Radiator support

My daughter got a very good price to repair some body work on a 2003 Nissan Altima. Once the car was in the shop the call came. “You need a new radiator support to the tune of $650 to $750”. They told her that it could be “glued” though. Any advise would be appreciated.

If I understand the shop correctly, the part they are talking about is actually made of fiberglass or a heavy plastic. It’s basically a very large square bracket that the radiator sits on and holds the radiator up-right and in place. So picture a square with an atachment point at each corner. Now a break on any one side doesn’t render the entire thing useless; yes a little weaker but not useless. Industrial glue can help to bring back that strength.

It really depands on how badly and where the support is broken as to wheather or not you might want to just go with the glue. OF COURSE- the ‘correct’ fix would be to replace the entire thing. But the “good 'ole boy” fix would be to just glue it. And honestly- as long as none of the mounting points were broken off (ie: it was just cracked or broken on a side edge somewhere) and the shop uses a good strong industrial glue… I would go with the glue method.