Time crunch? He wants to compete in GL, he has until the middle of next April and that's just for the first round. Literally 6 months away.

I'd probably say fix the car if the rear quarter wasn't so damaged but the only way to fix that is to cut and weld in new metal and lots of body shops can't do that for ****, and good ones charge a lot, which is why his quote is what it is. The midwest is ROUGH on steel bodies. I've seen well done repairs rust out in 2-3 years and it's probably my least favorite thing to deal with. Just my opinion though.

 

Def made the right decision.

 

lol that's just the truth. my strength is in finance and economics

i'll def check another shop, thanks for the reference.

yea it makes me nervous but the shop i visited keeps a porsche boxster on the floor where they cut and welded and basically challenge people find where it is - i could not. does at least give me a little comfort

 

I think the other thing to consider is that this isnt a daily or car you rely on if I remember correctly. Can take your time and accumulate some of the parts yourself first. Pay body shop only for what you cant do. Its not like the car needs to get completed tomorrow so no rush to make the massive expenditure.

Edit i read "time crunch" a few posts back. Is that really realistic?

 

Austin suggested he take a week off of work to to do a drivetrain swap with a roller. For Sam, that would be a time crunch..

 

I understand, we all have to work within the constraints of our situation. Just do your best to keep the shop honest, and if it does need a pull to straighten the body make sure you do a little research into the different techniques and equipment that are are out there. Then you can decide if what the shop plans to do is going to meet your standards. Not all frame repairs are created equal. Some people are fine with wrapping a chain around a tree and using a winch. High end MFG's require a frame jig be used which is very expensive because you have to drop the entire front and rear assembly to mount it and the equipment itself is very expensive. Then there are other various pulling machines which I am guessing is probably what your shop is using. What will meet your standards is only for you to say.

I wasn't ever implying that he himself should do the work. Depending on the condition of his car it could end up being reasonable to just pay a shop to do the swap for you.

That's TBD now isn't it. Unfortunately I have had a lot of bad experiences with body shops over the years and I have personally experienced some really bad outcomes. I just want him to understand his options and not be taken advantage of simply because of his circumstances.

 

yea i'm accumulating body parts.

i called the shop back to ask a couple questions - i think they are "high end' in the sense that they laser align everything, not sure entirely how the process works.

i asked if the labor quote included straightening the frame - the answer there was a little murky - he said yea, if the frame is only off 5mm or so. if the frame's off 25mm, then it's more - they don't know until they take the car apart and measure it and see.

so basically, they don't know how much exactly it will cost until they take the car apart and start working on it. i assume this is what they meant when they said, could be up to 2k more once they take it apart

in that sense, quotes don't even matter. they can't get an accurate quote until they completely take it apart - i assume that goes for all body shops that laser align frames.

 

They should be able to use a tape measure to get 9X% of the way there with that estimate. A tape measure is accurate to 1.58mm. You don't need laser precision to know how far out your dealing with.

 

[QUOTE=kyoo;11890679]lol that's just the truth. my strength is in finance and economics



is it really though?

Your leaning towards going to a body repair shop. with no second opinion or quote done. no proper inspection of the car (havnt even opened the hood and taken base measurements which takes 5 min) Despite multiple people pointing out it would be economically more viable to purchase a rolling body with a blown motor or drivetrain and transfer your running gear across.

Not to mention time out of action for your money. body shop is probably going to take 2 months or so to do this work. it could skyrocket another 5k in costs above the quoted amount.

You could pick up a roller. and a professional mechanic could have the blown bits out(if required) and your bits in in 2 days. i dont know the going rate for labour at mechanic workshops up your way but assuming it is around $80 an hour youd be looking at $1500 in labour and your out the door and driving again by the weekend.

So you pick up a clean roller for like $10k. Spent $2k tops getting your running gear moved across. and your back on the road in time for saturday cars n coffee runs.

As opposed to months of your car sitting in a body shop and phone calls of oh we just found this its worse than we thought every week and $$$ building up. Then you finally get your car back after like 3 months and youve fallen out of love with it. its not the same car it used to be. and you know in the back of your mind where all the repairs have been done to it. not to mention that $15k+ bill your left with.

IMO its more economic to go the roller route. its more efficient. and youll end up with a better product than a crashed and repaired evo. (which if your honest youll have to declare if you decide to sell it and it often sends people running)

Just do ur due dilligence when you purchase the roller to make sure u dont get a dog its not hard.

Cheaper and quicker result is economics 101 is it not..

 

Another vote against the roller from me.

Might be an okay idea with infinite free time, but realistically it's a huge pain to deal with. Even just disposing of the old chassis in proper compliance with all regulations can be a pain. IMO it's worth paying the body shop to do this right so you can get back to enjoying the car. Don't let it turn into a never-ending project that drains your enjoyment of the Evo.

The only exception would be if you stumble upon a great condition roller. That's super rare, IME. Usually anything in great condition gets sold as a full car that needs a motor rebuild. If it's not in great condition, they let their friends pick the good parts off the car and sell the rest as a roller.

Doing some pre-work and pre-measurements of the chassis yourself (tape measure is fine) is a good idea, though.

 

[QUOTE=bee-raddd;11890721]
well let's see if it's economics 101, and see if we're actually capturing all the cost - both in money and time.

• starting with, what time do i have to go and "pick up a roller for 10k"? i work in banking, sales and trading, and am out of town every saturday (read: i have no time)
• then, with what trailer do i get this car? (i have no truck & trailer).
• where do i store the roller post-swap until I sell it? (i have no space). selling the roller is something else entirely, or i try to pick off parts and sell bit by bit, all while storing this car somewhere.
• so i've picked up a magically clean roller for 10k and you say another 2, lets be honest 3-4k to swap over EVERYTHING depending on what's missing from this roller.
  • this includes the powertrain, but also the suspension, the Evo X brakes setup in the front, even if the roller comes with brakes. Do rollers have headlights? If not, I still need to get some, that doesn't change.
• so i've now also paid sales tax on the roller since it's still a purchase of a car
• so, we're looking at, on the low end, 14k for my car swapped into a roller, IF you can find a clean body one to begin with that's got everything the car needs - keep adding if there's still things that it will need.

after that, what of the remaining car is going to be worth anything here? probably not worth **** afterwards honestly, including the hassle that the busted roller would cost me, given everything that would be coming off of it. i'd have to buy some steelies to get it actually rolling instead of on cinder blocks since i'm taking my wheels, plus a stock suspension from somewhere to install since my coilovers are coming with me to the new roller. it adds up. but let's say i can still get recoup 3k after adding that stuff back. so, an iffy 11k out of pocket.

on the flip side, i take my car to the body shop, pay 5k in parts, 2-4k in labor, 2.5 in paint and misc. let's say labor is 5k even. so, 13k. is MAYBE 2k in pocket worth everything above? which frankly, I believe it will still end up being a wash? not for me. if i had the time to do the work myself, yea absolutely.

i appreciate the input, i really do - and I am concerned about the cost of straightening the frame out balloon out of control. my expectation is that it will not, given the overall condition of the car still. i have not been able to get back to the car yet, I will take a look on sunday and see if I can get the hood off to start looking at measurements, and go from there. and yes, I will be checking with another shop too, but I called one earlier and they similarly said they need to basically start working on it to know how much it will be. we've got to approve the bill to see what's in the bill

 

lol team roller and team bondo. Maybe an opportunity for a good old evom poll

 

i'm not even necessarily opposed to roller if i had the resources to handle it.

i'm more saying, if you are convinced a roller is the way to go, show me that the expenditure it will cost to get into a roller, my time, the purchase of the resources to do it, store one of the rollers, all dependent on finding a "perfect roller," will significantly outweigh the ease of having the shop fix the current car

 

It's like bench racing, but with someone else's free time and money.

 

[QUOTE=kyoo;11890731]well to address most of your concerns I would suggest you find a shop that can take care of most of that for you. The towing, the inspecting of the roller, the disposal of your current chassis. Maybe you can barter some of the left over parts to lower costs with the shop. If not you can have them remove the stuff for you to sell, or just junk with the chassis. Steel is worth money and there are people that will handle disposal of your chassis with maybe some money in your pocket too.

To clarify a little, what I am saying is delegate all of this to a shop. Put it on them to find you a good roller and to let you know when they are ready to pick up your car for the transplant.