Mega bodyshop repair

[Botus]

my estimate (assuming one can readily locate a lot of rather rare spares legitimately) this car was worth 5k as salvage and 9k when repaired...

but I'd estimate at around £80 and hour with second-hand parts, paint and lab, this guy spent 19K to fix it !!!

 

[ernieh]

Maybe more like 80 quid a week where he is!

Ernie

 

[Frontstep]

You just wouldn't want to crash in that would you ?
It would be interesting to have it crash tested and compare with the original.

 

[Botus]

Maybe more like 80 quid a week where he is!

Ernie

whilst not a BMW approved repair shop, I did look up labour rates and its cheap.
one of our sites is 10 times less than UK pay for unskilled labour
but polish BM main dealer is £115 an hour in main city and £85 an hour out in the sticks - which makes sense or every german would drive over for cheap servicing

I'm guessing he'd charge the equivalent of 25 an hr which still means its not cost effective

 

[ernieh]

whilst not a BMW approved repair shop, I did look up labour rates and its cheap.
one of our sites is 10 times less than UK pay for unskilled labour
but polish BM main dealer is £115 an hour in main city and £85 an hour out in the sticks - which makes sense or every german would drive over for cheap servicing

I'm guessing he'd charge the equivalent of 25 an hr which still means its not cost effective

I was being a little facetious as you may have guessed, but presumably, there was a market for it or it was for his own use. Either way, I wouldn't like to be in it if it was crashed again. Some of the panel gaps looked a bit suspect in the video - hardly surprising given the amount of work done on it.

Ernie

 

[peterws1957]

Arthur tussik repairs a lot of stuff - he has loads of vids on You tube. Based in Lithuania I think. He seems to be a very skilled metal worker if you watch him doing old fashioned panel beating on wings doors etc. I cringe though when he tackles front chassis legs which have been bent at 45 degrees - bends them back, cuts lumps out and hammers damage flat and then rewelds the cut out part back in, fills with filler and then paints. Its fascinating to watch him work though. Some of the salvaged stuff seems to originate from the States and you do wonder about the economics of it all. Amazing that other repairers on you tube originating from the same place resurrect much worse stuff than Arthur does. Scary.

 

[Botus]

you watch some of this in car camera footage on you tube or such and they seem to think crashing is part of a normal trip to work, the standards (or should I say complete incompetence) whilst driving is hard to believe possible

in comparison, it makes the most incompetent British driver look like they'd find it easy to out qualify Hamilton

 

[Botus]

this guy should be in jail, the cars should be broken to fix mildly damaged cars, he should not be putting lethal weapons on the street

check this one

the chassis leg at 55 seconds, the nice heat damage at 3 1/2 mins. And I particularly like the chassis leg body filler strengthening method at 14 1/2 mins

all this means it will fall off due to rust inside the next 4 winters just as your wife and children are driving by in the opposite direction

 

[Frontstep]

The over riding theme seems to be a culture of "if it looks alright it is alright".
The complete ignorance or so it seems of the metallurgical consequences of cosmetically straightened repairs do not it seems get considered.

My thoughts are directed beyond the cars and to the skies, imagine 500 mph into some bad turbulence in a similarly repaired plane.
There must somewhere be some previously crashed cars which have crashed again and the repairs have re crumpled that would be an eye opener.

I do remember years ago a local outfit brazing their cut and shuts together, quite simply a stihl saw cut them in half and they joined the parts often with a vinyl roof to cover the seams.

 

[Frontstep]

I have a career idea for them;

 

[anglaslt]

Arthur tussik repairs a lot of stuff - he has loads of vids on You tube. Based in Lithuania I think.

I'm not sure Arthur is. Most likely he's in Russia. It is true though that there are a lot of highly skilled bodyshops in Lithuania and motor mechanics who learned their skill before it was commonplace to just replace anything that failed. As to whether these major body repairs are financially viable, they must be otherwise they'd not do it, but of course one has to take into account much lower labour costs.

Most of the cars are bought unseen from US auction sites as insurance write offs. Many are sold on unrepaired, others are repaired and advertised for sale on European internet sites. Some now find their way to the UK as supposedly private sales on ebay, so beware if you're looking for that nice LHD Dodge Challenger SRT8. Would I buy one? Probably not but the sellers don't usually hide their history and will often provide before and after pics. In some caes the damage is quite minor and in a few cases none at all.

Buyer beware.

 

[peterws1957]

I'm not sure Arthur is. Most likely he's in Russia. It is true though that there are a lot of highly skilled bodyshops in Lithuania and motor mechanics who learned their skill before it was commonplace to just replace anything that failed. As to whether these major body repairs are financially viable, they must be otherwise they'd not do it, but of course one has to take into account much lower labour costs.

Most of the cars are bought unseen from US auction sites as insurance write offs. Many are sold on unrepaired, others are repaired and advertised for sale on European internet sites. Some now find their way to the UK as supposedly private sales on ebay, so beware if you're looking for that nice LHD Dodge Challenger SRT8. Would I buy one? Probably not but the sellers don't usually hide their history and will often provide before and after pics. In some caes the damage is quite minor and in a few cases none at all.

Buyer beware.

Pretty sure Arthur confirmed on one of his vids that he was from Lithuania. No matter anyway, but you cannot deny his old fashioned panel beating skills. Clearly someone is making money otherwise as you say it wouldn't happen. Having looked at US auction sites, I wouldn't say the prices are bargain basement. Given the cost of transport from the States as well,labour costs of repairs must be very low for money to be made.