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115 Posts
enjoy these disasters.
Even if that were true, the new owner should be willing to accept the driveability and reliability flaws based on the knowledge it was a salvage.I would consider the bottom car to be unsafe and dangerous and it would never drive right again and would not be worth much more that scrap value.
I agree, as someone who worked in AutoBody for 6 years, those two videos show what kind of work that is typical at a quality repair shop (Those techs are way under paid for what they do). I also have personally seen way more extensive repairs on much higher-end vehicles, that were not total losses as the value of the vehicle was still more than 50% of the repair needed. An example would be say if you had to have $15-$20K of repair done to a $59,900 2012 Mercedes E350 or similar vehicle.Two examples of really good body work.
It is unfortunate that a lot of people think that vehicles with body work done are automatically inferior and only worth scrap value. Is your house worth less because you had to patch sone drywall? I think CarFax has created a problem that generally didn't exist before. Yes, there is BAD body work, but that is pretty easy to spot. I have had major body work done to a few cars in the past and have had nothing but good experiences.
I had an '83 Mercedes 300D that was hit hard (hit and run). I had $8,500 worth of body work done and it was as good as new. I sold that car with 410,000 miles on it, and it is still a daily driver with more than 600,000 miles on the clock. It still looks beautiful today. The current owner is thinking about having a rebuilt engine put in because it is making a ticking sound.
LulzShow me the carfax!
I watched a video once of an assembly line worker at a dodge plant whose only obvious tool was a piece of 2x4 about 4' long, with some carpet wrapped around it. He could bend a door/frame into submission about once every 30 seconds. I have used a similar device on american iron for the last 35 years. The '83 dodge truck we had at work needed the doors resprung about 3 times a year.Those two examples are actually of how you SHOULD rebuild a car, not the horror stories you hear about wrecked cars that have been cobbled back together. The second car with the whole front clip replaced is being assembled as nearly like the car was originally as you could get without sending it back to the factory. They use computer measurements on those frame jig racks to make sure things are square.
I can't find the old video footage of a guy on an assembly line adjusting the doors and hood on an old car (looked like a Lada or some such), but in case you think that's only a relic of 40 years ago or more in the cold war, consider this:
Car assembly worker makes final tweaks to the doors - YouTube
I tell ya what blown96bird, if you think things should be so perfectly done on something brand new, check the squareness of your house's walls. That could start to bug you to the nuthouse. Have fun finding a house that isn't at least an inch off from one end of a room to the other.
Steering still wanders around the highway @ 65MPH no doubt.I wonder how it rode, steers, etc. The proof would be in pudding...as they say..
I can't stand CarFax, My 2011 Outback was lightly rear-ended early last year. Total repair was a new bumper cover OEM, new reinforcement behind the bumper cover, 1/2 hour of spot repair to spare tire well and paint $2100 and now my car according to Subaru is worth -$4000 less below low book that they would normally give you .vs an undamaged car with no history