Reshelling advice needed

Having not even made it to one stage rally I already need a reshell from a roll at an unstated event (no one was hurt luckly). There is no noticeable damage to the cage, the front passenger and rear drivers strut towers are bent about the cage attachment points, the roof is twisted and the rear deck has a kink in it. There isn't any major paint flaking from the cage junctions. The current plan is to rent a plasma cutter and get the cage out. Once a new shell is acquired what is the right order? Strip, seam weld then chop the roof and install? Is a body rack required (I don't have one) or just a well supported shell, shouldn't it fit back together once the cage is in? Advice is appreciated.

Here's a picture to tide everyone over.

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-KTurner
Stomp down on the exhilarator and hold on to the wheel.

I may be talking out of my hat but it doesn't look bad enough to require a reshell.

I'd spend some quality time with a porta-ram set, come-along (chain and backhoe) and a couple of stout trees, get the suspension points back to approximately where they need to be and then if you can get the wheels pointing in the correct direction work out the cosmetics.

Help from another ralliest skilled in the art of post-race "adjustment" would probably get it rolling straight within a few hours.

Looks like a roofskin, rear quarter and some creativity would make it right -- no point making it too pretty, you built it to put dents in...

t

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Pure mathematics is the enemy of every truly creative man -- Sir Alec

The "adjustments" side of things is a little new to me but the tree and backhoe thing seems familiar. here's the other side, you can see the tweaked rear deck as well. how's it look?

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-KTurner
Stomp down on the exhilarator and hold on to the wheel.

that does not look that bad.

what are you refering to as the "rear deck"??? the "top" of the rear windshield? or the "parcel shelf" (where the speakers would go)

If you are talking about the "top of the windshield" this is EASILY replaced on these cars with the roof panel. Go wrecker hunting and you can find a roof panel.

The drivers side pillars look a little ugly, but the right people can fix this.

It appears like all the wheels are pointed in the right directions...i doubt the front passagers strut tower is bent

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Chris

That's repairable for sure. My car looked worse than that one year at Defi. It turned out to be just dents on the body panels and the one front frame rail section was bent down an inch. Now I wouldn't even bother paying someone to do it. I'd just get out some tools of destruction and check measurements with the FSM.

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Gone fishing

Do It Sidewayz Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> that does not look that bad.
>
> what are you refering to as the "rear deck"???
> the "top" of the rear windshield? or the "parcel
> shelf" (where the speakers would go)
>
> If you are talking about the "top of the
> windshield" this is EASILY replaced on these cars
> with the roof panel. Go wrecker hunting and you
> can find a roof panel.
>
> The drivers side pillars look a little ugly, but
> the right people can fix this.
>
> It appears like all the wheels are pointed in the
> right directions...i doubt the front passagers
> strut tower is bent
>
> Chris

For me, rear deck = parcel shelf.
here's a pict, they should be parallel.



front shot of the passenger strut tower, it's folded on the bottom.


pict if the inside back of the front tower, the grey protruding spot in the upper middle is the cage, it should be more or less flush towards the right.

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-KTurner
Stomp down on the exhilarator and hold on to the wheel.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/30/2008 08:15PM by KTurner.

went over the front end again today and what that shot of the strut tower is not showing is the bend in the frame at the front subframe mounting bolt. The front shot has the front bumper pushed down not because it is hanging but because of the frame. Time to rent a plasma cutter.

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-KTurner
Stomp down on the exhilarator and hold on to the wheel.

I'd hold your horses on that plasma cutter bub. That car looks definately repairable with at most equal, but probably a lot less work then cutting that nice cage out of there and swapping EVERYTHING else over to a new shell, oh and cutting off and re installing the roof on a new shell.

A good, Modern autobody shop with a decent frame machine like a cheif or a car-o-liner and a laser measuring system like Genesis or equivalent that is willing to work with you could save the trouble of having to remove the cage.

Like others said you'd be surpized what a front end loader, chains and trees can do but a professional gold class I-Car cert. body man can do wonders with a laser measuring system, a frame rack and a welder. You just gotta find the right guy thats willing to take on a project like this.

It's a unibody chassis dude. There is no real frame. Those pieces can be sectioned out of another car.

Seems better to me to fix what you've got then to swap everything over to a completely new car. Especially to take a nother car and still have to cut the roof off to weld your cage back in. Paint cost is inevitable either way.

Some one good could get that car back to you in 2-3 weeks.

The front doesn't look like it needs much more than a skirt, apron and a core support from the pictures. You could section everything on the right side of the car from the a pillar forward from another car. It's just a lot of spot welds to drill.

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Michael LeCompte



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/01/2008 02:42AM by pikespeakgtx.

Kevin, sorry for your loss. It looks repairable to me as well. But, it's your money/project/comfort level, so do as you please.

Cars can be repaired, but honour can't.

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Ted Mendham
www.rensport.net

tedm Wrote:
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>
> Cars can be repaired, but honour can't.
>
>
> Ted Mendham
> www.rensport.net

HA! Thing is, it might be my car but I didn't go over in it. I'm still up in the air over which direction to go. Finding the right guy around me is going to be $$. My body guy is about 500 miles away since I moved. The unibody is worth saving, there isn't a spot of rust on the thing. It would be worth a shot, if it gets f'd up I can always go for plan b. with large hammer comes confidence?

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-KTurner
Stomp down on the exhilarator and hold on to the wheel.

Ouch, someone else wadded up yer baby? That'll add to the stress level. I hope the responsible party is going to do the "right" thing.

I would ask Dave Shindle aka Camander Salamander (his handle on this forum). He is in the DC area and in the car repair busines. He might have some good ideas who can fix it up.

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Ted Mendham
www.rensport.net

You might be OK to cut out the right front and weld in a new right front and core support. But look carefully at the firewall/floor area to make sure it is not crinkled; it might well be if the right front is pusched back that much. If so, then the firewall crinkles would need to be straigthened and probably reinforced, else you may get stress cracking in the firewall/floor later. (And you might still even with reinforcing.)

Striaghtening the rear as is seems do-able with the right jacks and frame attachements.

Good luck!
Mark B.

Please don't cut off anything until after it's been pulled. Makes the job 2000% easier. Pull all the bent stuff out, then when it's close cut it off, if needed, often on a rally car it isn't. If you cut off a frame rail that is bent before straightening it, you'll have to weld the new one on crooked and then pull it into position.

Responsible party will do whatever it takes.
JT

thanks for the advice guys, I think I have better idea of how I'm going to approach this, and where to tie the backhoe to. got the front fender off yesterday so here is the real damage to front... fender braces were on my to-do list.



Ted, this is mainly a rallyX car still so I share it. my co-driver (not in a navigator sense) went over so there are no issues. It wasn't being lent out at the time.

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-KTurner
Stomp down on the exhilarator and hold on to the wheel.