How To Fix Chassis Rail?

[B0oStEr]

My son crashed his r32 into a van that turned right in front of him. The van driver has no insurance and my son only has third party so we need to repair the car on a minimal budget.

The LHS inner guard and radiator support panel have been pushed down to the chassis rail back to the strut tower. The rail is not radically bent but twisted by the deformed inner guard.

The strut tower rearward appears to be unaffected but would require careful measurement to be sure.

I've unpicked and replaced radiator support panels before but have never tackled an inner guard, strut tower or chassis rail before.

How much would it cost in labour to have a professional unstitch the rail, tower and inner guard at the firewall and replaced with a cut including the radiator support panel?

Would it be acceptable to do the cut from the tower forward?

Is it possible that the mangled inner guard and rail could be pulled and beaten straight?

Any help appreciated

[N1GTR]

The van driver didnt even have CTP?

Take his details to the police. Then take the van driver to court - he will end up paying your costs, and repairs

[Beer Baron]

The van driver didnt even have CTP?

Take his details to the police. Then take the van driver to court - he will end up paying your costs, and repairs

he would have to have CTP to get registration, but CTP doesnt cover damage to anyones car. it's for injury etc.

[D_I_F]

The van driver didnt even have CTP?

Take his details to the police. Then take the van driver to court - he will end up paying your costs, and repairs

steve,

It doesnt always work that way.. same thing happened to me except the guy did have insurance.. they just didnt want to pay up..

took him to court and won.. still havent seen any money its been 6 months

oh B0oStEr, theres a chassis specialist in moorbank.

umm i think there in regent crescent or seton road hope this helps i tryed to look up there details but couldnt find them.. let us know if you find them and what they say?

[KillerRx4]

From what youve described its going to need to go on a chassis aligner to pull & measure.

I guess if you want to get it repaired as cheap as possible youd be best off stripping it yourself (guards, bonnet, front end, engine, basically everything) & give it to your chosen smash repairer to repair the damage. Id say it will get new bar, bonnet, guard/s, etc anyway.

Best off calling around to see how many want to take the job on knowing its not an insurance job & you want to give it to them stripped.

[Duncan]

yes if you need to do it on a budget cutting everything from the front tower forward can work fine. Buy a half cut (go halves with someone that needs the motor) and get a panel beater to weld the new front on straight...this is probably the cheapest way to do it and just as good as factory if the welder knows what they are doing.

but it is probably still worth chasing the other guy for the money this will not be cheap anyway you do it.

another option is wreck the car and buy a new one, it could be cheaper than the cost of repair

[scathing]

Take his details to the police. Then take the van driver to court - he will end up paying your costs, and repairs

That's if you can prove the van driver is at-fault. The first sentence does say the guy's son drove into the van, not the other way around.

Proving that some guy cut you off (which is all eyewitness account, and thus more prone to the vaguaries of the human memory) as opposed to the physics of the collision is a lot harder. If the kid is young / P-plater, his lack of experience and the current stigma against young drivers (in Jap turbo imports or not) it'll be even worse.

[wrxhoon]

The van turned right in front of him, by what he says its clear cut the van was at fault, and the polise should have given him a neg driving ticket .

Insurance or no insurance he is responsible to pay for your damages.

If i was you i would buy another car( it will end up cheaper ) and sell the wreck. Get a valuation for your car from a car valuer, deduct the money that you get from the sale of the wreck then add any expences like tow, valuation fee etc.. Send the guy a letter of demand for the amount you are out of pocket and he what he does .

If you dont hear from him the next step is a summons, you can do that by going to your local court and get the sheriff to serve it. It will cost you a few dollars but that will be added to the total amount .

Usualy when the sheriff goes to their place to serve the summons they pay.

If they dont you go on and get a court order( unless he goes to court to defend it ), when you get the court order if they dont pay you can do several things.

The main one is to get the sheriff to reposses some of their property( enough to recover the dept.

The only problem is if he moves around a lot and he is hard to locate you have to spend more money to find him ( private investigator) but again you ad that to the total amount .

If the person has a job you will get your money one way or another but it may take a long time in this case interest is added to the amount owing .

I have had to do that on a few accassions, minor accidents that i didnt want to claim on my insurance. One time i had the young guys dad call me and he said that they will never pay because they thought the claim was to much. The original claim was about $900 , they had to pay $1500 but it took 18-24 months to get it .

[Beer Baron]

man i would not want to piss you off Jerry!

i had a f**ker change lanes into the side of my car a few years ago. cost about $1K to fix. he was uncoperative. so i just let it go. i figured it wasn't worth my time to chase up. i should have though.

[scathing]

The van turned right in front of him, by what he says its clear cut the van was at fault, and the polise should have given him a neg driving ticket .

That is exactly my point. Its "what he says" - not what can clearly be tendered as fact. The van driver, I'm sure, has got something to say about the incident too....and what's the likelihood that it lines up with what the Skyline driver says?

On the other hand, if you look at photos / police reports of the layout of the vehicles after the collision (i.e. stuff that is immutable fact), you've got a car behind hitting the side of a van. On the face of it, that never looks good.

And when it comes to young drivers in turbo imports vs older people in more "sensible" cars, with little other evidence, the courts don't tend to look too favourably on the younger driver. Its not fair, I know, but I'm only talking about how things are and not how they should be.

Edited May 5, 2006 by scathing

[B0oStEr]

That is exactly my point. Its "what he says" - not what can clearly be tendered as fact. The van driver, I'm sure, has got something to say about the incident too....and what's the likelihood that it lines up with what the Skyline driver says?

On the other hand, if you look at photos / police reports of the layout of the vehicles after the collision (i.e. stuff that is immutable fact), you've got a car behind hitting the side of a van. On the face of it, that never looks good.

And when it comes to young drivers in turbo imports vs older people in more "sensible" cars, with little other evidence, the courts don't tend to look too favourably on the younger driver. Its not fair, I know, but I'm only talking about how things are and not how they should be.

It's fairly clear the van driver was at fault as he turned right in front of an oncoming vehicle.

That won't help us get any money though as it appears this guy lived in the van and has stuff all assets.

How much could you expect to get for an R32GTSt sedan with a demolished front?

I'm guessing not enough to clear the $3500 he still owes on it.

Whether it's worth repairing or not will depend on the cost of repairing the chassis.

We will do the stripdown and put it back together as well as prep it for paint.

The parts will cost $1500ish, new FMIC kit $500, paint $1000 but I'm having a bit of trouble finding someone to even quote the chassis repair.

[d00dz]

Well at least his ok and no one is/was seriously hurt.

[d0p3y]

Maybe better off getting a rolling shell, or getting hold of a N/A Automatic or something extremely cheaply and using that to transfer the good parts into. Then sell off whatever's left over to recover costs. Cars are never the same once you muck with the chassis rails, but even still, it sounds like it's going to be a large effort to repair the car.

Sucks to be your son

Edited May 5, 2006 by d0p3y

[scathing]

It's fairly clear the van driver was at fault as he turned right in front of an oncoming vehicle.

What's clear to you and us when we only get your side of the argument, and what's clear to the courts when they hear both and have to weigh their relative merits, are two completely separate things.

Not saying that you're lying; I'm just the voice of experience.

But, good luck with getting it fixed. I'm also in the "buy a replacement car and sell your wreck off, don't cut and shut it" crowd. Otherwise the next time some f**kwit decides to carve you up and not leave enough room, d00dz might not get to post "Well at least his ok and no one is/was seriously hurt".

[wrxhoon]

man i would not want to piss you off Jerry!

i had a f**ker change lanes into the side of my car a few years ago. cost about $1K to fix. he was uncoperative. so i just let it go. i figured it wasn't worth my time to chase up. i should have though.

Richard, in your case its not as clear cut as someone turning in front of you . In your case the other driver could have said you changed lanes and if no one has any independant witnesses it could be hard to prove .

I probably would have done the same in your case .

If this case if it happened as he describes it, its very hard for the van driver to say otherwise. In this case the police should have come to the accident because a car had to be towed and they would have given the van driver a ticket ( should have ) .

Armed with all that i would go after him all the way to get my money, i dont care if he has no assets, as long as he has a job. If i couldnt get my money of him at least i would bankrupt him so he cant do that to someone else.

[Duncan]

ahh cmon guys, in the end it doesn't matter if he was at fault or not. very few people are going to go through all the trouble to sue for a couple of $k, even if it is clear cut.

More important is how he gets back on the road.....and I personally don't see any issue with a new front end that is done professionally.

Cut n Shut is a harsh term with a really bad reputation, and there are some appalling ones out there, especially in the import market

But done properly it can be as good as new. Search for a thread by ylwgtr he did a very detailed writeup on his one, very professional effort, good as new

[R34 Sedan]

The van turned right in front of him, by what he says its clear cut the van was at fault, and the polise should have given him a neg driving ticket .

Insurance or no insurance he is responsible to pay for your damages.

If i was you i would buy another car( it will end up cheaper ) and sell the wreck. Get a valuation for your car from a car valuer, deduct the money that you get from the sale of the wreck then add any expences like tow, valuation fee etc.. Send the guy a letter of demand for the amount you are out of pocket and he what he does .

If you dont hear from him the next step is a summons, you can do that by going to your local court and get the sheriff to serve it. It will cost you a few dollars but that will be added to the total amount .

Usualy when the sheriff goes to their place to serve the summons they pay.

If they dont you go on and get a court order( unless he goes to court to defend it ), when you get the court order if they dont pay you can do several things.

The main one is to get the sheriff to reposses some of their property( enough to recover the dept.

The only problem is if he moves around a lot and he is hard to locate you have to spend more money to find him ( private investigator) but again you ad that to the total amount .

If the person has a job you will get your money one way or another but it may take a long time in this case interest is added to the amount owing .

I have had to do that on a few accassions, minor accidents that i didnt want to claim on my insurance. One time i had the young guys dad call me and he said that they will never pay because they thought the claim was to much. The original claim was about $900 , they had to pay $1500 but it took 18-24 months to get it .

Agree totally, I would try and fight it.

17 years ago when I was on my P's (and driving a Commodore) I had a similar thing happen (only about $1500 damage) and infact the guy refused to speak to me or exchange details at the site of the accident.

I went the the Police and the local court house, and had the sheriff issue a summons in person (very little

cost). The other driver ignored the summons, so I issued a writ and sheriff went round to his house and confescated his PC, TV, and Video recorder.

Amazing how quickly he paid up after this (including court costs)!

Sometimes it pays to be persistent.