That isn't really as simple as that. He was a bit lucky in the way it fell, mostly over and not on his car.MoVolvos wrote: ↑06 Nov 2020, 19:10 *
Who needs a parts car? Lot's of new parts and almost new tires. In reality, a 2x4 and mallet can take care of the flesh wound.
https://southcoast.craigslist.org/pts/d ... 00260.html
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Flesh Wound 1.png
Flesh Wound 2.png
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Here's a photo of my 96 850 Turbo from last year, after a 6 inch tree branch fell a good 30 feet, mostly onto the windshield. But also onto the front header of the roof. The dent "isn't that bad" - all the doors worked and sealed tight, the sunroof was fine, the windshield - amazingly - held out the weather, there was no damage anywhere else. But to fix it one would have to have replaced the roof sheet metal (~$700 part) and the front header beam (~$90 part). That beam is made of hardened steel, special alloy, yadda yadda. Removing it would ultimately have required a cutting torch where it joined the A pillars and then precision welding to install the new. (And welding would necessarily have entailed repainting, but I digress.) I know that when building cars new this work is now done by robots with robotic precision. I have to believe Volvo was using robots back in 1995 to do the same work.
The problem is in the precision. Precise alignment of everything is necessary not only to make for a good weathertight seal between windshield and roof (and the rest of the frame) but moreover because the windshield makes up part of the rollover strength of the car. No human could be counted on to do the work precisely (and at an economically sensible price). Also likely no insurance company would write a policy on a car so repaired, as there would be no confidence in the rollover protection.
So it was totalled and went to the auction, where some guy paid a couple hundred for a lot of good parts.
This really sucked because that car had had, within the last 10k miles, total tuneup, new ABS module, fixed a long-time seep at the intercooler connection to the radiator, good tires, 16 inch wheels, O2 sensors front and rear, new brake lines all around, brake job all around, tie rod ends, struts, new power antenna. Additionally it had had (about 10k before that) the entire evaporator core for the A/C replaced, the odometer gear replaced and all the dash lights replaced while the dash was out for the evaporator core, new lights (and rear light fixtures) all around, replaced fuel relay. And it had had a new fuel tank and pump a couple years before and the timing belt was great. The interior - even the driver's seat - was as close to new as could be imagined (all the heated leather worked great), the carpets were all excellent, the trunk was great, the 6 CD changer worked perfectly as did the stereo.
Maybe this guy can get away with pounding out the dent, assuming the underlying frame has not been bent. If he can, more power to him. But more likely, that's a rolling pile of parts.
https://mail-attachment.googleuserconte ... JGXHTkuzA0
