You can buy crash-damaged cars on e-bay. I'm thinking about buying one with superficial damage for my 18 year old son and fixing it up together. Buyer applies for the V5 apparently. Is this normal? Any insurance implications? Where else could I look for a damaged car?
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Do you know how to check for damaged structure and out of alignment steering? Or which panels are likely to bend metres away from the crash area? (like the floor pan or the crumple zones).
Have you panel beating experience?
Access to a body straightener?
Experienced in MIG welding?
Experience in preparing bodies fro spraying (unless you get someone else to do this and spray it)
Done it before?
If the answer to all of the above is "no" and it's a car manufactured post 1987 approx (and therefore built with crash protection as paramount) you have neither the skills nor experience nor tools to:
recognise what needs to be done
do what needs to be done properly.
All in my opinion.
"Superficial" damage in a modern car ofen includes crumple zone deformation.
I would not repair a car like that and give it to my son. I used to (Minis and the like) but today I'm out of my depth..
madf
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if the car you buy was insurance cat c or d you will have to get a vic check by vosa,this makes sure the car has been properly repaired and all the numbers are ok etc. look on their webstite i bought a bmw and fixed it up , made a huge saving on buyind used,and me dads done a discovery no probs.
i would only do a front end damaged car though, lot easier to line everything back up again! good luck
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if the car you buy was insurance cat c or d you will have to get a vic check by vosa,this makes sure the car has been properly repaired and all the numbers are ok etc.
Wrong. You only need a VIC for cat C. It only checks vin numbers and the like, nothing about the quality of the repair.
Cat D writeoffs can be fine. A 10 year old car can be written off due to the price of body coloured bumpers!. It can be a good project for a father/son combo as long as you have the time and space. Can be very educational and keeps 'em off the streets.
Good luck,
Martin
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Wrong. You only need a VIC for cat C. It only checks vin numbers and the like, nothing about the quality of the repair.
sorry for the misleading info mate turns out its only cat c thats gotta be checked!, and i dont remember saying anything about quality of the repair!just thats its been repaired in the correct way i.e no glue or string allowed !!
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This may not be what you'd hoped as a reply, but, personally speaking, there are loads of undamaged second hand cars at very reasonable prices and why don't you buy your son one of those.
I've bought a car through e-bay but won't again, it's much better to use Auto Trader where you can go see the thing before you've agreed to buy the car, which is essentially what you've done if you 'win the bid' on e-bay,
John
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i suppose you could buy a normal used car, but wheres the fun in that? if its something you want to do then do it, and you will no doubt learn new skills in the process, i did i can now get a good finish on with metallic paint, i personally think this would be a nice father son thing to do together, ok sure you will be crying some nights cos things arnt going right or you cant get somthing quite right, but dont be scared or frightend off just persvere and take your time.
if i was you id get a lightly damaged frontal car.
this is my personal oppinion and if my 7 year old daughter can help and be interested then im sure you son will be.
why not get him a cheap runaround for him to use while you fix it up?id show you some piccies of the cars ive done if i could put em on here
cheers mate
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I've done maybe a dozen 'repairables' over the years. Ranging from a Rover Sterling with light rear, Cav SRi with the front pushed sideways, Rover 820 with blown-up autobox etc etc. All this was 10+ years ago when it was worth doing them. Nowadays it is just not worth it - undamaged used cars are so cheap.
If you want a 'project' then consider something with mechanical damage or a 'stolen and recovered' with just trim or lock damage. Much easier to fix and more cost-effective (but only just...).
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Thanks everyone! Lots of helpful advice, particularly about the crumple zones in more recent cars. I'm of to buy a copy of Auto Trader to see what I can find.
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This month's Car Magazine has the start of a series of articles on rebuilding a front ended Ford Ka. Worth paying £3.25 for the background information.
madf
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Some of you may remember I was given a Citroen Xantia 1997 on a P with a blown engine. At the time it was 6 years old and I thought I could make a saving and just spend a few hundred on the engine and pursuade the wife to drive it.
The engine cost me £300, the bent bonnet cost me £100 to sort out, the service bits cost me another £80 or so including new LHM fluid etc, then there was the MOT, then it developed a cooling problem that took several days of my time and that of a mechanics. That turned out to be another £40 plus vat to get fixed (stupid little box behind the NS headlight). The costs were adding up to more than decent Xantias were selling in Auto trader.
It went for £460 on e bay and I was glad to get shot of it. We got absolutely no use out of it at all.
Next time I'd break it for spares!
When someone in the trade tells you there's no money in this - believe me they're right!
Far better for you to look for a decent car in the first place
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Ads in Auto Trader led me to several web sites with hundreds of cars with various degrees of damage. What kind of money does it take to replace an airbag that has gone off?
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Stolen recoveries & repossessions can be very good buys.
They often only need new locks & some cosmetic work doing.
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ISTR that a new air bag can be up to around 800 quid. If passenger one gone off then maybe a new dash as well? No wonder airbags going off is a big reason for writing off newer cars - imagine one of those (whichever) with 8 airbags (yes, I know they probably won't all go off).
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I did my first crash-damaged car earlier this year. It's a 2001/Y Primera 1.8S with (then) 16k miles. It had minor front end and nearside damage.
nearside doors were £60 ea from a breaker (and already in the right colour). I removed front bumper and made all the angles correct again so that the new bumper would line up.
A pattern bumper was £70 but (strangely) needs some fettling to get the gaps right. s/h headlamp was £70.
I still need a bonnet, but managed to bodge it enough so there was no sharp edges to get it through the MoT. A couple of new tyres were needed as well as there was lots of gouges out of the sidewall. So several hours of time, and about £350-ish on top of the purchase price.
But no airbag damage, no rad damage, car ran fine (was demo'd in the salvage yard) and now been pressed into service.
Although the guy said it was Cat D, it turned out to be unrecorded (don't take the yard's word for it, get the HPi check done yourself so you know whether it's unrecorded, Cat D or Cat C).
Hopefully I can press it into service for 18 months/2 years and it should cost me only a few hundred pounds in depreciation.
Also budget for a major service. Mine came with no background, other than it was a car bought by daddy for little Jane whilst she did her studies at Brunel Uni (loads of reciepts for assignments and stuff still in car) and it looked like it hadn't been serviced from new. The air filter was the blackest one I have ever seen.
I managed to find a blank service book for the model so have started collecting stamps.
If I were doing it DIY, then I'd steer clear of ones that need things like door pillars straightening. My brother is currently trying to do this on a X reg Fiesta and been having some difficultly.
An electronic workshop manual should also have the body jig measurements in it, so obtain one of those on e-bay. It helped me when I was trying to re-align the front end. Also if you have a car with only one part of the front damaged (o/s in my case), you can use the undamaged side as a guide to how it should look, what the panel gaps are etc etc.
Just my little input
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