Opinions: Is this Birkin wreck repairable?

[Winston]

Here's the car:

http://www.pd-go.com/index.php?action=w ... SiteID=409

What do you think? Looks straight forward of the scuttle, but it's difficult to tell from the pictures. Could this car be repaired *and be safe* without a full re-chassis? I.e. with only the seemingly bent tubes cut out and replaced? Or would the entire chassis always be suspect?

-Winston

[chetcpo]

Assuming all the damage is from the firewall forward I don't think it would be impossible to rebuild. That full rollcage likely prevented distortion of the rest of the frame. Regardless that was one hard lick.

I wouldn't give more than $3000 for that mess, but it may be worth that just for the title and parts.

[jmanz6]

Anything can be repaired. It's just metal. The question is would it be worth repairing? You would have to inspect it yourself to determine that.

[horizenjob]

What's not bent should be safe. This mild steel yields way before it's ultimate strengh ( maybe %30 ), so lot's of safety factor. Building the frame seems to be one of the easier parts of this project. But a Birkin would be an excellent donor as inspiration and example. It has a;; the problems solved for you to look at.

Interesting marketing on their part to sell the roll cage with the wrecked car. It does seem they are trying to get top dollar by selling it without engine, transmission etc. But maybe that's just the way it worked out.

Those rims don't look usable on the street.

Since this car doesn't have heavy items in the rear, that also suggests damage confined to the front. But who knows? You would want to carefully eyeball all the welds..

That roll cage looks like it weighs as much or more then the frame...

[Winston]

I'd say that the replacement cost of the parts is somewhere between $2500-$3000, based on a little spreadsheet I put together. This assumes that the entire chassis is junk and does not account for the car having a usable title (which may or may not be the case depending on your state laws, and whether or not the title is marked as a result of the accident. Also, if this was a race car, it might not even have a title).

I think I'm going to call and see how much they want for it. It would be a good kickstart to my project, I think.

-Winston

[Mandurath]

It was on ebay a few times, I am pretty sure bidding got up to around 3k and never met reserve. And that was with alot more stuff thabn showing in the pics from wirewheel.

[Winston]

Called, got a price, and it's not entirely unreasonable.

$2000-$2500. Plus I would have to ship it from FL to TX.

Seller would probably swap out the race wheels for stock Birkin wheels, and swap out rose-jointed trailing arms for stock Birkin trailing arms. Seller also has yellow Birkin front fenders to match, not sure if those would go with the car or if they would be extra, given that some of the race bits are coming off of the car. Car was a race car, therefore no title. Bill of sale only -- therefore this would have to be newly registered as a homebuilt after completion. Also, the burgundy TVR (body only) in the background of some of the pics is coming to Texas somehow, so there's a possibility of sharing a truck.

Hrmmmm......

[Winston]

After getting shipping quotes, I determined that those costs would nullify any value gained by purchasing this car.

The search continues...

-Winston