Hi people, A week ago, unfortunately, I had an accident with my baby Classic case of snap oversteer... swerve right, swerve left, and off against the guard rail. Such an appalling situation :/ Luckily, I wasn't going particularly fast, so the damage is only limited to the front section of the car. That means, the front bumper, the front bonnet and the pop-up lights are to be replaced, and the fenders to be repaired. Also, the front trunk structure is slightly bent on one side, and the front cross member is relatively bent. I have already ordered most of the spare parts. I wanted to find a shop who could repair & paint the fenders, and also straighten the trunk structure. Unfortunately, I only got quotes around 10k euro at the shops I found nearby in Switzerland :/ While the fenders will need to be repaired at some shop, I was thinking of having a go myself at the trunk structure before forking out such a sum of cash. Let me explain: I was checking the part diagrams at eurospares.co.uk, and found that most of the trunk is made up of different small pieces (initially I thought the trunk was part of the chassis... thank God it's not). I figured I could try to straighten the bent parts myself, and if the whole thing didn't really work out, I could order the corresponding spares. The good thing is that I have all the time in the world to make it right, in case I decide to do it myself. The last thing I want is a botch job. But before starting taking off everything... any of you know how these pieces are held together? Am I going to find bolts keeping them in a single structure? Are they spot welded? Or are they completely welded to one another? Thanks in advance! PS: Attaching a photo so that you can assess the extent of the damage. Image Unavailable, Please Login
Its repairable and some of the parts are stll available maybe get them from a donar car at euro spares. Get out your spot weld drill and have fun! Spend the money and get a really good spot weld drill. Then the spot welder, or a Mig welder will do. Do you have your hourly rate figured out? just figure a number and then keep track of your hours. 10K to do the repair isn't that much when you really know what goes into this type of repair. But really in auto body its not so much the work but the tools that are the expense.
It's going to need to go on a frame machine period. I see a kinked rail and indirect damage will show it's head. You can strip off the fenders and have a frame shop pull and measure it out with a 3D measuring system. Then you should be able to do the rest if your good with sheet metal With a tilt hood and pop up headlamps it is a bit of work to align everything without the proper equipment. I ran a high end body shop in SoCal specializing in chassis work and an expert witness in collision repair standards. A lot more to a to a good repair then just making it look pretty Good luck
Oh, that's quite bad news I was thinking that in the worst case, I could always order spares for the trunk sidewall and for the front cross member, and replace them myself. Like that, I wouldn't have to deal with bending back and aligning the damaged parts. Don't you think that would work? Here's the diagram with the breakdown of all pieces that exist in the front section. The parts I was referring to are #4 and #7 or #8 (depending on how damaged the lower structure of #7 is). Do you guys know whether these pieces are held together with spot welds? Image Unavailable, Please Login
this is one area you want a pro working on it. Get it on a frame machine too! That's a major kink you have there. To save some money when getting body work done, strip off all the trunk panels, weather stripping and trim bits around the area to be repaired, then take it to a shop. It will save them hours of interior removal and reinstall which will save you $$ Plus they can see the area plain as day and give you a better quote. I bought a crashed Subaru WRX STI that I had fixed. It went into paint naked, I stripped off everything, even removed the windshield myself. The difference in price was in the $1000s verse me just dropping off a fully intact car and saying, here fix it.
You will need to replace the damaged parts First operation in this repair would be to pull back all the bad stuff into the correct position, relieve the stress before cutting it off so the body points stay where they belong. Then you can assemble it. You also have the issue of corrosion protection when welding it up again along with proper welds. You need weld through primer and proper welding equipment. Remember it cost twice as much to correct a bad repair Sure folks do it and say look what I did but I made a living of fixing those cars a second time for others Again I see no option but a frame machine with a 3 D measuring system. Anything less is not a sufficient repair.
All of the parts are spot welded on, 7 and 8 will come together in one piece, used its around $1000 USD, 4 is around $400 usd is spot welded on as well. Sucks to hear about the accident.
The whole body is spot welded together every seam is spot welded. some slight destruction will need to be done when its taken apart its a pretty big deal. You don't own the correct tools so buying a spot welder that can do the job in some areas is out of the civilian buys range even in the states. Its just not worth the expense if your not doing it all the time.
Be really picky about how the front end goes together. Go look at the 355's on ebay, and see how the gaps look around the headlights and front edge of the hood. A surprising number of them aren't very square.
Ferrari himself did not care about the gaps, it was all about giving the driver the best possible driving experience.
Thanks a lot to all of you for the input. At first and from the looks of it, I wasn't even considering the possibility of some existing indirect damage, and thus, I thought it would've been a matter of replacing the damaged pieces. But the more I think of it, the more it makes sense. The fenders are almost undamaged, except for the front tip on the driver side, and a slight kink on the passenger side. Despite of that, the passenger door now touches the fender when you open it (strangely, it looks flush with the door closed), so that might be a sign of something bigger going on underneath. Also, I am really not ready to undertake any serious welding job. If the pieces were screwed together, and then secured in place with a couple of spot welds, maybe I would dare to have a go at it (in the worst case scenario, I wouldn't make any further damage). But from what I see, that's not the case... I have spent yesterday the whole evening trying to find a shop with laser/3D frame machines, and I can't seem to find any here in Switzerland. I found one about 3.5 hours away in Germany. I'll go check with them what can be done, what spares need to be ordered, which damaged parts can be repaired, etc. Last weekend, I went to a shop with all the damage pics in the iPad to get a quote. The guy looked very receptive at first and invited me in, so that I could show him the pictures. I first opened one of the car before the accident. The moment he saw it was a Ferrari, he said "not interested"! Asked why, and he said he didn't want any headaches... let's hope the same thing won't happen this time Anyway, thanks again for the input. I'll let you know how things go!
Some more info Look for a shop that has a "Autorobot" frame machine. They are top of the line and from your part of the world. I had 6 of them. Fantastic machine They have a great measuring system also. You may ask the autorobot company for some places in the area, they certify qualified shops Collision repair - Autorobot May be easier Good luck
Thanks for the tips, Tim. The one I found has a Car-O-Liner rig. They look quite serious from what I can see in their website. But there's so much you can see from just a website, right? Unfallinstandsetzung Taufkirchen Auto Wölfl - Rahmenrichtbank Car-O-Liner - München I'll check with the Autorobot guys to see if there's some shop around here, it's a good idea. I might also check with Car-O-Liner too. It's good to have several alternatives.
Your very welcome WOW did not ASSume Car o liner went over there Yes they are perfectly fine good set up for sure
