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So as you guys know I have a long history of buying salvage cars and fixing them for myself, and so did my dad. In fact he just retired after 25 years doing it as a business. But now that he's retired, he's bored and can't stop shopping for cars. Which leads us to my daughter, his granddaughter. She's a great kid, nerdy, well behaved, getting straight A's in honors courses as a freshman in high school. Those of you who have followed my threads have seen her grow up. She was 4 when she first helped me reassemble a 940 after welding in a new rocker and dog leg. This was my second project thread here on SA back in 2006:  Turned her first lug nuts at 6:  Installed a stereo at 7:  Helped strip my 122 for rust repair:  And most recently, when she was 11 she helped me swap out modules and the ignition switch on my C70:  She turns 15 in June, and will get her learner's permit soon after that. But because my dad and I are idiots and can't stop shopping for cars, we found this easy to fix V50 T5 AWD Auto at the salvage auction. It happens to be exactly what she wanted for her first car, so how could we pass it up? Even though she can't even drive it for 3 more months. One of those "timing is everything" situations. So far, I removed the broken headlight and crushed grille to assess the damage:  The fender is pulled under the hood a little:  Obvious slight buckle:  Crumpled metal behind the hit:  First, I got a heat gun and popped out the bumper where it was inverted:  Then I washed it:   Bummer, a little bubbling on the tint.  A daylight close up of the bumper after I popped it out:  Then I undid the screws at the front and of course the fender straightened right out. Now I can see how far things have to move to be right again.  Here's a shot of the driver's side, and what that crumpled metal is supposed to look like:  Next I took the bumper cover off, and everything behind the grille is kind of munched.   Removed all that to get to the good stuff. And no, the a/c condenser is not punctured, fortunately!  Again, what the metal is supposed to look like:  Top view showing buckling. This is supposed to be straight.  I pulled, twisted, and beat on it for about an hour. I got the fender bolts lined up, and this is about as straight as I'm going to get this. As long as the bumper fits back on and the panel gaps line up, I'm fine with it.   Boom. Fender bolted back down, perfect panel gap. Unfortunately yes I did haze the paint. I'm an idiot when it comes to paint sometimes, all that dirt was actually extremely abrasive. Before I did the real washing, I sprayed a little water on it and wiped, and that is the result. I'm sure it'll buff back out but man do I feel stupid.  And here it sits, waiting for new parts. I'm shopping the classifieds on the various Volvo forums of course, and ebay, and erie, and tasca, etc.  I need to get the thing through Colorado's salvage inspection so I'm kind of pushing forward without my daughter, but once it's licensed and registered I'll have her go through all the stage 0 items with me. Full fluid changes, spark plugs, filters, PCV, accessory belts, and I'll probably do the timing belt while we're here just to be done and have the car bulletproof for the foreseeable future. Plus I'll start teaching her to drive. Can't wait. You know, I've always been kind of a grumpy firm believer that your first car should be a total piece of crap, for the crisis management skills that it can build. Yet here I am, getting her a really fantastic car for her first ride. She's such a good kid that I have a hard time not spoiling her. First time I had a car this nice I was 26 years old.
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Mar 22, 2017 07:01
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| # ¿ May 6, 2024 02:18 |
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zundfolge posted:That should be a great first car, don't forget the radiator hoses when you catch it up on maintenance. I still can't believe Volvo omitted a low coolant light from these considering how trivial it would have been to include one. Yeah I'm researching how to add a low coolant light. I think I'll piggyback into the low washer fluid light circuit so if either fluid is low we get a warning. That or bypass the washer fluid completely so if we get the message we know for sure it's coolant. everdave posted:Awesome post! Will be following along. Do you go to the salvage auctions or use copart or what? Yeah, this one came from IAAI but most of my cars have come from copart. My dad and I have been doing this since back when you had to go to the auction in person. Now we buy everything online. More gambling, better selection and really convenient. Yu-Gi-Ho! posted:It got totaled over that?! How much do those things go for these days? Yeah, the salvage auctions tell you the estimate that totaled it, and the payout they gave to the customer. This car was estimated to be $3173 to repair, and if you replace the headlight, grille, bumper cover, and broken plastic parts and then add labor it definitely would hit that. They paid the owner $8460, in the Bay Area. Here in Denver this car (AWD with 104k miles) will sell for $8000 all day long. They're very popular. Look on Denver's craigslist right now, I bet the only V50s of any year you see less than $7k are over 175k miles. And last time I looked there was one with high miles and they were still asking $8k for it. With shipping and auction fees I'm already into this car for $3500 but I'm splitting it with my dad as a gift for the kid. It'll be back on the road for less than $400 in parts even if I get a bumper cover. Then there remains the stage 0 stuff, which is driving the car into "more than i wanted to spend" territory but no regrets. It will be 100% refreshed and cheaper than any local V50 I could have bought, which makes it a win for me. And it goes without saying but safety is one of the biggest reasons my family is hooked on Volvo. The first Volvo my dad bought was a 240 in 1976, and my mom was immediately hit from behind in it. Buried the trunk up to the back window, she walked away 100% unhurt. "You can get another one" was the direct quote my dad ends that story with. My mom lived 40 years after that collision. Do we owe them to Volvo? Who can say? In 1993 My sister also was hit from behind in her 240 when 7 months pregnant. Again, totally unhurt. All in all, in the last 40 years my family has had 4 collisions that totaled the car, with zero injuries. This is why we say: 
LloydDobler fucked around with this message at 14:31 on Mar 24, 2017 |
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Mar 23, 2017 07:44
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beep-beep car is go posted:Isn't Volvo the company that says by some date soon (2020?) that they want 0 deaths to passengers who get into an accident in a Volvo? Yep. Kick-Puncher posted:I know it varies from state to state but could you do a quick and dirty explanation of how buying from copart is? I have heard wildly different things from it is incredibly easy to they are actively trying to steal your money I think the best way to describe it that explains the wild differences is "Buyer beware. No, really, watch it." It is very easy to screw yourself over. They try but it's still impossible with the volume of cars they move to accurately describe all of them. I mean, go look at a listing. You get 10 photos of questionable quality and resolution, often with bad light or from a bad angle. You get a vague description of the damage, they tell you if it starts, and if it moves when put in gear. And you get the insurance data with the insurance estimated repair cost and what the insurance paid on the claim. It's very easy to get enamored with a car and miss clues for damage or neglect, usually hope is a road to disappointment. I approach it by studying the photos carefully several times, several days apart, looking for clues like if you can see coolant in the reservoir, if engine parts are missing, if there's damage on other parts of the car, if the interior is beat, stuff like that. And I always assume it's worse than what I can see, so I set a value based on that and walk away if it exceeds it. The worst is when you buy a great car that gets damaged in shipping. And nobody will pay you for anything, ever. Copart will not refund or credit you if the car is misrepresented, or if they damage it in their yard, and the trucker will not pay you anything, they'll say it was like that when they got it. So basically there is a lot of risk and it's all on you. You have to have good judgement and also be a gambler. I've only been burned bad once and even then it only cost me like a grand extra to repair a car. Most of my buys were average 10 foot cars, and twice I ended up with near flawless, beautiful cars. My dad bought 10-20 cars a year and would get burned about 10% of the time. You just eat the cost and fix the car. The safest way to buy is if the car you want shows up at your local yard, so you can inspect it yourself in person. But that's not common. Yu-Gi-Ho! posted:I can definitely see that at (or well past) 3k if a body shop did everything, but.... still, sent the car to salvage, payout of ~8400, for $3200 in damage? I know the bay area is crazy, but I didn't think they were quite that crazy. To me, that looks like a new radiator support, giving the bumper cover, hood, and fender some love, and if the body shop is ethical, a couple of new pieces behind the bumper. Plus a headlight. And that's doing it "right". I'd just hammer what I could roughly back into original positions, and hit junkyards for the rest. Which is of course exactly what I'm doing, a guy on swedespeed is parting a black S40, I just got everything I need except the headlight for $320. The headlight will be another $100 and it's back on the road for under $4k. Then come the fluids and tune up costs. Yu-Gi-Ho! posted:That wound up being one hell of a deal for you though. I'm still sitting here going "WTF?" about it being totaled over damage that adds up to less than 50% of its value. Unless they adjusted the repair cost for real world value vs California value. I think it saves them money in the long run for them to total it, the customer gets to shop for a new car instead of bothering them with complaints about the body shop work and driving a "wrecked" car with diminished value. Basically the transaction ends quickly and they also get the auction money.
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Mar 24, 2017 14:58
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So the parts are all on order, now I just wait. Should be here by the end of the week. Total of $530 when you add in shipping for the bumper cover. Not too shabby. I'll add interior pics once we detail it. Plus I discovered a new pick and pull yard close to me that I never knew about, they have two S40s in there and one is black with that entire headlight support frame intact. I think I'll buy it so I have a perfectly straight one. I need to go back there and grab a few other parts, the driver mirror doesn't adjust properly (it's pointed down and just clicks when you try to aim it up) and at least on saturday there were 3 out of 4 factory floor mats in one of the cars. I forgot to check the other car for the 4th.
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Mar 28, 2017 19:38
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Got a box of parts from a part-out on swedespeed, good stuff: Got a headlight too. Unfortunately it didn't fit right. I tweaked a few things and it fits better now, but the main mounting point is still pushed backwards. Definitely need the junkyard headlight support. It will fix everything back to original.  Then with a little zip tie surgery:  And of course. The worst part is I was just checking to see if this was broken and broke it. Very common problem. It's the main PCV breather hose.  Gonna try to get the kid herself to help install the rest of this. Also the auction yard hasn't sent us the title yet so I can't even try to get it inspected until that's done. So I have time.
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Apr 1, 2017 16:25
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Made it to the u-pull yard today, but the black car was stripped. There was a silver S40 that was nearly complete, and since I had to remove the bumper cover to get where I wanted anyway, I bought it to re-sell.  This part was surprisingly easy to pull, barely anything really attaches to it besides the fenders, headlights, and hood catch.  I also snagged this PCV hose to replace the broken one above. It's the updated design that's less failure prone. I'll replace it again at some point but this will get me back on the road. And they threw it in for free.  I also snagged the driver's mirror to replace at a later date, the one in the car now is broken and doesn't go high enough. All this after working yesterday and this morning assembling a machine. I'm beat.
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Apr 9, 2017 23:46
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So I had a weird day, I took my daughter to her mom's house and then I came home around noon and fell asleep. Woke up at 9 PM. I had planned to work on cars all day, so at least now it was cool outside. I went out and started stripping the headlight support: The thick tab near where the bumper bolts on was tweaked backwards a little, that's the only damage not confined to the headlight support.  After about an hour:  Everything fit up nicely:  While I was in there with a bunch of stuff out of the way I detoured to replace this thing. Great design change fellas:  And with that, I reassembled everything. There's a little oddness where the hood meets the bumper, I got the fenders to line up but the bumper is riding high. I'll wait for the new bumper to do anything about it though.  And with that, I should be able to get it through the salvage inspection. I'll figure that out this week. The real bummer of this is that my daughter has been super busy with a school play that has practice during any time I'm supposed to have her, and performs this coming week which wipes that out as well. I'm tired of having this car in the garage, my C70 belongs in there, but I have to get it registered as I have no private driveway to park it in. So I gave up on having her do this part of the work with me. I will probably have her swap bumper covers with me once the replacement gets here.
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Apr 17, 2017 09:03
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Scheduled my salvage inspection appointment for tomorrow, so in anticipation of that I changed the oil. All hail crappy techs who use an impact to tighten an oil plug. I was very lucky it wasn't stripped. It took all my strength with an 18 inch cheater bar to crack it loose.   Got a temp tag at the DMV on my way to work, then bailed early and realized I might have enough time to emission it if they weren't crowded. They weren't:  Bam. So all it has to do now is pass certified VIN inspection (it will) and it's good to go!  Now that it has registration I can park it outside, which means the C70 gets to go back inside. And all is right in my world again.  Really I should find nearby storage for the 122 and get the R in there too.
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Apr 22, 2017 00:39
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I've only had it 2 weeks and the PO had a new collar gear put on it in 2015, and then had it resealed last month so no probs yet. I think sonic blue wasn't available in 04, and neither were the bumper cutouts. This is an 06. Very rare 6 speed sonic with no sunroof. Just the way I want it. In V50 news I drove it all weekend and it runs really nice, and the VIN inspection went great. The cop barely looked at the car, just checked the VIN and I was in and out. So all I need is the new title and plates monday morning and it's on the road. New bumper cover arrives tuesday so next weekend I'll get that on and the thread will be over. LloydDobler fucked around with this message at 09:11 on Apr 23, 2017 |
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Apr 23, 2017 09:07
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So I went to get plates for this car this morning and of course what I thought was a blessing...LloydDobler posted:The cop barely looked at the car, just checked the VIN and I was in and out. Turns out to be a curse. He made a loving typo in my VIN on the formal VIN inspection report. The most important piece of documentation that I need to obtain a new title. It was his only job, to get the VIN right, and he hosed it up. Swapped the last two numbers. And now I'm kicking myself for not reading it right there when he handed it to me. I could have saved myself tons of hassle, I was just super excited that it went so smooth and wanted to get on with my Saturday. Now I have to basically repeat the entire process. Only instead of a 2 day temp tag, it'll be a one day temp tag. They're very strict about that for salvage vehicles, normally they wouldn't even issue me the second one but they see it's obviously not my mistake. Sigh. I'm getting tired of salvage cars, or Colorado, or both.
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Apr 24, 2017 15:15
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LOL DMV right? So I got the slowest employee ever, made me sit there 45 minutes while she read my paperwork, and then pointed out that since my dad's not a dealer anymore, he can't sign the title over to me without registering the car to himself first. This is the first car we've done since he quit being a dealer so we were just running it the same way we always did. So that leaves me with one option: pray that Oregon will accept a certified VIN inspection from CO, or we have to drive or ship the car back to Oregon for a VIN inspection in person. Either way, we have to title it there and pay all those fees, then he can sell it to me and I can title it here. That or we get them to agree to inspect it on skype or something. But knowing bureaucracy, I'm forced to do a road trip and spend a couple hundred more bucks. Ugh. It's never easy. I do think I'm done with salvage auction cars in Colorado.
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Apr 27, 2017 21:58
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They asked and I told them. They'd need his dealer license number and there isn't one to give them. I mean, I hate the DMV but I can't straight up lie to them. Too easy to get caught.
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Apr 28, 2017 06:20
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Oh, I forgot the best part. They charged me the sales tax when I got the temp tag to get it inspected. After they rejected my title transfer I asked for a refund on the tax paid. They refused. I pointed out that they're telling me I can't buy the car but took tax on the purchase of the car. I actually said "which is it? Can I buy the car or not? Either give me a title or give me my sales tax back." The lady just sat there shrugging, saying her manager said they can't refund the tax. In the end, this is where having 50 states with varying laws is a let down. I have a copy of a Pennsylvania title from another car in my files, and the second reassignment specifically says "second reassignment by a person/dealer/business". The california salvage title for this car says "second reassignment" and nothing else. Only my Colorado title says "Second reassignment - THIS SECTION MAY ONLY BE COMPLETED BY A LICENSED DEALER". So it appears that it's perfectly legal to skip title on cars from other states, but not here. So they're applying CO law to an out of state title, which to me is bullshit. But it doesn't change my fate so oh well.
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Apr 28, 2017 15:38
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I've definitely thought about hitting up another DMV just to make sure it's not one clerk being pedantic. Scared of them trying to punish me for it in some way. I did some research and found that Oregon does accept out of state VIN inspections if the car is not currently in state, so the simplest thing is to mail the docs to my dad and title it in Oregon in my dad's name, then just have him sell it to me again directly. I think we'll just do that.
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Apr 30, 2017 16:42
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Dad took the paperwork to the Oregon DMV and they accepted it all. New title forthcoming in a month or so. They no longer expedite which sucks. But at least there will be no more hassles.
LloydDobler fucked around with this message at 20:13 on May 8, 2017 |
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May 8, 2017 20:11
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| # ¿ May 6, 2024 02:18 |
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Dad got the Oregon title on June 5, almost exactly a month after I sent him the paperwork, so he sent it to me. I got it last Friday, so all I had to do was take it in and get plates, which I did Tuesday. So we're done and it's all legal and legit. Except I still had this new bumper sitting in the garage waiting to replace the torn one, and a stubborn high schooler never in the mood to change it. Well tonight that changed. With the promise she could drive it, we set to work. She's better at getting the bottom screws than I am.  Removed spoiler, and foglights.  Bottom screws going back in.  Last but not least, the front plate. Required in Colorado, but really only for parking.  This ad always cracked me up - Here is car!  So we recreated it. Here is car!  We then cleaned muddy footprints out of the driver's footwell and then installed the floor mats I picked up from the junkyard a month ago. And with that we took it to a large empty church parking lot and she got the feel for the controls and throttle and we generally had a good time. Constant reminders to look behind her before backing up eventually turned into muscle memory. Then back home for noodles and TV. Aside from stage 0 belt, fluid and filter changes, this car (and thread) is now done. I'll use it to keep miles off my R and pick her up in it so she can practice driving back and forth to her mom's, and school. But first she has to pass the tests and get the permit. Shouldn't be too hard as she ended the year with straight A's as promised. LloydDobler fucked around with this message at 07:43 on Jun 16, 2017 |
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Jun 16, 2017 07:40
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