560SL Repairable or not Accident Damage

[dblyelo]

Its bad, entire front clip and some frame straightening as bad as she looks she still starts right up 1988 sl 70k miles

[rowdie]

Repairable? Yes. Should it be repaired? No.
Not cost efective.

[dblyelo]

Originally Posted by rowdie

Repairable? Yes. Should it be repaired? No.
Not cost efective.

I cant imagine it would cost more than half of buying another 70k mile 560sl with mint interior and a soft top that has only been used about 10 hours. I have someone coming to estimate labor and I have a doner fenders, hood, core support and bumper for $600

[rowdie]

Looks like a repaint to begin with. You didn't state you had those parts in your original post. I still think it is not cost effective. Radiator, condenser, both fans, inner fender. Straighten or replace frame (unibody) rail. Unknown damage to front subframe and control arms. All to end up with a $$6-$8,000.00 car.

[alambkal]

IMHO, the question is will it be worthwhile for you? On paper it might not make sense, but for many of us, if we wrote down the costs and reasons for/against buying an SL and listened to the result, we would never have bought one.

I'll be interested to see what the verdict is on the suspension though. Good luck. Hope everyone involved in the accident was ok, too.

[sokoloff]

Here's mine - http://sites.google.com/site/mercedesstuff/home

$23K worth of damage from the insurance and body shop estimate. I took the insurance payoff, bought the car back and parted it out. In my mind after repairing the car, I felt it would never be quite "right" again. Glad I made that decision.

[Roncallo]

It kind of depends on where your located. And if you can do the work yourself or not. A paint job around hear is about $5K alone. Where are you located. If you decide to part it I may be looking for a good 560SL shell to do experiments with.

[jplinville]

Originally Posted by Roncallo

It kind of depends on where your located. And if you can do the work yourself or not. A paint job around hear is about $5K alone. Where are you located. If you decide to part it I may be looking for a good 560SL shell to do experiments with.

Your last experiment worked well...makes me wonder what else you have up your sleeve.

[Ron Johnstone]

For painting the car, find out from various local car rental agencies what shop they use for damage - most use the same one. Visit the shop and get an estimate from them as to what they will charge for a ready to paint car and with them doing the body work.

Those guys are so used to doing a great paint job on unremarkable cars, they welcome a chance to do a classic. They also do a great job, especially if you spring for first class paint such as DuPont. Their body work is usually quite good too, although Bondo is frequently used.

Deliver it to them with all the chrome stripped off and it thoroughly cleaned of all that can be cleaned. Go over it with a detergent and a toothbrush and rinse it throughly. You will get a many thousand dollar job for a few hundred. I did it with my Porsche.

If you aren't entirely satisfied, you can always sell it.