repair/replace?

[jpk]

My car was involved in a collision, a picture is posted at:

<damage inspection>

(club forums>bay area cobra club>damage inspection)

My current situation is:

I got two estimates and saw allstate yesterday, have a final
estimate scheduled today. One place wants to cut in most
of a new front clip. This will involve lots of disassembly, including
engine and interior removal. All fiberglass seams will be worked
on from both bottom and top, and any areas where the frame
to body bonds occur will be rebonded. The frame will be
measured on a laser device, although this persons opinion
after a visual is also that there is no apparent frame damage.
The estimate includes subcontracts for engine removal/replacement,
and full alignment afterwards. This comes in at about
$20K, and 3-4 months, with all the fiberglass work being done by
the person who gave the estimate. The reason this person
gave for replacement over repair was that, given all the stress
cracks, it was less work to replace the clip. He said it could
be repaired, but a significant amount of original glass would
be ground away when dealing with the stress cracks.

The second person insisted that it could be repaired, and that
was less work than replacement. He said all areas of stress
cracks would be taken down to the base of the cracks and
new fabric would be laid. All work would be done from the
outside, with no disassembly. This was a pretty large shop,
and had lots of techs running around. Although the appraiser
had done fiberglass work before, he would not be actually
working on the car. They did have a lot of corvettes in the
shop. He will fax me an estimate today, but his guess was
that it "could get up to $10K", and take 1-2 months.

When I went to allstate, the guy looked at it, said he didn't
even know what he was looking at, and just simply copied
the first estimate as his own. Done deal.

My big issue now is whether to go the repair route or the
replacement route. Which will give me the higher quality
result? Is all of the disassembly involved in the replacement
a good thing or a bad thing? Am I better off with mostly
original glass with the repair, or could other potential issues
go undiscovered since there is no disassembly?

I would value all opinions. I will be posting these questions
to other forums as well, and would like to decide on a course
of action by the weekend.

Thanks for all help,

joe kennedy

[Mr.Fixit]

No biggie, just graft on a new front corner of a body. Don't see why they are saying 2 months.

[agro1]

Joe - I agree with Fixit. It looks minor and if there is no frame damage or anything mechanical there is no need to replace the front clip or take the motor out - that is totally unecessary.
I saw an SPF with almost identical damage as yours at House of Cobras. It was the one built by HOC for RentaVette in Las Vegas. They did the same thing as you. I saw it before it went to the body shop and after - you could never tell the difference. It was perfect, and I have a very very discerning eye. If I remember correctly the bill was like 6 or 7k. That is not doing a half ass job either - anyone telling you they NEED to pull the motor and it's gonna be 20k is looking to rip your insurance off. I would give Dean at House of Cobras a call and pick his brain. He has been working on these cars for a very long time and really knows his stuff.
But working on these cars takes time. I would plan on a full month from the time you drop it off to the time you pick it up.

[jpk]

Mr. Fixit,
Thanks for the reply. Are you suggesting a small graft and repair to remaining stress cracks, or grafting all that has cracks? The expensive estimate was to graft basically the driver side fender and nose section of the clip.

Agro1,
Thanks also for the reply. Same question as above. On the car you mentioned, was it completely repair of existing glass, or was some piece of new glass grafted in?

thanks,

joe kennedy

[agro1]

Joe - Not sure exactly HOW they did it, that is why I said call Dean @ House of Cobras. All I know is it looked perfect and didn't require pulling the motor and sure as hell didn't cost any 20k...It is my understanding they can sand the cracks as long as they are just "spyder" cracks and not through the fiberglass. That would require grafting. FYI - the one I saw was hit pretty hard and the body up around the windshield was also messed up - they repainted from the doors forward and it looked perfect. You could never tell.

[Mr.Fixit]

Literally cut off the damaged section of fiberglass, replace that section as a single unit, glass it in and hide the seam. From the picture, you just need one corner of a body. Or you could always replace the whole body, but it is a pain to remove a SPF body, they are glued on with about 50 pounds of silicone adhesive. I have replaced an entire SPF body without removing the motor, I even drove it to the frame shop down the street without a body on it, that got some looks.

[jpk]

Mr. Fixit,

Thanks again. I do appreciate your time and insights. What I am getting, it seems, is that they want to replace damaged front corner section, as you suggest. The difference, I think, is that they want to do the underside as well as the outside of the seams, hence all the disassembly. Is this a worthwhile improvement in overall quality, or is it perhaps overzealous, in your opinion?

thanks again,

joe kennedy

[Mr.Fixit]

You need to do glasswork on BOTH SIDES of the seams. If there is damage to the inner fender panels, they will need replacement or repair as well. They should be able to access the inner fender panels when the cut off the damaged section. As for the underside of the body where the seams will be, if they can't access them, then they would need to remove the body. I don't see how the engine would be in the way. But hey, it only takes an hour to remove the engine/tranny, a little longer to put it back in. I could see the radiator being in the way, the tranny cooler will probubly have to come out.