Crash damaged cars

Crash damaged cars

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Discussion

patmy

Original Poster:

71 posts

220 months

Monday 18th June 2007
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I was just wondering if anyone knows of any salvage yards that salvage kit cars especially westfields? Ive been wonderin for a while now if it was possable to buy them howeve,r badly damaged and rebuld it as a cheap way to get a newer / faster westfield............

mattius

457 posts

222 months

Tuesday 19th June 2007
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there was a thing on Fifth gear a while ago about auctions for classic right offs, there were a few caterhams in it, might be on the fifth gear website

MATHEW

235 posts

277 months

Tuesday 19th June 2007
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I purchased a Fisher Fury from an auction that was damaged. The car has now been repaired (chassis) and I am now in the middle of rebuilding the rest of the car. I purchased it from www.universalsalvage.com they every 4 - 5 months have a classic car auction which include kit cars.
When I purchased my car their were 3-4 westfields at the auction all went very cheap sub 3k.
Hope this is of some help.
Matty

patmy

Original Poster:

71 posts

220 months

Tuesday 19th June 2007
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Thanks guys will have a look, would anyone say it is a better way of gettin a new car (not scared of gettin my hands dirty) suppose it avoids the dreaded sva! wink

Melch

228 posts

241 months

Tuesday 19th June 2007
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MATHEW said:
I purchased a Fisher Fury from an auction that was damaged. The car has now been repaired (chassis) and I am now in the middle of rebuilding the rest of the car. I purchased it from www.universalsalvage.com they every 4 - 5 months have a classic car auction which include kit cars.
When I purchased my car their were 3-4 westfields at the auction all went very cheap sub 3k.
Hope this is of some help.
Matty
interesting Grinnal Scorpion on there.

patmy

Original Poster:

71 posts

220 months

Tuesday 19th June 2007
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Spotted that looks like ALOt of work,fire damage in a 'plasitc' car can be a bag of worms!

LocoBlade

7,651 posts

263 months

Tuesday 19th June 2007
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If you find a potential car, do the sums and make sure it really will work out significantly cheaper though!

An entirely theoretical example, but if you spent £2-3k on a fairly new crash damaged Westie for example, you could easily spend £4k on repairing it if it needs a new chassis / bodywork suspension even if you did the labour yourself, so thats maybe a £7k investment in a CatC / CatD registered car that you might be able to buy uncrashed for £8-9k, but your car wouldn't actually be worth £8-9k if you sold it due to the recorded write-off on the V5.

Buying a part built kit off of somebody thats lost interest / run out of money is also worthy of consideration as a way to save money on getting in a kit car.

MATHEW

235 posts

277 months

Thursday 21st June 2007
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A Cat c will have a record on the V5 but a Cat D will not, the car will still be worth its full value on a Cat D, as all the Cat D means is the the owner decided to have a pay out rather than have the car fixed. At the end of the day its upto you, if you want a racer then you tell me what racing cars have not had some form of contact in the past.
IMO I am quite happy to purchase a Cat D and aslong as it rebuilt correctly then happy days.
My chassis cost £400 to fix and its now as good as new.

LocoBlade

7,651 posts

263 months

Thursday 21st June 2007
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Ah OK, might be wrong about it being recorded on the log book. I think it'll still show up on an HPI check though, and I would disagree that it is really worth full value being a CatD because any car thats been in a big enough accident to be uneconomical to repair is not worth as much as one that hasn't seen a bodyshop since it left the factory.

Edited by LocoBlade on Thursday 21st June 20:23

Mr2Mike

20,143 posts

262 months

Friday 22nd June 2007
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LocoBlade said:
I think it'll still show up on an HPI check though, and I would disagree that it is really worth full value being a CatD
Totaly agree, an entry on the HPi register will always devalue a car and make it more difficult to sell.

MATHEW

235 posts

277 months

Friday 22nd June 2007
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I take your point, but its supprising how little damage a Cat D will have had, the big element towards the cost of the car being un economical to repair is the huge cost that the main dealers charge these days around £100 / hr, of which only £15 / hr goes to the man doing the work the remaining £85/hr pays for the flash sales area for the new car.


Furyblade_Lee

4,112 posts

231 months

Friday 22nd June 2007
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Only £400 Matt????? Thought I hit harder than that!!!

I think CAT D shows up on HPI, just look on the classifieds and see how many clio V6's admit to being CAT D. They are only CAT D due to parts prices and the fact they are very easy to crash. But I agree, I would buy a CAT D KITCAR if I knew why it was CAT D and that it had been fixed properly. And yes, most race cars would have been crashed hard several times to be a CAT D, but obviously they are just repaired.

MATHEW

235 posts

277 months

Saturday 23rd June 2007
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yes only £400, the chap that fixed its is a specialist with metal (old school) like you see on American Hotrod on Sky, he fabricared a jig first to prevent the chassis moving and then cut out the damaged sections and welded in new steel sections All has been checked against a blue print and its now as good as new.
its amazing when you see these type of people working they can make metal do unthinkable things, a now dying trade.

Mr2Mike

20,143 posts

262 months

Saturday 23rd June 2007
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MATHEW said:
I take your point, but its supprising how little damage a Cat D will have had
I agree, most of cost will be labor charges which are usually inflated for insurance jobs anyway. I would have no hesitation in buying a cat D if it had been repaired nicely, but you have to buy it understanding that whilst you may be happy with the Cat D label, a lot of people are not which can make moving it on again difficult.

patmy

Original Poster:

71 posts

220 months

Sunday 24th June 2007
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Cat c/d would bother me really not on a kit car anyway after all it is a kit and was hand bult! personally i cant see cat refecting too much in the resale price, it might even go up if it has had a rebuid.

MATHEW

235 posts

277 months

Sunday 24th June 2007
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As others have said it is really down to you. I have no problem with Cat C or D as long as you understand that you will have to start again from scratch, which IMO is what building a kit car is all about. I still think that you will also do it a lot cheaper that building a new kit and its value will be a little less but overall you should be quids in.

Totxito

2 posts

31 months

Wednesday 13th April 2022
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I know it's been a long time since the beginning of this topic, but I find it very interesting, could someone update this information, new places, options...

Furyblade_Lee

4,112 posts

231 months

Thursday 21st April 2022
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Totxito said:
I know it's been a long time since the beginning of this topic, but I find it very interesting, could someone update this information, new places, options...
I don’t really think they get crashed and written off enough to go to a special place? My Fury ended up in normal salvage auction and the guy paid double what the salvage was really worth just to save the hassle of IVA on a new one.

Happy Jim

1,005 posts

246 months

Friday 22nd April 2022
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Necro thread bump!