Hey guys,

I have never owned a Volvo prior to this but I Just have a thought/comments........My wife got into a fender bender this AM and sunk in the driver side headlamp set, messed up the plastic trim/moulding attachments to the hood lock, grille base, and radiator attachments; bent the front chassis part that contains the openeing for the hood "plug"! I just thought to myself, "this is going to cost us"........anyway I had to take off the headlamps and stuff since they were bent out of shape. I reached over after taking all that stuff off and decided to pull the chassis part to see how hard it is to bend back. Holy Cow! Not hard at all! i went ahead and proceeded to try to bend it all back to "spec" and didn't do a bad job of it. The hood even closes now! Anyway all I have to say is THANK GOD FOR VOLVO ENGINEERING! Now I can tell my insurance company that we are not going to need their services!

Any "tips" on this!? I'm still going to see about some further parts but the hard part is done!

Anyway thanks for listening!

Yup, I have been through the same thing on my 740 and my daughters 240. They were both bad, the rad was punched into the fan, air filter box shattered and much more. With some patience, some bending, some pounding, a few parts including a hood or 2, they are both came out pretty good.

Hmmmm...you can easily bend the car's chassis parts...and you think that's good?

That's pretty typical. You can bend it with a good pair of leather gloves over a strong pair of hands. The rest of it can be done with tools if necessary.

For the plastic, just shop the aftermarket for that. Don't even bother with used parts, since they're typically 1/2 of new Volvo price. The aftermarket stuff is cheaper and brand new. If you find a good place that will order for decent prices, you can replace a LOT of parts for a somewhat reasonable expense.

You can take diagnonal measurements from points on the right to the left, and vice versa. That'll tell you if you've got it back together pretty evenly. Chances are it is, but when the crossmember in the front gets bent, you end up with the left and right getting pulled in by the bend. Not a big deal, and not hard to fix, just something to be aware of.
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Chris Herbst, near Chicago, IL. 93 940, 91 240, 90 240, 88 740, 87 240

they do fail pretty easy even in fender benders