Where's the end to our cars?

[Tom95gt]

I was just thinking what will happen to our cars down the road. Everything's unibody now-a-days. there will be no such thing as a frame-off restoration. Will our car's be able to undergo a full restoration? Won't the thin metal get fatiqued and weak as the year's pass? I plan on keeping my car forever but I wonder if that's possible. Seems like a little fender-bender and the car's totalled... just thinking out loud here

 

[Zero_chance]

I think if you maintain the car and underbody and avoid accidents, the car will last as long as you want it to. Very little is unsaveable (dont think thats a word) as long as you have the money to get it put right again. Do any current sports cars have frames (not familiar with cars outside of Ford)? I wouldnt think so due to the weight issue. Frames seem to be for trucks and full size sedans these days.

 

[Nik_95Cobra]

My 62's a unibody and at 46 years old it's as solid as any newer car. It's also getting a ground up resto. Basically the same as any other resto just that there's no full frame. I don't see any problems restoring our stangs later, just more to them than older cars. People still restore much older unibody's than mine all the time. A lot of people use car rotisseries for the hard to reach areas like the guy in this pic.

 

[blksn955.o]

Every mustang has been a unibody along with every F-body and about every car made since the mid 70's (except the 80's monte/buick regal based cars and a few others).

frame off still applied there are just 2 sections of frame to remove. I remember in the early 90's a buddies dad saying "who the hell is going to want and restore anything from today" while we were stripping his 64 malibu SS for a frame off.

Granted 90-95% of the cars then and even to now are not going to be around in 20yrs. However, to answer the question my buddies dad asked well any mustang, any f-body, regal/t-type, vett., some of the nissan 240-300's, supras, vipers, conquests, talon/eclipse as a list of cars up to the early/mid 90's.

I would not say they are not as strong as a full frame car but just different...both have +/-. 99% of the time a car is totaled it is due to the air bag going off due to cost of replacement of those systems at say around 2k+ that is a big chunk for such a small part of the repair before you even address the accident damage.

 

[Chythar]

99% of the time a car is totaled it is due to the air bag going off due to cost of replacement of those systems at say around 2k+ that is a big chunk for such a small part of the repair before you even address the accident damage.

Exactly right. Most insurance is designed for newer cars, despite what they tell you. If the insurance company can get by with "totalling" your Stang, they will. They're hoping you'll walk away from it, then they'll make a profit selling the parts. If you don't want that hassle, you'll have to look for "stated value" insurance - it's how you insure a classic car that has nearly zero Blue Book value.

I've fought two insurance companies to save my Stang, and I've won each time. I just had to work at it.