What to check before you take the delivery from your repaire

[jamiedia]

Hi, boys and gals,
This my first time leaving a post here, I joined a couplea days ago,
anyway, Here is my question, if anybody has experienced this, might be able to give me some diea.

What should I check before taking delivery of my car from the repairer???

and this is what happened, My girlfriend crashed my car (Astra Conver 2002) onto a pole at a local roundabout on Goldcoast, at about 25Km, luckily didnt involve any other vehicles or persons. we didnt hurt ourselves either, but the damage on the car looked pretty bad. it was last year in Novemeber. my car has been in the panel shop and sometimes sent to the Motorama Holden since then.

today i went to the repairer and he said, they had to pull the engine and transmission out as when the damage occured, it pushed everything inside the bonnet backwards causing all the engine mounts and transmission and even wiring harness our of place. not to mention the bonnet and the front bumber and all headlights were unrepairable.
At first I was so glad to see my car, but now i am just a bit worried that if my car wont drive the way it was before, what am i going to do??
If the damage even caused something that they didnt think was broken by the accident and decided not to fix it.. basically my baby was just perfect without any troubles whatsoever.

He also told me the quote for the repair thing came out for almost 20K including labour which is 5K. thank god for insurance.
He said everything towards the battery has been replaced with new parts.

Has anyone had any serious accident like this before and felt anything wrong with the car when they got it back?? is it possible to restore fully original condition just by repairing and replacing the parts??

What do I need to check with the repairer before taking my car back??

Is any "after-accident check up service" necessary??

I dont know what to do, i am so confused and worried. :(

I will post some pics of my car with new 17" astra turbo wheels when i get it back, Thank you :D
oh, btw, anybody interested in buying my old 16" astra converti wheels?? they are in perfect condition with almost new tyres..

Thanks!! :)

[Namus]

perhaps there is some govt oranisation u can talk to.....like office of fair trading for example...i don't know

[astrix]

All work would be guaranteed on a job like that. If you have any hassels with the repairer go your your insurance company.

Check for paint matching and panels lining up.

I had blotchy paint on the bonnet, one panel darker than the others, a bumper that kept popping out at the sides and a missing wheel nut. I even scored and extra very small dent in the rear panel that no one was owning up to. I found all these after I took the car home and took my time checking it out. The pepairer fixed all these without any pressuring or agro from me. All I had to do was point the problems out to him.

My car drove straight and I didn't have any extra rattles you don't normaly get in a convertable. If you're not happy with the way the car drives talk to your insurance company or get some one independent like the RACQ to check it out.

One small consolation is the paint they use in Australia is better than the soft European water based paint.

[Anonymous]

:shock: God damn i'd be crying if i saw my car sitting like that :cry:

[RK]

^^what he said! :shock:

[Degen-Astra]

:shock: God damn i'd be crying if i saw my car sitting like that :cry:

Or getting excited cause of 2 words...

Engine Conversion! :lol:

[jamiedia]

Thanks for your reply, My car was exactly like that in the picture when i saw it.
It was just sitting without engine and the bonnet and everything on the front.

So how is yours driving now? I am actually a bit concerned about the rattles too they are so annoying..and handling and so forth. But what a relief, knowing tht i can always go back to the repairer...when i saw mine this afternoon, I thought the exterior was looking perfect, though i didnt look at it closely, but will find out tmrrw.

I CAN'T WAIT TILL I PICK MINE UP! :D

[em]

Hmmmm interesting it was 20k damage, i'd assume that would be enough to write it off? especially if it has structural damage. I'm no expert at all but can somone who is plese explain this???

Other than that question your car will never drive the same, dont expect it to. if it's convert, i'b be looking at the damage to things like the roof etc, they are a bugger if they leak :roll: .

Then again anything your not happy with after its fixed go straight back to your insurace company.

[Namus]

well, judging from the pic, at least they wouldn't have to fix the air conditioner...

[jamiedia]

Hmmmm interesting it was 20k damage, i'd assume that would be enough to write it off? especially if it has structural damage. I'm no expert at all but can somone who is plese explain this???

Other than that question your car will never drive the same, dont expect it to. if it's convert, i'b be looking at the damage to things like the roof etc, they are a bugger if they leak .

Then again anything your not happy with after its fixed go straight back to your insurace company.


Yeah, I understand, and luckily my roof was down when that happened,
He also told me if the car had been damaged a bit more seriously they would have writtne it off without question, but they didnt think they would when they looked at it.

They also told me that a lot of modern cars now all have safe feature that protects the body frame and structure from any collision or impact to prevent other part of the body from being twisted or damaged, so that only the part where damage occurs to gets damaged.

Hope my car is going to be fine.... :(

[OPCVXR]

If it's not to your satisfaction then tell them your gonna tear them a new arsehole!

But before it gets to that point you should consult your insurance company

Thats ONLY IF it's not right

[OPCVXR]

If it's not to your satisfaction then tell them your gonna tear them a new **moderated**!

Ar*ehole!

[astrix]

The roof was up at the time of the collission but no damage.
The reason the engine had to come out was to enable the repairer to stretch out one of the energy absorbing crumple zones in the the right hand chassis rail.

When I saw the car after the accident I didn't think it would take too much to fix.
Bonnet, right hand guard, grille, bumper, right hand light, that was about it. I don't even think the radiator was leaking, so I was really suprised when the bill came to $21,000
I think the airbags, steering wheel, seatbelts, dashboard, windscreen (damaged by air bag deploying)came to about $7000.

As far as the car not being the same after the repair as before, I think this is pretty true, no matter how good the repairer is. The differences may be only small but they are there.
This is probably even more so with a convertable, which is not as rigid as a car with a solid roof, so that why you get a few creaks etc. But I don't have any more after the accident than I had before.
The windows don't have any frames. This doesn't help.

Every chance I get I tell my other half about these things and that basically convertables are "chicks cars"and what a fantastic, caring, sensative, bloke I am for buying one and driving it. :roll: :D

[NUTTTR]

Sorry but i doubt it will drive the same, not 100%, it can't...... Mine doesn't..... Complaining about the paint finish (the "peel" not matching the rest of the car) when nrma inspected my car they said yadda, yadda, it's within standards, so that's ok, etc.... Nothing (lineup, etc) is 100%...I mean, i'm being picky, but it's not...
Mine was only 9.5k damage, and after i got it back, numerous times i've considered selling it and buying one that hasn't been crashed, because the niggling things get to me... But the likely hood is some other wanker will run into the car eventually, so it doesn't matter much...I think the problem is they go "you have this small tin of paint, make it fill this whole area"... and they do, it looks average compared to the original (the original paintwork is better than any of the other work i've had done).. Then they go "here's this bucket of nuts, bolts, attachments, make it all fit, you have 2 hours"...... seriously, they must, because half the bolts in mine were in the wrong spots, etc.......
The radiator panel (the bit which the bonnet clips into) is out by about 3mm, but it's enough so the left hand headlight doesn't fit 100%, they tried to fix it, but the front end of the car is still slightly out of alignment, the bumper edge that's close to the bonnet is about 4mm-5mm lower than it should be, so there's a gap there..... like i said, small things, but they all add up, 4mm isn't much, but it's still not right :( Again, i'm definately not happy, but nrma has pretty much just said that it's within standards so that's the way it will stay..... I give up, just happy to have the car back............
Aaron

[Namus]

sorry to hear bout that mate....it's hard though, cause u think about the billion-dollar high tech machines they use to put together and paint etc the car when it's first produced and here they are askin a few blokes to do it by hand or off the shelf tools.....not fair really :?

[jamiedia]

I must say that i am very happy with the exterior job they did, except a couple of a small things which will be repaired again. but mechanically the car is very dodgy,
it was sent to Holden Motorama in Brisbane where they never got the engine running because the guys in the panel shop didnt give them some parts. so what holden guys did eventhough they had my car for a few days was just taking out the engine and trasnmission and put them back after panel beating was finished.

I went to see the bloke in charge of my car and speak to him in person at Holden Motorama and went through about 20 problems i have found since last Friday.
they will all be fixed, but you never know what condition the car is going to be in until really drive prorperly again. Hopefully i will be able to get my car back soon enought and in a good condition.

Engine cuts out, steering seems dodgy vibrative, tripcomputer display broken,
traction sing is on, etc etc....
i still dirives without any big trouble, but i know it is still damaged and not fixed properly and thats what is annoying most of the time.

[NUTTTR]

Oh well, i guess it's just the way it is, bottom dollar is how it goes....
They can build the buggers right (as said above) but no one know's how to fix them or has the tools to do so.... My engine didn't end up getting pulled as they could keep the engine in with a hoist while they changed the subframe........

Moral of the story, never buy an astra that's been crash damaged!

:)

[ecstasy]

i'll be selling it straight away, and will never be the same no matter who fix it.

[Namus]

yeah ditto mate sorry :cry: :cry:

[entice]

hrmm..

Astra Conv is built in Italy, mostly by hand, separate from the standard line.

hence, expect tolerances and variances.

that said, depending on your repairer, tolerances can be made better. In fact, it boils down to who actually does the job, rather than the company.

I know of a "craftsperson" who each and every time I would employ to do any repairs to my car. Trouble is, it takes time.

All I can say, each and every time, If I had a choice of a new qautre (Cut and weld) or a repair, I'd chose to have it repaired. There's nothing wrong with crashed and repaired cars, not if they're done right. The sad reality is that they are RARELY done right..

Same goes for stretching on jigs.. Nothing wrong, so long as it's done cold, not heated and stretched, so as to weaken that portion.

HAssle with getting it done right, is thgat it usually takes twice as long....

[Namus]

i think that the point mate....it's rarely eva done right hence the above opinions...