Bad News

[Don Fiveolio]

The sound of revenge is thumping in my head. Since I have been on the unemployed side of things for the last couple of weeks, I decided to take the downtime to work on the stang and complete the engine bay prep. I was checking the vacuum hoses and changing what ever was cut or damaged. I removed the fender well cover to get at the rest of the lines and made another discovery. The front part of the inner fender was red. The car had been in a front end collision. It wasn't in the Carfax report at all. The passenger side fender is a replacement and most likely a few parts of the front end. Now I'm worried, because I don't want to drop a brand new motor into this car and have to worry about crap handling.

It doesn't look like the strut towers, k-member and steering rack was ever damaged, but how the hell can I tell with nothing in the car. I don't want to sell this car to someone else and a junkyard would never give me what I paid for it. Is wrong to want to drink that bastards (the guy who sold me the car) blood? I can't beleive this.

 

[Mr. Rustypwnz]

dont feel bad, every mustang ive owned except my new one has been in a wreck, still handle and tracked straight, so it wasnt a prob. But yeah id be pissed!!

Josh

 

[Don Fiveolio]

I just snapped a few pics. It's all forward of the shock and spring, but I'm still paranoid now:

View attachment 443692

It's times like this that I really miss my GT. It was a little rusty, but the body was str8 and there was a demon living under the hood.

 

[Lyncher]

How long have you had it? How many miles have you driven it? And have you had any non nomal issues? It sucks to hear it but it couldve very well just been body damage...

 

[Don Fiveolio]

I bought it as a roller. The guy who sold it to me pulled the motor, tranny, EEC, harness and a few other things. He told me that it was rear ended slightly, but I saw nothing when I got under the car so I thought it was all good. I think I might just throw a 2.3 in it and call it a day.

 

[grey5.0beast]

but why

 

[Don Fiveolio]

but why

Because I am a deliquent drag racing, road course thrashing, tire burning, do-nut making, bitch slapping fool and I plan to let the car that I use see a lot of track time. I kinda dont wanna take the risk of having a handling issue taking a corner at 80+ miles an hour.

damn, did I say bitch slap? pfff wonder where that came from.

 

[grey5.0beast]

we all have a "G" side to us and yours just came out...

 

[Don Fiveolio]

Ya well I gotta be cuz my car ain't "gangsta" right now. and it's gonna be ****in' gay if a wheel pops off driving sown the street. ya I'll be pimpin' then.

 

[spiff]

meh its not a huge deal.. A lot of times you can't tell if a car has been rebuild unless it was a complete frame twister / writeoff..

Good luck with getting it built up though!

 

[grey5.0beast]

maybe it popping off would make your fender weel bigger so you could then put some pimpin 26s yo. To the point, I wouldn't sweat it, it should be al right. I f yopu wanna test it you could alwasy cut out the floor board and take it around the track flinstone style to test the handling

 

[Don Fiveolio]

^^^

meh its not a huge deal.. A lot of times you can't tell if a car has been rebuild unless it was a complete frame twister / writeoff..

Good luck with getting it built up though!

Thanks. I gonna take the fender off and see what the rest of it looks like in the morning.

 

[bryce93lx]

dude i knocked the hell outa of my car, i hit an alder tree at about fifty and tweaked the whole front end, my car has been wrecked in the front end like three times, and i have had zero probs, strap on the sfc and the other **** and frogetaboutit, i have coil over and i drive hard and it has never scarred me

 

[MAC'n89Blckstng]

The repair doesnt look too bad tho, just a little wire wheel action to that rust and then get some under coating and cover up the bare welds. As long as your schock towers are all squared up you should be alright. Even if that was a crappy repair, it would only hurt you in an accident, if at all. Dont worry about it, a repair can last as long as the rest of the car as long as it was done right.

 

[PJB]

My friend bought a '98 GT a few years ago with a destroyed front end and had to replace some rails, the fenders and a bunch of other parts and when it was all done it looked good and didnt have any issues. If its done right it wont.
He owns a bodyshop and got the car as a totalled wreck and rebuilt it but it had a salvage title.

 

[89gtstalker]

Looks like the rails were bent over in that picture. As long as its in front of the shock towers and was pulled straight, you should be fine.

Probably looked like this, this is how I bought my mustang, and it will not show up on carfax, liability only from the person that wrecked it.

All fixed, at WFC9 in St. Louis.

Thats the misunderstanding about carfax. If a car is in a minor collision, or someone sells a car that they wreck to a body shop, and takes a cash payment from an insurance company, instead of having the car repaired, then it will not show up on a carfax. Or if someones loaded parents dont want to turn in there drunk kids car that he drove into a pole to insurance, and pay it all out of pocket, you will never know.

I worked in a body shop for a few years, and that is what they will try to do, if a wrecked car comes in, and it is near totalled, by the insurance company numbers, they would try to purchase it from the client before it was totalled, and then they can repair it and sell it without a salvaged title. The reason that they would do this is for instance a nice 90 mustang GT, with a minor collision, would be totalled, due to book value, and instead of ruining a good car, buy it and fix it.

People put way to much faith in a carfax. All that shows is that the car has not been in any reported accidents.

about 95% of all cars have been in some sort of an accident, some new ones get body work right off the delivery truck at the dealership.

 

[Strype]

Put the fender back on, drink 2 bottles of red wine, knock yourself out with a 2x4 and when you wake up you won't remember a thing

 

[Don Fiveolio]

damn 89gtstalker, I feel better after seeing what you were able to do with your stang. I have been looking through the rest of it and it does not seem all that bad. I think I just over reacted when I saw it because it was something that was not expecting.

I think I'm just gonna take strypes advice on this one....after I put the fender back on.

:SNSign:

 

[Busted07]

I bought my car back in 1996 before the whole carfax thing was out, and i found that the drivers side fender was swapped (radiator support on the bottom was good though) and until i decided to do the efi to carb swap, i never looked close at the gas tank, but thats when i realized that the rear bumper impact bar was fuggin bent. i never knew about any of this and drove the car like a madman for a few years, and i have since brought it to work, looked up the ford specs on the frame, had a body guy do all the measuring, and the only thing out of whack is how the impact bar is bent. that is always an option for ya, go to a good body shop and get them to measure the frame and shock towers and that will tell you how far off it is.

 

[Strype]

My "mint" 93 Coupe with just 63k has actually had the rear quarter welded back on in 1993 when it was not even a year old... it was t-boned and it does not show up on the carfax.

I know it happened because it was my friends car and I remember it too