Well, everything has been confirmed to be straight other than the front nose area that I had expected to repair anyway. I've had two different shops check everything else out, so it's been bugging at me. I don't know why but I've got **** for luck with anything rotor related.

 

^yeah I feel your pain. from what you said about how they repaired the A-pillar, this is actually not such a bad thing....since from your discription you said they cut the inside and out side at a different point this increases the amount of over lapping metal thus increaseing the amount of weld area...this much better than if they had simply cut it strait across and but welded it .

 

Back in 93 my dad was making a left hand turn and a lady with a red light slammed into the passenger front fender and wheel of his few month old FD. The insurance company came out to look at the car and made an estimate, but then my dad opened the passenger door and asked what about the floor that is bent up. The car basically got wraped around the ladys car and buckled the floor and REAR quarter panel. This was a hit at the front fender. they said they were gonna cut the car at the A- pillars and weld on a new front end. He told them to shove the car up their *** and took mazda to court and they ended up giving him a new car and all he paid was tax, tag and title. He said he wasnt going to risk his life in a car that is half&half.

I personally wouldnt drive in an FD that has been wrecked in the front.. the rear maybe but as long as it is the whole car that came from the factory. the car is made with thin metal as it is .

 

SonicRat: Back in Miami there was a body/Car sales shop that had first dib's on any Rx-7 that went through the junkyards/Copart/Tow yards... he was known for chopping up 7's, piecing them back together, and selling them at ridiculous prices...if you've got any more questions... ask Outkast... his white was FD pieced together by him...

 

They sure spent a serious amount of time and thought in doing this repair, with how extensive it is I can't imagine it was cheap either. Someone either was really attached to this thing or was definitely under the idea that anything will 'buff out'. Still a bit frustrating. It's looking like I'm going to have to duplicate turbojeff and just strip the entire thing and have it painted after the front is repaired. Where it goes after that is still up for debate. Either I'll just throw in a cage and track ***** it, or use it as a sunday driver.

 

I searched but didn't find any info regarding this. Did he make a thread about it? Is that why he was parting it?

 

Honestly, being a body man and having pieced together new cars in serious wrecks, I'll tell you if the car drives straight, has straight panles/good fitment and you can lift it and manitain your door gaps - you've got nothing to worry about.

The welds on the A-pillar may be a little dog poopy, but if they've got good penetration then the only issues are strictly cosmetic.

Unless you're the type who will be forever haunted knowing that someone other then Mazda robots did the welding on the FD - then keep on truckin'

Otherwise do whatever you have to do to sell it, and move along.

If it were mine (I have no idea about the situation other then having been pieced back together) I'd use it. I see cars far more dangerous then that every day due only to rust <---edit: not saying the cars dangerous, just making a point.....

 

I've checked the door gaps when I jack up the car from various points and everything remains the same, so it doesn't seem to have flex. (at least under it's own weight). If everything was in the stock locations I wouldn't be too worried, but those welds accross the beams where the two were cut and spliced back together is what has worried me the most.

 

anyone remember that site "beyond the redline"? it had a couple of wrecked fd buildups, i think one of em was a silver and red FD.....

i'm kinda agreeing with landers, 99% of the fd's out there have been wrecked, and most people dont even know it...

 

I wonder if they're quite as severe as this, I'm sure a few are. It makes me wonder where the hell the rest of the cars are, and WTF was so bad on them to pretty much splice them down the center!

 

I just want to say, thank you for having a simmilar outlook on life. It makes me feel good knowing someone who is experienced a lot more than me, shares the same views and opinions.

(Being 17, people shrug me off like I'm clueless, when in fact, I end up being right about whatever issues most of the time, and just try my best to help.)

Note to "haters": started working on cars when I was only eight years old, and loved every minuite of it.

 

Ok, wait a sec, now, how many people actualy looked at that link that one of the members put up here? (the yellow FD rebuild)

Look through that, and you will see this is NO BIG DEAL AT ALL.

 

Well, to be honest, in some cases that can actually be beneficial

But the placement of that weld in particular isn't my style of chop. I would have done similar, but make the lateral cuts at different points for the inner and outer structure, and then redo the seam's spot welds in between the two points (effectively "lapping" the a-pillars)

But that joint is OK in my books, there's far worse places to join that a-pillar that span much wider widths.

 

That's how they did the a-pillars and the floor joints. They cut the interior/exterior in different locations and joined the overlapping sections, then welded at the seam of the original cuts.

 

Ahhh, sorry I assumed from the pic that it was a straight cut/weld.

Honestly, I think you have nothing to worry about. As long as you're OK with having one car made from two

Edit: If they've made the a-pillar joints like that then thats definetly evidence of a full on proper repair.....so I'd say as far as structure goes you're more then likely fine.

 

Yeah it is kind of crazy isn't it.

Just to put some numbers to that type of work.

$4k for the wrecked car.
$7000 for body and paint.
~$4k for NEW body parts, fenders, hood, bumper cover, floor, fender vents, fender liners, belly pan, R1 lip, hood squirters, snaps, clips, etc.

I did all the mechanical reassembly, I've worked on tons of FDs so I know what I'm doing and had the space to do it in. It took me about 3 months to put the car back together, pretty much perfectly IMHO (but I'm biased).

The car itself had a rebuilt motor and trans in it, new brakes and rotors, etc. So for $15k or so I had a car that was like new, then I added mods...

I wouldn't have done that kind of work to a non-CYM FD. At the time you could get a nice low mileage FD for $15-18k. CYMs always seem to cost a little more and the cars I looked at still needed at least a paint job which would cost $3-4k and they wanted $17-20k for them.

 

so what do you suggest if I have good fenders/bumper/vents/hood? ditch it or fix it?

 

It is completely up to you. Post some shots of the front of the car, no close ups but 1/4 views. It is hard to find a shop that will do good frame work IMHO.

 

Keep going, my professional opinion, this repair does meet industry standards. You have nothing to worry about.

 

if you're gonna get rid of it, sell it instead of sending it to the crusher. Plenty of people would love to make a track car out of it. The bad thing about looking for a shell is that 90% of the time the reason its a shell is because it was wrecked. My FD has parts from two others. If you look down the rail underneath the passanger seat you can see its a little tweaked. I'm still gonna have my fun with the car.

If you're that worried, put a cage in it and have mounts added for the roof.

 

This is common in England, it's called a 'cut and shut' car.

They always do features on them on the news to show what death traps they are and how they come apart during a crash.

If this was a Camry being used for commuting I'd say maybe you are ok, but this is a high performance car that you drive fast. No way should you keep this thing.

 

theres a right and wrong way to do everything.....if they did it right your fine...ie, welded all layers of the metal....if they just cut and welded=not good


Drew

 

this is a worthless argument, the majority of the circuit GT cars you see racing in major sportscar series have been wrecked and fixed the question is over the quality of the repair. From what has been stated most of the tricky stuff is already done (having all the seems line up while keeping the chassis strait) as for chassis integrity this can only be judged by a qualified fabricator in person. If it is so judged to be acceptable the question of keeping it is a personal one...its a matter of if you will be able to accept the fact that it has been repaired and that it is going to be worth much more to you on the first hand experience of being able to drive it vs being able to brag about how perfect and umolested it is(not that this is bad thing). If the Idea that you are driving "damaged goods" is going to constantly nuts than sell it and find a perfect one.

 

If the repair was done properly, and it sounds like it was, I see no reason not to keep and enjoy it.

Dave

 

well I believe legally the car should have been totaled and if rebuilt, sold with a salvage title., work disclosed.

The car can be safely spliced using the original seams by drilling out the spot welds but is no way should the car be cut using a saw or torch. The spliced sections need to overlap as they do from the factory.

There is a seam on the pilar and near the front jack slot, as well as around the firewall where the front of the car can be safely separated. I have made both of these splices and reproduced a very solid body. Of course I still sold the cars under salvage titles disclosing the work I had done.

These procedures are not for the faint at heart and if not done properly the splice can separate or the car can drive at a slight angle.