As many of you know, we cracked up my son's Pilot at DP this weekend. The good news is he wasn't hurt, just a little sore the next day with a bruised knee. He got off course and hit a sharp boulder that sent him into a slight slide and then he clipped a pine tree between the front left wheel and the bumper. Upon hitting the tree, the front left wheel was pushed back about a foot and the a-arms, wheel, shock, plastic and tie rod were destroyed. The damage looks worse than it actually is in terms of repair cost. To fix it I'll need a new rim, a-arms, tie rod, plastic and have the front 2 a-arm pivot mount tabs repaired.
My question is, what advice do you guys have on repairing the mounting tabs? The front upper and lower tabs had the pivot bolts ripped out to the side. The damage is where the pivot bolt was jerked out to the left of the Pilot and the metal opened up around the hole and now looks like the letter "C".
There doesn't appear to be any damage from the pivot bolt hole back to the frame. The back upper and lower tabs look OK. My friend that will TIG the stuff back together says he can "tap" the metal around the open holes back into place and build up the metal at the broken points. I suggested doing that and then welding reinforcing washers over the fixed holes. He thinks it will be OK with just the build up of the metal.
Any suggestions and/or comments will be greatly appreciated!