have.
 

wakkjobb

New member
If the inner fender or frame rail are damaged, it's (unfortunately) better off being parted out. Cosmetic damage is simple; get new parts. Structural damage is a touch more involved; it could need a frame machine to be pulled straight, it may need the inner fender/apron replaced which would require it being fixed to a frame machine to keep everything aligned, the alignment may never be dead-on, panel gaps may be off enough to drive you crazy... things like that.

Just from the front-end picture, it looks like:
fender
hood
grille
headlight stuff
radiator support
radiator?
IC radiator/fan?
A/C condenser?
crash bar?
bumper cover
styrofoam piece behind bumper cover
turn signal
fender moldings
AFM/air box?
battery?
wiring?
fender apron (what the fender bolts to)
--also called an upper rail; the lower rail is the subframe itself

edit: there's also the little braces and small bits and pieces to think about; they usually suffer during heavy impacts and are often overlooked

So... even though it still runs and drives there's a heavy bit of work if you wanted to get it back to presentable driving condition.

Or take off the hood and fender and run it. :D If you part it out, dibs on the rear carpet and cover, and the driver's mirror.
 

___Scott___

Active member
It looks fixable but, unless you have the skill yourself or have family or friends in the business, it´ll cost way more to fix than it´s worth.

I agree with most of wakkjobbs´ assessment, but there is a good chance the following parts survived (as he noted with ? marks):

radiator?
IC radiator/fan?
A/C condenser?
AFM/air box?
battery?
wiring?

Like Frantz says, it would make a good parts car.
 

Sluice Box Hero

New member
well, i picked it up yesterday, winched the core support out some and took the fender off and drove it around some. everything seems fine, im going to use the drivetrain in a 67 Saab project im building, so im happy it was all cosmetic.
 
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