front end damage
 

sooo i managed to hit the re-tread of a semi tire on the highway last weekend. it ripped the bottom part of my front bumper off, seriously messed up the A/C condenser and Radiator and pushed the cooling fan into the motor which destroyed the fan. this happend because apparently the bottom of the radiator support got ripped off as well.

now i've got those parts ordered and they're on their way to my parent's house (seeing as they live on farm with a shop that has a car lift in it) and i have a background in fixing cars although i was a painter not a mechanic. I also have some background doing some minor work with the cooling systems in cars at another shop i worked at.

so i guess what my question to all of you is this. Have any of you removed your front bumper, radiator, radiator support and all of that? i've never worked on a mini in my short 4 years as an auto body painter. (also in case you're wondering no painted pieces got damaged by hitting the piece of the semi tire)

i talked to a local body shop(one that i had actually worked for for about a year) and my former boss told me that it was billed at 8hours of labor, and that total the bill would probably be around 1300 just to get it running again. that was without doing the bumper piece.

i found the parts myself for on average 30% less than the parts/price list he gave me and now with my background am going to do it myself. i know that being he told me it billed 8 it will probably only take me 3-4


if you can lend me any advice if you've done anything like this before i would really appreciate it. thanks also i'm really looking forward to finally getting to drive my mini in some winter weather. eastern iowa just got blasted with a darn good winter storm and we've got anywhere from 8-14 inches in the areas i drive.

Bumper removals pretty straight forward removal of inner fender wells tires to get at the bolts inside the fender wells removal off the black fenderwell trim . removal of the bottom "pan" and removal of the top fasteners under the hood trim. Disconnecting the turn signal and foglight harnesses to facilitate removal.
Beyong that it's straight forward removal ect for the parts damaged. Did your condensor damage cause charge to vent ? If not you'll need to evacuate and recharge the system (not easy without correct equipment)
Or you should have it evacuated before work begins

Check out our tech articles for more info on removing the major components off of your front end: Pelican Parts - MINI Cooper Technical Articles

im afraid things might be worse
 

well i got everything done and put back together... now im afraid i might have a blown head gasket.

got everything back together and put new coolant in and about a half hour drive later coolant all over the engine compartment. looks like it came from where you pour the fluid in. anyways get it back to my parents farm and we took the cap off and started the car and it looks like the coolant is bubbling/boiling in the fill tank.

have you done a compression check ?

at this point i really just want my car back, i'm sick of driving my parents 92 cadillac. the thing gets terrible mpgs and is not fun to drive at all. so i called up the shop i used to work for and they've worked with the MAP program thing i have so they're gonna take care of it.