amgm5s8

WHY WHY WHY? That was your way out.

It shows $18k in damages. Now I know you can get it done a lot cheaper but not $1k

I would have bought this one instead:

http://www.autotrader.com/cars-for-s...odelCode1=S550

DaveW68

Agreed! That car seems to have minimal front end damage. The airbag didn't even go off. I'm surprised it was totalled....unless the insurance company felt that the mileage significantly affected the value. Hell, it looks perfectly driveable in that condition. That car could turn into a nice ride as the previous owner already added the AMG body kit and wheels. I bet it could be fixed for under $5k and made as good as new.

mercedesbenzs55

Im a stubborn person. I said its that car and it will be that car even if it's costs me the current cost of the car with a clean title. I've made my decision. Like when I said I would buy that scooter at 13, that motorcycle at 15, or the civic I turboed at 18. When I said I would drive to 34 countries when at age 28. When I said it I ment it. I've calculated total costs to time and Wallet.


I've seen hundreds of cars get "comraded" and have no issues obtaining insurence.

mercedesbenzs55

1. 33k more miles than my car. 2. I don't trust the quality of anyone else's aftermarket work but mine. My attention to detail is impeccable. If someone aftermarketed a sports kit they must have been younger. If they are younger , most likely the person is male and drove it harder.

DaveW68

But you trust your estimate of $1k to fix that car by pounding out the dents and replacing the bumper cover and taillights? And you're assuming everything else on the car is in good working order, including the engine, airmatic, electronics, etc. You may end up spending $20k or more on repairs to make the car right and have a vehicle that's worth half of what you put into it.

I hope it all works out for you, but you should be expecting the worst since you blindly purchased a wreck. If you make everything right for $10k, you'll probably be doing better than everybody here expects.

I guess you'll have to figure out what the number is where you just throw in the towel and sell the car for parts. If I were you, I'd pay to have a body shop tear the car down enough to see how much structural damage there is....and have a very good indie do a full diagnostics on the rest of the car. That way you probably won't spend the $1000 before knowing what you've gotten yourself into.

Mike5215

I'm not sure one can simultaneously claim both an impeccable attention to detail and the willingness to fix $18,000 worth of damage to a $100,000 car using nothing more than a thousand bucks, an adventurous spirit, and a large rubber mallet.

DaveW68

I had the exact same thought going through my head. And then I thought about the time I made out with Pamela Anderson on a plane ride back from Hawaii in 1990. True story.

mercedesbenzs55

nah man, you got it all wrong. I've got small rubber mallets too.

mercedesbenzs55

I tried to upload a pic but my phone won't let me.

RichM

I used to live near a dealer auction, and once a month they would do a salvage auction. I have seen the way these cars are treated by the forklift drivers. Not a pretty site. Hopefully you will not have additional damage from the car being forklifted.

Mike5215

Try disabling the Horribly Bad Idea app.

mercedesbenzs55

I've had one of my cars forklifted. It was a sad sight but fortunately didn't do any damage. The 'Cedes is quite heavier though, so it makes me a bit worried.


My best shot right now is to wait for the title to arrive by mail. If and when it arrives by Thursday I can order a replacement key. This way I may be able to drive it off the truck at my house vs. Picking it up at copart and letting it get the forklift.

nycphotography

Not for nothin' but it is POSSIBLE that our friend here is a talented auto body guy, or his buds are, and therefore, he CAN do or get all the labor "for free". In that case, yes, there will be many hours invested in this car, but hours in the garage do not necessarily equate with dollars at retail, depending largely on the hobby value of the those hours.

The vast majority of the cost of body work is HOURS (whereas for much mechanical work, parts are a much bigger factor) especially if you can be patient and scrounge parts on the cheap (which can take quite a long while).

Myself, in the last few years, I have bought an renovated 10 rental units. Every single "professional" told me it would cost $x per unit to renovate them. Every single professional was within 10% of each other on price.

Doing almost all the work myself (or with $10/hr pick up labor) I did all the work for around $x/3.

Yes, around about 33c on the dollar.

If they absolutely knew I couldn't get it done for less than $65k, I did it for $22k. If they quoted $40k, I got it done for around $13k. (And they were right, I couldnt GET IT done for less. But I could DO IT MYSELF for less, so long as I valued my time at $0).

How could that be possible? Well mostly because I treated it a hobby. True, a nasty dirty hobby with brutal hours... but still... after each one, I decided if I wanted to do another. And I also avoided buying anything that needed work I couldn't or wouldn't do myself. No roofing. No windows. No exterior siding or painting or scaffolding work. Minimal plumbing.

And when I'm doing the work myself on weekends and vacations, I don't much have to worry about charging enough to pay for the new contractor truck (used my old Ford minivan), the tools (I don't always buy they fanciest labor saving tools), the workers (ha) and their benefits (double ha), the commercial building and secretary and bookkeeper (reciepts in an envelope FTW), and the wife's expensive spending habits (if you keep her busy with a paint brush she has way less time to be finding stuff to buy).

So I cut out the fat, and pimped myself like a ($10/hr) ***** to get it done. lol

Net result, I now own all 10 units with cash, no debt, and am bringing in a 25% return on my cash. Yes, I basically worked two full time jobs for 4 years. But it was A) possible and B) worth it.

So YES it is POSSIBLE that he is able to do it for $1 (ok more like $3 thousand) assuming he picks up used parts and does all the work himself or with his friends. (Of course, it's also possible it will end up being a frankencar disaster if he does shoddy body work and slaps crap paint over it.)

And it doesn't even have to be mean the body shops are thieves at $10k (or $18k) for the same job. After all, they have bills to pay, kids to feed, workers to pay. Where he may not.

That said, it will definitely be interesting to see how this turns out. I know all the "professionals" were absolutely convinced I had no chance of doing what I did.

nycphotography

All that said, unless I knew exactly how I was going to make my money back, I wouldn't have bought this car.

But I'm a little older now, and I've had to bust my *** a few times over the years to squeeze my money back out from bad ideas. lol

And I might consider parting it out (full dismantle, photo documented, every part labelled and listed for sale separately), depending on what damage is revealed on tear down.

apl175

I'm reminded of this posting from another shore, and in a different light:
http://www.nairaland.com/1092975/ama...-s-class-crash

$1k or $10k, I'm interested in seeing the progress pics and the resulting BOM ;-)

mercedesbenzs55

This is the most constructive, uplifting post I have seen so far. NYphoto, You and I share the same adventurous spirit, Mallets included. I did estimate 3k for repair(realistically), and I am skilled with cars/houses. I have a few long time friends that have shops and frame machines.

I think part of the reason for the criticism is that most folks on here are not used to our techniques. Hilarious as they are! I bought my car cash for a fraction of what most of you took out loans on, and for less than what most of you still owe. The title is in my name and I will have it in my hand next week. (Mike Drop)

I bought this car for myself and will make sure it is restored and maintained to my high standards.

Mike5215

I think if the OP said he was experienced in collision repair, had access to body shop equipment and that, despite buying the thing without having ever inspected it, he was confident he could fix it for less than the estimate that totaled it, I'd buy that story no problem.

That's not the case here at all. Benz55 has no experience in auto body repair (and doesn't claim to).

Our friend here looked at a picture of the exterior of the wreck and determined, as any lay person would, that the car mainly needed a bumper and tail lights. I've written thousands of estimates and followed thousands of hard hits through the repair process. I can tell you with absolute certainty that particular pattern of external damage is very common and recognizable to a trained eye and indicates significant underlying structural unibody damage.

If Benz55 was experienced in collision repair he'd have inspected the car...exposed the trunk floor, crawled underneath to look at the frame rails, tested to see if the rear doors still opened. He didn't.

Instead, he looked at a photo of a car the same way any lay person would and thought "that doesn't look too bad". Then he ordered some nice tail lamps.

I can assure you, from my perspective at least, this is not jealousy. I'd love to see Benz55 finally get his dream S Class. For me this is like watching a baby crawling on the shoulder of a busy interstate. I know how it's likely to end and I'm trying to prevent it.

1bad540

all good points, if you do have some experience and access to free professional help Im sure you can make the car presentable. If you beat the cars 1/4's out w a mallet I can assure it will look bad. Now the new forklift damage is a new issue you will have to deal with. Im sure handled wrong could cause enough to total it again!!

mercedesbenzs55

That's interesting, because I have many fond memories of doing auto bodywork when I was 7-8 years old. I also remember completely removing an engine with a cherry picker at that age...

Just as Dave first wrote that "You can Never make money on a salvaged car." Mike you are being extreme about a baby walking along a highway. You are that baby, because you have experience in estimating retail prices, not my prices. You are a person who has little/no auto body experience. Because you watched the process does not mean you know what you are doing. It's for this reason that you are being so hostile in your conclusion of costs.


540, there is no word on further damages yet.

1bad540

hope it all works out, now wheres the f'kin car!!!

Mike5215

Not trying to be hostile. Your car, your time and your money after all. As you point out, I have no way of ascertaining your capacity as a collision repair tech other than reading between the lines in your posts in this thread.

Obviously the way to shut me up would be to get the car into the shop, photograph and post the tear down and detail the repair process in the thread, and in the end drive off in a nice S Class for a bargain, proving the naysayers wrong in the process.

If you pull that off I will be the first to congratulate you. Seriously.

1bad540

Mike any action on your car?

Mike5215

Not enough to warrant the hassle of a private sale vs just trading it in and walking away.

mercedesbenzs55

I'm going to do the tear down myself to assess damages. Ill take detailed photos of the entire process as it unfolds. If some frame repair is in order(which seems the case), I will drive it to a comrades shop for repair.

The 'Cedes is still being transported.

Mike, Whats happened to your car?

DaveW68

Not to kick a dead horse here, but you're the one who said you'd fix it for $1k with a rubber mallet, a new bumper cover, and new taillights. Mike does have some valid points and I trust his judgment as a claims adjuster for many years. I think everybody here wants to see you succeed in getting your car fixed and in good order for less than that the high amount everybody is expecting. But please don't keep changing the numbers....like going from $1k to $3k (because another forum member who stuck up for you mentioned that number) and talk about your meticulous nature, which may be true, while also bringing up rubber mallets and pounding out dents. It makes your story sound like something told by Hillary Clinton.

But honestly, where you really lost me was when mentioned other people's car loans, and you not having a loan. You're making assumptions about other members, their motives, and their bank accounts that you know nothing about. I'd avoid that kind of conjecture if I were you because it makes you sound a bit immature. There are many people here who can be dicks, while others, like myself and Mike like to lighten the mood with some humor and sarcasm. If you haven't picked up on the humor and sarcasm yet, then you've got a lot to learn about this bunch.

FWIW, I paid cash for my 24k mile S600 and also paid cash for my warranty that covers me for 7 years. So far, the warranty has saved me over well over $10k in repairs (and that's on a car with a perfect body, perfect paint, perfect interior, and just 33k miles right now). So even though you might get the car damage repaired on the cheap (which would worry me about how much is actually being missed), the high costs won't stop, especially with your starting mileage and undocumented service history.