Sentra is toast!

Or is it?  A top shelf body shop wants lots of money to fix this old girl.  I understand that.  But what if:

1) I find a shop that is not top shelf

2) Sentra Death kart

3) Fixing it myself is not an option

The Sentra in question

I've pulled worse core supports.

Tow strap, heavy duty parking pole, Reverse gear, good enough to make the latch on a replacement hood line up.

Find some local, experienced Lemons or other endurance racers and bring beer and pizza, or Mountain Dew and sandwiches, or whatever you can bribe them with.

Unless it's got sentimental value, let it rest in pieces.  Or find a tree and a tow strap.

SKJSS (formerly Klayfish) said:

Or find a tree and a tow strap.

This is the way. 

If you can6t insure it anymore ,  rallycross that bitch.

One time at Sebring, my dad, his friend that was a body work apprentice in England growing up, and myself, fixed our Corolla after another competitor put my dad in the tire wall and wrinkled the frame on one side.

We had a chain through the rear tow hook of the racecar going around the rear bumper of the motorhome, and another chain through the front tow hook on the side of the damage to the receiver hitch of our friend's van.  While I maintained pressure with the van, our friend hammered on the frame.  Got it straightened out enough that I could go out for my race and finish off my novice license

This looks pretty minor, but considering how cheap it might be to get another whole car like this one, it could be hard to justify spending even a grand or two to fix it. My Toyobaru looked way worse than this and there was basically zero damage to the unibody, it needed a new radiator support and crash bar and the rest was body stuff and replacing the smashed radiator stack and damaged bits on the front of the engine. That cost over $5k to fix with used parts sourced by myself and a probably cheaper than average shop doing most of the work though.

Radiator supports are still available new for these, it looks like it will need one of those, a new hood, maybe a new driver's fender, then driver's side lights, grille, and anything on the radiator support that got damaged.

https://car-part.com/ is the place to find correct color, used body parts, in your area.  Otherwise you'll just have to tug and pull until they fit or replace everything back to before the winkling.  

That's a pretty easy junkyard fix.  A bit of semi professional help on the rad support and away you go.

It still runs and drives as nice as a 1998 Sentra can.  I drove it to work to use up the gas in the tank.

Appleseed said:

If you can6t insure it anymore ,  rallycross that bitch.

OK, fine. THIS is the way. It looks like a race car to me. Seriously, where are you in MD? You've got the Susquehanna and DC region RallyCross groups near MD. 

I have fixed worse than that. Pull things back out the way they got squished. Maybe get a new hood. A new headlight. Grill is optional as expanded metal mesh makes a good substitute that can be cut to fit. If the upper core support is bent pull it back out. I found putting a chain on it with a compelling to a tree works well. As you pull it hit it with a hammer. This helps it move and not tear things apart. Are the hornes bent?  If not I would be putting that back together with junkyard parts. 

Horns won't even be touched, the bumper wasn't involved.

Pete. (l33t FS) said:

Horns won't even be touched, the bumper wasn't involved.

What I suspected but wanted to ask in case there was more than what the photos were showing.

An aside... an amazing number of cars are on the road that look straight but take the bumper cover off and you'll see that the bumper support is bent.

My S60R is one of those.  I took the bumper cover off for some reason and found that the support is hockey stick shaped.

Not as bad as the Explorer that I did earlier this month that had a leaky radiator and grille shutter codes.  The bumper cover was fine but the support was shoved back so far it bent the radiator, which leaked from the middle. Somehow the condensor still held refrigerant.  The grille shutters were destroyed.  I straightened the support as best as possible to clear things (8' prybar and blocks of wood) and manually flattened the condensor, which wasn't in the budget.