To sell or not to sell...advice please!

[vaux_2]

As some of you will know i had a bit of a prang in my frontera earlier in the year and the insurance company wrote her off. They paid out and offered a further £600 to take the fronty for scrap which i declined as i wanted to put it back on the road.

I've just started to think about getting it sorted when i found a note on my car this morning asking if i'd be interested in selling it. The guy who left the note wants a 4x4 for off-roading in. He's looking to spend in the region of £1500 so the question is do i cut my losses and sell or do i keep and repair?



Now as much as i would love to get it back on the road i'm worried about a potential headache with the VOSA reinspection after repairing in case they say no. A lot of time, money and effort has been spent on this but a small shred of common sense is trying to overrule my heart and is hard to ignore right now.

Here are photo's of the damage so you can judge for yourself.

Front End


Passenger wing



Drivers wing



Passenger front body lift point



Passenger inner wing



Drivers front body lift point



Drivers inner wing



Top of engine bay



Slam panel left



Slam panel right



Slam panel from above.
You can just see the AC rad mount points are skee wiff



Behind front bumper
Now the tube at the front is the chassis but does the metal behind that class as chassis as this has been bent back in a little bit as seen in the previous photo and next photo.



Behind front bumper






As you can see from my profile to the right it has quite a bit of stuff on it >>> so the question is can i sell enough of the aftermarket bits to make it worth considering?
Obviously the suspension (550) and body lift (70) would have to stay as would the exhaust (400). The engine only has 60K on it.

Mods i could sell would be... (original price paid in brackets)

5 x 33" MT's on black modulars (£770)
HID headlights (250)
Snorkel (350 from Oz)
Air ram intake (200)
CB radio (120)

And bear in mind that it had just had £600 spent on it for the MOT prior to the prang. It was actually pranged on the way to the garage for the MOT retest!

So oppinions please! Is it easy enough to repair well enough to satisfy VOSA or should i cut my losses, strip the above parts off and bite this guys hand off at around £1500

[john (smifffy)]

personally i would sell it an put the insurance & sale money and get a goodun

[ghosthunter]

I'd sell. Strip your bits off, bite his hand off and put all the dosh towards a 3.2..

[Drift]

Keep it, the VOSA test is only the same as an MOT with a few extra checks

[vaux_2]

What i'm concerned about is how easily i can straighten out the wings and the inner wheel arches. As you can see from the photo's the wings have bowed out a bit but the metal hasn't creased. Also, in the inner wheel arches you can see the body lift points are out of line from the front impact, the inner arch wall behind them has bent a bit. How easy is it going to be to straighten that out?

The bit behind the chassis tube at the front, where the ac rad mount points are, is that considered chassis? That would need to be hammered back into line to straighten it out too.

Does the slam panel form any part of the test? I.e. if i remove/cut the old one out and get a new one and weld it in would that cause a problem?

[gregster]

Repair it deffo...you know this car, and selling it and buying another dti could see yourself buying a whole load of new problems (sorry dti owners, but there is a lot out there that seem to develop pump probs etc shortly after changing hands )
The damage doesnt look too bad to repair, the lower front panel/inner wings should pull straight with a dozer no probs...and as for inspection it isnt too bad, the structure of the car is the chassis so the criteria for repair should be not to bad.
best bet might be to take some pics down to your local vosa place and have a word with the inspector and see what they suggest a repair would entail, but I reckon you will pleasantly surprised.

edit...no prob cutting out slam panel, but I wouldnt weld it back in, cut the new bit bigger than the hole and bolt it in, will make any front engine work at a later date much easier if its removeable...try and turn every obstacle into a worthwhile mod is my theory with stuff like this.

[vaux_2]

So how would you go about strightening out the wings/arches? You said a dozer which sadly i'm lacking but i'm sure i could hook it up to a towbar or lamppost and reverse against it. Would it also need someone pushing against it whilst doing this or with a hammer for the inner arches?

As far as i can tell the chassis hasn't been damaged (provided the bit i mentioned in post above isn't classed as chassis) and none of the welds have split at the front where the actual impact was. The insurance assessor didn't think so either.

[gregster]

Sorry mate...a dozer is the pulling thing on a chassis straightening jig

[vaux_2]

And how does that translate into english?

[gregster]

Hope this helps mate...

Dozer...


Dozer attached to Jig...

[Retro Pedro]

Keep it - remember it at Bala 2010 and certainly had my envy - real cool looking motor with it's big boots
Unless you can find a 3.2 SWB to put all your mods on

[vaux_2]

Since i don't have one of those what alternatives do i have to getting the wings/front end pulled back into line? bearing in mind that the chassis appears fine. The bodywork looks to have been pushed/bent back about 25-50mm judging by the body mount points.

Pedro, i'd love to get it back on the road!!!

[Retro Pedro]

Does it start and drive? After removing the easily removable bent panels that then replacing (bonnet, outer wings), what about drilling holes and bolting on some home made clamps with chains attach and anchoring against a tree or another substantial motor. Then reverse back in a controlled way with somebody else watching the effects/action, gentle pulling the slam panels etc. back to their original positions. Then hammer straight where possible. I know it's very 'ye ha' but might get you on your way cheaply. Guess you would need to re-rust proof and paint areas where the panels have been pulled about.

[gregster]

I wanst suggesting you would have a dozer mate, but most accident repair centres and many paintshops have them for fixing cars...
Down this way the going rate is £100-200 to pull a motor, or a drink if you know the owner and you know how to use the jig and do it yourself ...
Have straightened cars myself by chaining em to trees, other cars,tractors etc, but you can end up doing more damage that good using your truck as a giant slide hammer if you are unlucky.
Have a word with the local shops and see if any of them have a jig...its worth a good drink to get it pulled out in a controlled manner, and you wont damage anything else. They will probably also give you some pointers on hows best to reinforce the unbent bits so they are properly strong too.

[Dannyboy]

Im with GHOSTHUNTER on this one mate, get the suspension swopped n get rid, only paid £700 for my 99v 3.2 lwb with 60k n its a propper tool.

[vaux_2]

Yeah, it starts and drives, i've been periodically starting it up but i can't run for any length of time as the radiator is burst so no coolant in the system.

Think i'll maybe go speak to some local bodyshops and see what they say, i wouldn't want to try and sort it and end up making it worse!

I would get rid but having spent so much money, blood, sweat and tears on it already and then forking out 600 quid on getting it ready for the MOT if i can get the front end fixed up i know it'll run great, as has already been mentioned, i know the history and all the expensive parts have previously failed and been replaced so are unlikely to go any time soon!

[bobbinsjob]

I must say mate that apart from Angelina, yours was my favourite truck so for my own personal reasons I would prefer to see you repair her and have her back on the road................or on a trailer down to me as an early christmas prezzy