Im working on a car for the son of my wifes friend. Its a was jumped over a railroad crossing and bottomed out the suspension in the back
REAL bad..................









the right rear shock was blown, the rear bumpstop is gone it hit sooo hard, the panhard bar was cracked, and the trackbar brace( the bar above the panhard, don't really know the name) was bent too. I replaced everything except the brace above the panhard that looks tweaked. Before i started work i noticed that the right rear wheel was sucked in and the left rear was pushed out( the rear axle was off center big time). I thought that maybe replacing the panhard would take care of most of that, but it barely made a difference. Could the brace above the panhard be bent that much, could it be something else? Is the car just a turd and should be returned to hell? I may just get her to buy a new brace and see what that does(she wanted to save $$$, thats why im working on it and not a real mechanic.

I think it need to go to a good frame shop and get straightened. I doubt a new brace will even fit right now.

The OEM upper PH brace has a slight kink in it for exhaust clearance - this one has been really bent up, and it probably pulled the Pass side frame extension over towards the CL of the car when it bent, along with pulling hard on the 3 bolts that attach it to the Drv side frame rail. To do it right, you'd need a frame shop to pull the pass side out, and then inspect the spot weld attachments of that extension to the frame, and replace the upper PH brace. A quick 'n dirty if there aren't any cracks or pulled spot welds would be to replace the upper PH brace with one with slotted holes on the drv side, and make up a shorter PH to recenter the axle. Check for clearance issues. Also, the axle housing might have been bent, tho possibly in a good way.

I bent an upper PHB on my '89 car and I have no idea how. I removed it and dropped a stock one from a junk yard right into place. However, mine wasn't bent that badly and I suspect that the frame mount for the PHB is bent (it's twisted, we can see that, so it's probably bent too). I'm guessing it's going to need pulled and secured into place before it's completely right.

Oh, and smack the kid that was driving it, would ya?

3rd gen, V6 car?

Doubt it with rear disc brakes, though possible.

Actually, it's got decarbons and 4th gen endlinks. I was looking at the spindly exhaust.

4th gen/V6 car?

My neighbor had a 2000 V6 with a dinky little swaybar like that.

its a 98' V6 auto with awsome JDM lights, extra chevy and camaro emblems and vinyl, and a kewl sound system that lights up.

.....wouldn't that be bent in the "bad" direction?

Damn, your friend must be cross over RR hard bump or too fast driving cross RR cause damage on the rear. Also looks likely salty on underbody where you live in North or snowy city.
Everytime I drive cross RR, I rather take slow down and take easy cross RR..

Though it might not make the project any easier, why not have the driver of the car assist with the repairs (even if it's only to hunt tools or gratuitously clean rusty parts)? Might be a good way to inject a little sense of responsibility into someone whose approach to driving seems to put himself and others at risk.

If he had landed squarely, the load at the bumpstops (forget the springs) striking inboard of the wheels would tend to cause negative camber. However, they aren't very far inboard.

Besides, it's pretty clear that he didn't land squarely. He landed on one wheel. He's lucky that the tire didn't come off the rim, and i wouldn't be surprised if the rim is bent.

Having him assist sounds like a great idea. When my brother and I became old enough to drive, my father made it very clear that his racing and wrenching days were over and he wasn't going to fix our cars. In other words, "you break it, you fix it". He did give us each a set of ramps and some old tools.

You are right **IF** they were almost near the pumpkin. Since they are not, negative camber likely would not result....and like you said....the angle of impact likely would be not good....

Although I was just joshing Alan!

So soon after Evil Punknevil gets back on the road, the diff will start howling? I bet the rear end is not long for this earth.

Also, are the lower control arm mounts tweaked? That could offset the rear end a bit. I'm just thinking out loud.