Well some of you may remember that I posted a while back that I bough a 98 se 5 spd at an auction for 2200, the front was hit, its not bad at all, and since my dad owns a bodyshop I will start working on it sometime next week, I have ordered the Skyline Bodykit (urethane), and the z3 fenders, ill post more pics as the car comes along, but for now, you have to look at this max and weep.........

http://picserver.student.utwente.nl/....php?id=390470
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ehhhh I know your dad is basically free labor, but in the same time its not.. I hope that all the fixings\extras dont put the final price tag to 10k+

 

Yeah that looks like you have a bunch of work to do, but maybe you'll learn a thing or to about cars along the way.

 

Well actually it looks worst than it is, maybe a 2-3 days of work with my dad and I. Just waiting on the kit for arrival. It really isnt hit as hard as you all think it is, the front frame is damaged a little, not a lot of work at all, thats about it.

 

Wow, judging by those pictures your vehicle has some pretty serious "structural" damage. Espically that right front frame rail, it needs to be replaced.

I would have steered clear of that obvious total loss. The biggest problem your going to have it trying to re-sell that car with a salvaged title. The car's value is about 50% of what a un-salvaged title is worth. By the time your done fixing it, your going to spend way more than you'll get out of it. Good luck dude.

 

My dad works with cars everyday and he would never buy something that isnt good, like i said, if u saw the car personally, it isnt that bad at all, to replace the fron for him its gonna take a couple hours, cause he ahs a whole shop to dispose of, and he has the best tools/experience 9been doing it for 20+ years, to us it might see like a lot because we are not experienced to it. Ill keep up with the updated pics, and also ill tell u how long it took us to do everything ....etc

 

just wondering what you were going to do as far as airbags, are you get new airbags or airbag covers?

 

wow.....interested to see how it turns out, g'luck!

 

bummers man. the same thing happned to me. mines just wasn't as bad my radiator was fine and i could still drive around but i had my airbag all taped up to the steering wheel and the dashboard i was bummed but two weeks later i got my baby back

 

cool project! make sure to take some work in progress pictures good luck with everything, hopefully you can get a good deal on air bags or something.

 

good luck with the project. A CF hood isint much more expensive than an OEM hood painted.

 

doesn't look too bad....
have fun with it.

 

throw the C/F hood on it.

 

for sure.. C/F hood will reduce weight quite a bit.

 

wow 2200 for a broken salvaged 98 max? how many miles was on that thing?

 

sounds like a nice project.

 

since your dad owns the shop, why not just re-shoot the entire car and make her like new again!
... i sure as hell would
Ant

 

Thats almost exactly how mine looked three months ago. My bags didn't go off but the hood wrinkled and both fenders were gone. Was $5600 for the fix. Good luck. Nice chance to do everything at once with kits and such.

 

good luck man. that looks like a hurt piece there. that is pretty bold to grab a max with that amt of damage...hope there isnt any mechanical/engine damage and all is cosmetics.

one thing is, once a car has been in an accident, it is NEVER the same again

<---trust me i know.

but then again, you're dad probably knows what he's talking about and hope this project goes well. let us all know!

 

Yeah Ill post updates as they come along next week, Its not salvage btw.....never said it was. 98k on the engine.

 

its artic pearl white

get a cf hood

can't wait to see final pics

 

I kinda agree w/ Barrylaud on avoiding it overall, but if u can get 'er like new and running like new, by all means go ahead... 98K isn't much mileage for a '98 SE nowadays, I'm getting my bro's '98 SE back, same color as yours w/ 101K on it


one other thing after you do the body and structural work... clean the hell out of that engine bay!! That's no way to leave a VQ! Also looks like your washer fluid reservoir was taken out, and since our 4th gens are prewired to have a low-washer fluid light and you don't have the cold/deluxe seating pkg., this is a nice small mod to do for the time being, so try to find a washer tank w/ sensor out of a GLE or loaded SE from the junkyard. You can also do a search on this.

In the meantime definitely keep us posted on your progress!

 

Any suggestions on how to clean the engine bay, and with what products? Any help would be appreciated.

 

Search in the Detail Forum.

Looks like you have got a fun project there, best of luck with it. I bet with your Dads exprience it will come out very nice.

 

Thats what im shooting for man, ill post as sson as some work is done on it...

 

my accident looked kinda like yours, but not AS bad. here are some pics.





and that cost me $3,500 to fix... and that was a good price because i know people. ... and after that i now have rattles... no good. but just make sure you do a good job the first time with all the welds, and use primmer on them or it is gonna rust up on you like mine is to me, and i only got into that accident 6 months ago. i wish you the best of luck buddy.

Chris

 

From my standpoint, urs is a LOR worst that mine.

 

Have fun payin for those Airbags ...

-matt

 

Actually my dad just came home with great news, one of my dads customers just crashed his max 98 se also same as mine exactly, he doesnt wanna fix it and want to salvage it, but the airbads are STILL INTACT and he might be selling them to us VERY VERY CHEAP

 

Well that's pretty cool that your dad owns a collision shop. That will save you a lot of time and money. I would be a little concerned about the liabality of using USED airbags, but that is up to you. There has been a lot of collision industry testing of used airbags, and some of the results are not so good. If your willing to take on the liabality than that's your choice. Have fun straightening that frame rail.

 

Nice car man. I hope all works out with this yet-to-come monster. BTW, poor? yes, but at least it's not an autotragic! MUAHAHAHA