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Good morning to all, for those of you that have experience with collision repair or have just been around for a while and have a good eye for these things I'd like some input. This is my S5 that I was prepping for a TII swap and of course, like always, the more I looked the more I found. In my searching I came across these trouble areas that I have posted pictures of. Just as a bit of background information I am in South Florida where it seems like most body shops won't touch your car unless it's an insurance job and the shops that I have been recommended are custom shops that won't touch the car for less than 5k. What do you guys think repair or start fresh?
One of two areas the driver headlight hits the hood
With the cover off the bumper seems to be pushed in and cracked.
Flat all the way around
With the cover on its hard to notice in pictures but if you look at the driver fender the hood is resting on top of it. Also the headlights cannot come down because the driver light will hit the hood
Spare tire storage completely rotted. I can put my finger through it
Without much higher detail pictures it's hard for me to say with certainty, but I imagine the LH apron is deformed a bit. The fender support looks like it's shifted as well. I mean it's definitely repairable, but would require a good bit of work to straighten out the fitment.
The crushed pinch weld is typical and not a big deal. The rotted spare tire well would have to be cut out and replaced. I bet if you dug deeper into the car you'd find there is a lot more rust and poorly repaired damage elsewhere.
Without much higher detail pictures it's hard for me to say with certainty, but I imagine the LH apron is deformed a bit. The fender support looks like it's shifted as well. I mean it's definitely repairable, but would require a good bit of work to straighten out the fitment.
The crushed pinch weld is typical and not a big deal. The rotted spare tire well would have to be cut out and replaced. I bet if you dug deeper into the car you'd find there is a lot more rust and poorly repaired damage elsewhere.
You are correct on all of the except the pinch is crushed all the way around.
Yeah, probably many years of improper jacking and lifting.. and people dragging the belly of the car places. It is common of most vehicles, especially ones this old.
Well there's rust... and then there's rot. Expect to have surface rust on any of these cars. But sections of unibody that are rotted out usually indicate salt belt life.. and if there's rot one place, you can bet your bottom dollar you'll find more.
If you know someone that has the ability to fix the damage on your car, and there isn't further significant rot elsewhere, then go for it.
Or, take out all of the S5 specific parts you want. Take the bumper caps, side trim, tail lights, mirrors, interior parts (or complete interior if you have a good one). If you're a real perfectionist, take the fenders (such as they are, anyways).
Then part out / sell your shell and buy another FC. And if it's an S4, use all of the parts you removed from your S5 to make it virtually indistinguishable.
The shifted hood would be my biggest concern. Are the hinges just tweaked or was the car hit on the right front? If the body is shifted I would replace it with one that's clean and straight. Its your build and your hard earned money going into this car. I would buy the best example that I could afford.
The shifted hood would be my biggest concern. Are the hinges just tweaked or was the car hit on the right front? If the body is shifted I would replace it with one that's clean and straight. Its your build and your hard earned money going into this car. I would buy the best example that I could afford.
Thanks, the hinges were replaced i can tell. The hood is straight, but as you said the car was hit on the driver side. You can't see it in the picture but the driver fender is "wrinkled", the bumper is cracked and the fender support is also bent. Idk if that makes sense if you've ever seen a car get in a crash and you see the metal flex and warp that's how the fender is.
Now someone might be thinking why don't you just take it to a body shop. Well the short answer is i haven't met one or worked with one that i can trust.
Are you really trying to spend quite a few thousand dollars having a rusty car professionally repaired? Probably looking at 4 or 5k.
Well to be honest I might not have even been considering keeping this chassis if it wasn't so difficult to find a clean one near me. I may end up having to go out of state to find a clean example. The one clean shell I found the guy wants 4500$ for it
The first thing u should do is try to figure out whether the front driver side fender is pushed under the hood, or is the hood mis blinded it looks to me the former. If this is so you will have to take the front bumber off to push the fender out from under the hood. There is a metal tube that keeps the fenders spread apart this tube may be bent u will have to take it off to straighten it. When u put it back it will realine the front fender out from under the hood. If u were a little closer I could show u what to do.l live by the space center ln cocoa. Ph# 321 292 0890. Call me if u don't understand my instructions its really a simple fix.
Body work can be tweaked, but how straight the chasis or subframe or other parts shifting or bending would be my concern as an alignment technician. If the car is drivable I would recommend taking it in for an alignment. That will give you a printout of your toe, camber, caster, wheel base difference, set back, SAI etc. It will give you an idea of if the car is "dog trailing" down the road. Have you ever seen a car driving down the road that looked like it was driving at an angle?
I would check the wheel alignment first because you can fix the body but still have a problem with wheel alignment.
The alignment is way off, but at this stage the car is just a shell. It's no where near driveable. Agreed i leave straightening to the Pros.
Its essentially going to come down to buying a clean shell or putting this car on a flat bed and getting it shipped to Central Florida where I can find someone who can do the work. I think best case I'd be looking at 3500 plus shipping the car. Can that stuff be cut out or does the pinch just get straightened?
I'd find another shell man. Seriously. It's going to cost you more money than makes sense... dont scrap this one, but do sell it to someone who will actually fix it themselves (like a body tech).
I'd find another shell man. Seriously. It's going to cost you more money than makes sense... dont scrap this one, but do sell it to someone who will actually fix it themselves (like a body tech).
I hear you i think that's the direction I'll go in. My plan from the start, if i ended up parting ways with this shell, was to take a catalog of pictures and sell it to someone who knew what they were getting into and were willing and able to deal with or pay to get this car back to where it should be.
Yeah, I mean of course its fixable but it would require a lot of effort and the right knowledge and equipment. We certainly don't need to lose any more of these cars to the scrapper or hackjob wannabe tuner kids..
Or, take out all of the S5 specific parts you want. Take the bumper caps, side trim, tail lights, mirrors, interior parts (or complete interior if you have a good one). If you're a real perfectionist, take the fenders (such as they are, anyways).
Then part out / sell your shell and buy another FC. And if it's an S4, use all of the parts you removed from your S5 to make it virtually indistinguishable.
It's worth more parted out than the junkyard will give you, it's up to you on the effort. If I were you, I'd grab everything you could take out, especially if you actually think you'll own one of these cars.
that one has had the left fender replaced, and its been painted. there is probably more, but not enough pics.
if you had to fix that one, i'd take it somewhere where they have a frame rack, and pull it straight. find out where the road racers in your area go, they do this kind of stuff, and it costs money, but its not expensive. plan B, you could built some giant calipers and measure it yourself, pull as needed with something like a truck.
once you get the body inline the hood and fenders should be close too. there are holes in the body and fenders, and you just put something in there and it should be close
rocker seam is pretty easy to fix, i just use pliers, but you could make something nicer
If the spare tire well is rusted, check the front frame rails. These cars like to rust up there to. If there is anything more than just surface rust there, part it out. Not worth fixing. Unbolt the sway bar mount and see if the nut-sert up inside twists out. look inside every hole you can. If the hit was very hard, the frame rail will kink noticeably in the area around the power steering pump. (designed to bend there.) From what I can see, it looks like everything is just superficial. A fender, a inner bumper, fender support. The center part that the tubular fender support bolts to might have shifted a little..they are very weak. It can probably pulled with your bare hand though. A proper evaluation would take more pictures, but this doesn't look like it needs a frame machine from what I can see.
As for Body shops local to you, Don't look for a regular body shop. You are right that they only want insurance work. Their shops are structured for that type of work, not our stuff. Find the little 2 man operation in an industrial park somewhere and be patient. If you must have a bigger 'real' body shop, I think I remember hearing that Sunshine in Boca used to do work for a BIG Mazda race team down there. Be prepared to pay though.
Hope it helps. I've probably repaired/painted 40-50 crashed RX7 race cars, but I'm too far away to do you much good other than talk.
PS, i haven't seen a pinch weld that wasn't bent on one of these in 15 years
Thanks for all the advice and the wisdom shared guys I'm reading all of it and looking into it. Just finished parting out my S14 and sold my FB so the FC has my full attention now.
06-02-18, 09:28 AM
Repairable or Buy a Shell?
