Fixing a bent chassis rail, will it still be able to handle 300kw or will it be fragile ?

[new32owner]

Hi everyone ,

 

im looking to purchase a r32 gtr but it seems to have a bent chassis rail , is it worth fixing with confidence it can handle power up to 450hp? Or will it be fragile and more likely to break or bend again ? 

 

Thankyou 

[V28VX37]

I was looking at an R32 non GT-R once that had crushed rails. I took a bunch of photos and walked into a workshop, they basically laughed me out. A proper repair will be costly - given that it's a GT-R it may be worth it, or may not be. It will never pass roady unless repaired correctly. I'm not liking all that rust around the lift point either.

If I saw that on a car I'd be wondering what happened, why it hasn't been repaired, and what else is wrong. Do a paint thickness check all around at a minimum to see if it's been partially resprayed and/or bogged up, and maybe check alignment if you can for an indication of whether the chassis is true or not.

[new32owner]

35 minutes ago, V28VX37 said:

I was looking at an R32 non GT-R once that had crushed rails. I took a bunch of photos and walked into a workshop, they basically laughed me out. A proper repair will be costly - given that it's a GT-R it may be worth it, or may not be. It will never pass roady unless repaired correctly. I'm not liking all that rust around the lift point either.

If I saw that on a car I'd be wondering what happened, why it hasn't been repaired, and what else is wrong. Do a paint thickness check all around at a minimum to see if it's been partially resprayed and/or bogged up, and maybe check alignment if you can for an indication of whether the chassis is true or not.

Thanks a ton for this response , the car has had a respray and the owner has had the car with this problem since day dot he says , I have been quoted $1500 to repair it , how would I go about the allinment and getting an accurate reading ? 

[GTSBoy]

The rail's not bent.  It's just f**ked.  Classic moron jacking it up wrong and/or bashing it into speedbumps.  It is major league defectable.  It is very fixable, but at a cost of course.  On my R32 we made a tool that we could insert through the holes in the rail to push out the (much smaller) damage done over the years before I had to take it through Regency for approvals because we know they are (unts about that sort of thing.  If they saw that photo, they would hand you a defect notice to stick on your head!

Edited March 9, 2018 by GTSBoy

[new32owner]

15 minutes ago, GTSBoy said:

The rail's not bent.  It's just f**ked.  Classic moron jacking it up wrong and/or bashing it into speedbumps.  It is major league defectable.  It is very fixable, but at a cost of course.  On my R32 we made a tool that we could insert through the holes in the rail to push out the (much smaller) damage done over the years before I had to take it through Regency for approvals because we know they are (unts about that sort of thing.  If they saw that photo, they would hand you a defect notice to stick on your head!

Once fixed should I be worry that the chassis not being able to handle power mods ? Or is this just a stay away from the car and that’s that ?

[GTSBoy]

You could fix that rail so it is 3x stronger than original.  I make no representation as to what state the rest of the car will be in if the rails look like that though.  That is a sure sign of "give no f**k".

[V28VX37]

^ What he said.

Given that 32 R's are getting pretty old and increasingly rare, if it looks like you're getting too good a deal, you probably are.
Good examples are hard to find, you just gotta do the work and have the $$ ready.

At the current prices I would have a mile long checklist and inspect the car several times in good daylight plus have a workshop go over it in detail. The alternative is to buy the 20k 'immaculate' one and spend another 20k+ fixing it - an option for sure, but tedious.

[new32owner]

^ What he said.
Given that 32 R's are getting pretty old and increasingly rare, if it looks like you're getting too good a deal, you probably are.
Good examples are hard to find, you just gotta do the work and have the $$ ready.
At the current prices I would have a mile long checklist and inspect the car several times in good daylight plus have a workshop go over it in detail. The alternative is to buy the 20k 'immaculate' one and spend another 20k+ fixing it - an option for sure, but tedious.

Yeah I understand I’ll probably stay away from it for the meantime and check out clean ones for the extra dollar [emoji1362] cheers