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To Buy or Not To Buy?

Kaiser Pontiac

Kaiser Pontiac

New member
Yeah, I look at too many cars, lol. Anyhow, friend of mine's brother rear-ended someone and I've got second dibs on the car for $400 if I want it. Not sure if it's worth it to part out, or maybe pull out the front support and just drive it. Has 205k on it, think the owner's before this guy had it serviced at a GM dealer since it has an AC Delco battery, really clean car, paint's great, only one flake of missing paint on the left fender - no rust. Both fenders are still good too. Monsoon, sunroof, leather, chrome 16s.

http://s356.photobucket.com/user/Kaiser_Pontiac/library/04%20GT (more pictures)





Figured ya'll would know whether this car is worth parting out at $400 + time, or maybe fixing. Thanks!
 


That's pretty well smashed up front, it would be alot of work to fix all that.

I bet the whole front struture is tweaked pretty good now.

You could make easy money on a part out. The motor alone with transmission is 400-600 to the right buyer.
 
I can't tell from the pics but if it's only plastics like bumper cover, shrouds , lights etc, it would be a steal

how is the radiator support? Is it crunched ? Bent ?
how much impact did the steel bumper support take?
 
Inknow if that radiator support brace is fcked, then that's like $800 , $240 for the part and the rest would be labor to remove and install it
 


With the way that cross support is buckled getting it to drive right is probably going to cost more than you save picking it up cheap. Not worth it IMO, if you get it, part it out.
 
But how. I had my whole radiator support removed and replaced. Easy peasy if you can use a drill, ratchet, and welder.

My subframe dictates how my car is aligned unless I'm mistaken
 
Sub frame/frame wasn't touched, rear support steel bumper support is still perfect, was a higher SUV, probably with a hitch. We certainly have the ability to ratchet, drill, grind, weld, paint, ect.. There's a few 7th gens on CL being parted, I can probably cut-off that front piece from one of those for cheap and cut this one off and just swap it. First we'll try the trackhoe and see if we can pull it straight, but given how it's bent I'm guessing that's not gonna work out the best - but it's worth a shot. I got it for $400, being delivered tomorrow, so I'll take a closer look at it over the weekend.

Thanks for the advice guys.


 
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Kaiser... I think you should abandon thoughts of fixing and driving that. Part it. Body, too. Then scrap promptly. Because low value. I know whats going through your mind but... if it had 79K and was perfect or something, maybe. Play with the track hoe if you want, but thats really all you'll be doing. Unibodies need to be within 3mm (cumulatively, including length, width, and height) to be right and align properly. Holding the structure improperly while attempting pulls will result in additional damage. The lower rail almost certainly moved on that thing, pulled by the core support. Compare distance from pulley faces to rail with your other ride after you check mounts. Look for witness marks around subframe bolts to see what moved, if anything. The killed tower brace is stong enough to move that tower. Its a can of worms, dude. I could be wrong but this is the voice of experience talking. Ten years ago I was I-CAR gold and ASE Master, and I used a frame machine and 3D measuring systems as a pro. Still can. That upper core support is hard. Kink it, and man theres been some damage done that may not readily show. Two cents please, lol.
 


Yeah, you're probably right - especially given the mileage. It's cheap enough I can part it and make a little money, but figured it might be worth a shot to see about fixing - take off the front clip and do some measuring, see what's going on. We got another 7th gen, so I can measure and compare with that too. Thanks for the advice though, readily appreciated!
 
Yeah man. It's totally 50/50 and I can't give you an 100% over the Internet via pictures. But for $400 , if the rest of the car is solid and repairable - it could be an east flip.
And if you find that the car is out of whack and won't track true, then you could easily make your $400 back
 
205k miles NA car worth saving?

Not a chance.

if it was a gxp maybe.
if it had half as many miles maybe.
if it was cosmetic maybe.

its a grand prix 205k mile cars are on craigslist all over the place for 2k.

think your going to have less than 2k into that with parts and paint and labor unless your doing it 100% yourself including the paint good luck.

part it use part out money for a vehicles thats not smashed.

i stand by my comment about wbodies along time ago.

"wbodies are like a condom onces they take a beating throw them away"

or in this case part it out.

disclaimer in case anyone compares my 3 wheelin fiasco to this. my car had well under 90k miles on it thats less than half of this. my car needed a fender a wheel new rotor and an alignment. no structural damage it was all cosmetic. that was worth fixing and i have full coverage on it. until its over 100k miles ill keep the full coverage.
 


I'm not saying anything. I don't mind taking on easy projects: quick flips or a personal spare car
just has to be "solid". Mileage doesn't really mean much if everything "looks" good.
You can tell once you see the car. A a car with 100k and the interior and exterior are worn to **** you know the owner didn't do dîck to take care of it.
A 200k clean inside and out - as cheap as possible - might be pocket change spare car
 
CrazyGuy03 said:
I'm not saying anything. I don't mind taking on easy projects: quick flips or a personal spare car
just has to be "solid". Mileage doesn't really mean much if everything "looks" good.
You can tell once you see the car. A a car with 100k and the interior and exterior are worn to **** you know the owner didn't do dîck to take care of it.
A 200k clean inside and out - as cheap as possible - might be pocket change spare car
Click to expand...
That's what I thought, it'd rather use it as a cheap run-around vehicle.
 
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