Structural Front End Damage 458 italia

KAROSSERIE
Talk to Steve McElroy ...they are Ferrari factory authorized repair and can so a Ferrari approved repair ... they are located in Pennsylvania and do fantastic work....they repaired a friends 458 when it was new and had similar damage it was a perfect repair

 

seems like insanity and a waste of $$$ to repair this.

 

Not safe, for many same reasons stated above. The car should be considered a total loss and salvage title. Sorry, mate. Let it go. You would never feel safe when you drive it again. Look at the frame!

 

I would scrap it. Way too expensive to fix. Only Ferrari can do it properly in Houston but will be expensive. Hope it was insured

 

Yep, their work is outstanding. They repainted the entire front clip of my Maserati GT. Great job. But, they are extremely expensive and my guess in this case more than the car is worth. I had a discussion recently with them about a bare metal respray of my project 355 and it was, well, not remotely affordable.

 

they are not cheap however in my friends case the 458 had massive front end damage similar to the one pictured and the insurance paid fully for the masterful repair costing my friend only the deductable all parts came from Ferrari..... It cost around 80K to repair of course this was with a fairly new car.. Obviously if the insurance has totaled the car it is not worth it ...

 

I like the idea with Richard Rollings at GasMonkey garage in Houston. The F40 he fixed was in even worse shape. He used only real Ferrari parts and had Ferrari involved with the repairs also. The result was an almost "new" F40 that he sold for over $600k at auction, if I remember it correctly.

A couple of years back, I totaled my F430 spider, and it was painful, but frankly the parts from the wreck was so valuable, that with money from those and the money from insurance, I actually got more for it than I paid. So, that may also be an option...

 

Sorry meant GasMonkey garage in DALLAS....

 

Don't believe everything you see on TV. Gas Monkey garage is not a car business that was put on TV but rather a TV show first with a cast of car guys put together in a non-commercial garage with the ultimate goal to promote the Gas Monkey brand. It is a brilliant marketing ploy that has been very successful. The F40 repair was a real repair but all of the timeline and budget things you see as 'stressful' were totally staged.

Legendary Motorcar and Chasing Classic Cars on the other hand are real restoration and car sales business that operated before and act independently of the TV show.

Returning to this 458, given the size of the accident and all of the costs involved there is no reasonable reason to repair this car unless the car has a significant emotional attachment. Even if the car was not insured and you are trying to limit your losses, selling the car for scrap or parting it out will yield a net positive result from the cost and depreciation involved with repairing the car. This is regardless of how much you do yourself to try and save a buck.

 

I know of a shop in Houston who may be able to tackle a job like this.

 

Agree with the last two posts. If it were me, I'd sell for parts and start over new. Not sure I would ever be comfortable driving at higher speeds, or tracking, with the repairs that would be needed to to fix that damage, but that may just be me.


Jim

 

So John after all the advice what did you end up doing?

Did car go to Pennsylvania?

Did you get front subfrane and shock towers replaced?

 

Pretty sure it ended up with theys guys... (or op is this guy?!)

 

Interesting....

 

If it was just the frame i would say repair.its likely that damage went into the roof and at that point i would walk from it.

 

I can't imagine keeping a car in that condition. Collect insurance and call it a day.
Good luck! Interested in how the work turns out.

 

Honestly speaking I would not feel safe in that car

 

I've been watching this guy (TJ Hunt) rebuild the car (no idea if this is the OP's car) on youtube. As with most car videos nowadays, it's a little annoying with all the stupid music and fake enthusiasm, but it's been interesting to see what needed fixed and how they repaired it. They initially wanted to keep all the parts OEM and any repairs done by a legit Ferrari specialist, but it seems once the bills started racking up, they strayed away from that a little and did some DIY work. The most alarming part of the rebuild was the cost of the fix - this is going to be his car and he wanted to stay around $150k all in, but you can buy a no story 458 with half the miles for under $150k any day of the week.

 

I've been watching TJ's series on the 458 also. It's quite a job they have undertaken. I thought for a second it might be the same car as well, but in comparing the front subframe damage, it appears to be slightly different.

I agree he's probably going to be into the entire build (cost wise) over what a comparable 458 would cost in the used market, but you can't really put a value on how much knowledge and experience he's gained as well.

However they had weld up the sub frame (that Russian guy I think it was), sure did a spot-on job though!

For anyone who hasn't watched the series on YouTube there, it's fantastic. It's really interesting to see how the 458 is built in some of those areas. I did plenty of work on my own 458 Italia, but never quite to the extent these guys have done. Definitely worth checking out the videos they have posted.

Ray

 

I was equally amazed as disturbed. Not going to beat the dead horse of safety issue, but it did bother me a bit when he emphasized the car is still a clean title! This emphasized how important a PPI is prior to any purchase of ferrari.

 

My personal opinion is that PPI's are a lot like home inspections - pretty much a waste of time and money. When in doubt, buy from the dealer and get a warranty.

Ray

 

Home inspection, yes, it could be very stupid at times. I think the best is ppi plus buying from dealer and then squeeze in the warranty into the deal.

 

I saw all the episodes on the TJ's series on the 458 also. It's hilarious to hear them talk how they could get close to the same price of a clean Ferrari 458 once they are done with their rebuild. Also, hearing that they were going to put a liberty walk kit on the car. Seeing them re-wire the car and all the work that was done, who would buy that car? It was funny when he thought because you turn on the ignition switch and press the brake pedal the car starts without pressing the start button was really cool. In a couple episodes you can see him driving the car without the front radiators! How without doing damage? The show is entertaining to me.

 

It's great to see their dedication. I was surprised they fired the car up without coolant as well. However, as long as they kept it under a few minutes each time, then I doubt very much if it would damage too much. The oil provides some level of cooling effect, in addition to the coolant. Good idea? Probably not. But I suspect it didn't damage too much. The heads are aluminum, so they would act as a heat sink initially to draw heat away from the internals.

I've run motors so hard that when I came back, the turbo manifolds were glowing ruby red (so that's at least 800 to 900 degrees F on the cast iron). Motors run hot and it takes a minute or two to get them up to correct operating temp (usually around 180-200 degrees F). While I wouldn't run my personal 458 without coolant, I doubt much damage was done. Probably just helped seat the rings better haha.

Ray

 

Everything is repairable if you want to spend the time and money but the best way cost wise is if you can do it yourself correctly . Finding people that can weld aluminum in body shops correctly can be challenging . I'm around wrecked stuff although not Ferrari and as far as TJ Hunt goes those guys are friggin" morons with no idea what they are into . That car is a wrapped hacked up mess that is worthless and I love Youtube people thinking those guys are the real deal . I wonder whose dad is bankrolling them LOL