Hey guys. This is my first post, after a considerable time of lurking around. This place has been a very valuable repository of information, and I hope someone can help me out.
Yesterday I was driving down a small alley, and there was a sudden drop in the road. I couldn't brake in time because as soon as I saw the drop it was too late. It felt like the front suspension just bottomed out, but when I got home I saw that my front bumper was not flush with the hood.
I took the front bumper off, and saw that there's a metal bar in front of the bottom of the A/C condenser and it's bent inwards. Looking at it from the side, the bar has bent inwards to the point that it almost touches the air compressor. The right side seems to have bent inwards much more than the left side. I'm not so sure if I can make this easy to understand.
It seems as though this bar that I've bent holds the front bumper upwards from the bottom of the bottom grille.
Have I done major damage to the front subframe? Has anyone done this same thing and simply banged the bar back into place?

tl;dr: I bottomed the front end out, and now the front bumper sits lower and more to the right side. What do I do?

 

I don't know but I suspect you did no more than bend a mounting bracket. Go to any body shop and ask them to give you an estimate. This is routine business for them to inspect the vehicle and provide the customer with a written estimate. You can order the required bracket/parts from your local dealer and do the work yourself or have the shop do the work.

 

Thanks for an optimistic guess.
I live in Thailand, so parts and labor are both very cheap. I am just worried that the car's frame is seriously damaged and that it will have to spend more time in the garage. It had a respray in the summer, and was in the garage for various minor problems throughout the previous year.
I'm about done with this car though. It's a 2003 model, and after 120k km, the CVT is nearing the end of its lifespan. There might be a FD in my garage by the end of this year

 

Sounds like you damaged the lower tie bar of the core support. It's not a big deal to replace one, and even less of a deal to repair it if it isn't damaged too severely.

BTW, unibody cars don't have a 'frame'. It is a continuous steel monocoque (unless you own an all aluminum or CF car).

Got any pics of the front of the car with the bumper off?