Crashed my Viper

[AviP]

I crashed my Viper on an exit ramp. The impact area was the left front wheel. Impact speed was between 25-30mph. After inspecting it, the damage seems to be terminal since the lower A-arm has smashed the chassis tube almost flat. So I guess the car is totalled :-(

On the bright side, I don't have to deal with 998. I know, dry humor is all I have now to counter a very depressing weekend.

Since the rest of the car is fine, I'd like to rebuild the car for street or race use (I'm not sure which). What are my options? Does Chrysler sell a chassis as a "new part" or do I have to search for a used chassis?

Please help.
-Avi

 

[Bonkers]

I'm glad you're okay enough to be working the boards. The viper remains I've been seeing lately have not been looking promising for driver survival.

You can get just about anything through the internet sites these days a lot cheaper than through DC. I'm sure you can get replacements through DC but you will pay dearly for them.

Clue us new guys in: what year car was she? GTS RT?

 

[TOOOFST]

AviP,Glad to hear you restoring.
How hard were you pushing it?Details on how it happened?
Good luck!

 

[Jerry Dobson]

DC sells the complete frame front to back only. Cost is about $8500. Front facia is $10,100. Hood is $14,400.

These are the high ticket items. But you can buy just the front frame clip. I believe Woodhouse will sell you one. They make them.

You can actually bring your car back to better than stock. Cut the frame damage out. Weld at the factory locations. The welds will be better than factory. Theirs are not so good to begin with. You can weld on all sides, for some reason they think "That's good enough" and then end up with these recalls.

FYI:Last week, there was a COMPLETE front of a Viper (minus the motor) on ebay CHEAP!

 

[AviP]

I wasn't pushing it, at least not anywhere near the Viper's limits. Here's how it unfolded (very embarassed) :

75mph on the highway
exit approaching.
in exit lane.
off the gas.
downshift.
braking to 50mph at the turn.
exit is a blind right hander with a stop sign at the end.
2 cars at the stop sign.
realized their presence when I was 3 car lengths behind.
started braking when almost 1.5 lengths behind.
locked up the front instinctively
slid 15 feet into curb on left.
impact speed 25-30mph.
bounced off and slid another 25 feet along the curb.
no injuries, just a stunned shock.

Could the accident have been prevented? Of course! I wasn't paying much attention because my mind was clouded with an altercation at home earlier during the day. And even if that was not the case, my instinctive reaction to slam the brakes ruined it. It would've been a drivable situation for any budding race driver or anyone who was paying attention. I guess it just wasn't my day.

-Avi

 

[LotsaHP]

AviP glad to hear you and your wife are okay. Hopefully you'll have the Viper back in action before too long. Guess I wasn't the only one to have a bad weekend. A deer hopped out in front of me Sunday night and I wrecked my baby Viper (Mazda Miata). That was my convertible to get me by until I could afford the Viper. Hopefully everyone else's weekend was uneventful.

 

[AviP]

Stupid question. What is the front clip? I thought that when the chassis is damaged, then it's not fixable. Does this mean that a professional welder can make this chassis as good as new if only the front is damaged?

P.S. I think I need to buy a service manual to understand the parts better.

 

[V10 MOJO]

my sincere condolences and most importantly no true harm (you or the lady) cars are replaceable humans are not.

 

[Tomer]

AviP, I echo the comments about being glad you and your wife are OK. That is most important...

What does your insurance company have to say? You could start by having them recommend an adjuster to look at your car. They should be able to hook you up with someone who knows Vipers.

Or, have your local dealer take a look at it. Or, the local Dodge dealer might be able to recommend either their own body shop (If they work on Vipers) or other reputable shops near by...Once you get an experienced adjuster looking at the car, they can determine if its repairable or to be totalled off.

Good luck!

Tomer

 

[Viper Specialty]

AviP- the front clip is what is gennerally referd to as the "suspension section" of the frame. it basically includes the A-arm supports and forward.

Yes, a pro welder could certainly make the car as good as new. they cut off the damaged frame at good welding points, cut a new one to match, and then put them back together! then reassemble the front of the car on top of it.

 

[Nadine UK GTS]

Don't give up on your Viper! It can be done (I speak from very recent personal experience).

I totally crumpled my '97's frame in a 100 mph frontal crash. (A mess...suspension was ripped from the frame, both toe-boxes even bent).

Insurance totaled the car. I could not see my Beloved Viper scrapped and replaced with another, so came to a deal with them and kept my car "salvage". Bought my front frame section from JonB at Partsrack, and had it shipped overseas. (I bought a load of stuff from him, he does good save on new take off parts too, but off the top of my head new front frame section was about $3750 + S&H). I've done all the work (lots!) on sorting my car, except for the new frame fixing / welding. The trouble I had in the UK was saucing a jig company that could take, and had Viper frame specs on their jig-computer. In the end, found out which jig was required, located area UK rep for that jig, and found out where in the country the jigs were, with the right clamps! (It cost me about $600 for the jig welding work, but it depends on how much you do, I'd taken brakes, steering, everything off, all they had to do was put in jig and weld).

Together with my boyfriend Joel (a '99 coupe owner!) today we hand painted the new frame (thanks so, so much Joel). At last I can see my Vipers rebuild happening. It has been six months, to get this far; originally I had hoped long-ago, to have rebuilt him by now. I hope this is of some help to you, and inspiration.

Don't give up on your baby, it's repairable, and glad no-person was hurt.

 

[Nadine UK GTS]

PS. Support on this VCA board is second to none, I'd like to take this chance to thank all who have given me advice and best wishes with the repairs / rebuild.

 

[AviP]

Thanks for the concern. Me and my wife didn't have any injuries since impact speed was so low. The airbags didn't deploy. Only damage done was to the car and my ego.

The car is/was a 97 GTS with 18K miles on it. I had babied it all along and intended keeping it for life. But that's the way things so.

So if I read your suggestion, it implies that Chrysler does make spare chassis' as parts. Right?

-Avi

 

[Mark Red GTS Cooper]

Avi,

Depending on the damage, yes they make a replacement front clips. John S from NC had one welded in.

The front clip is made to be fitted in where the old one sits and be structurally just as strong.

Mark

 

[JeremyBlackwell]

Sorry to hear about that...it makes me depressed to think about it!

 

[dansauto]

I agree, don't give up on this car!! Frame sections are actually the easist fix to a viper. The car will need to be set up and measured,(checked for diamond) the center section squared, and rear section checked. Then just cut the frame at the factory welds and weld in a new section. Call Paul at viperwrecks.com I got my frame pc from him (that way you do not need to buy an entire frame pc from DC. If you want to send me photos and a copy of your insurance estimate I would be glad to help you out. I have rebuilt 2 totaled vipers now. The hardest part is finding parts cheap.

 

[AviP]

Oh, I'm not giving up on it at all. I feel incomplete without the Viper and there is no way I'll be happy in any other car. Right now, I'm just trying to figure out my options, cost, time to complete. I'd like to do all the work myself with the exception of the welding because it's something I've always wanted to do.

-Avi

 

[Silver98]

It is always very sad to hear that someone crashed his Viper. It can happen so quickly.

Anyone has statistics on how many Vipers have been totalled over the years?

 

[Birvini]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Michel, Switzerland:
It is always very sad to hear that someone crashed his Viper. It can happen so quickly.

Anyone has statistics on how many Vipers have been totalled over the years?

<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

I've been wondering about that myself!! How many are left out the the 13,000+?

Just curious.

 

[Bonkers]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Michel, Switzerland:
Anyone has statistics on how many Vipers have been totalled over the years?<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

No but my little project is beinging to add up to a really bad ratio. I have only been looking for the past four months and I have already found almost a hundred. Thats less than 1% but thats only the ones that have been declared wrecked.

Its obvious to me that a lot of people really arn't prepared for that ledgendary torque spin-out...

 

[Viperfreak2]

You can actually bring your car back to better than stock. Cut the frame damage out. Weld at the factory locations. The welds will be better than factory. Theirs are not so good to begin with. You can weld on all sides, for some reason they think "That's good enough" and then end up with these recalls.

I strongly disagree. The welds should be exactly as the factory welded them (just make them look better) The crash this car was in caused no injuries. This may (or may not) have been because of the way the hard parts folded. If you weld everything up tight, thinking it will be 'better' there may not be anyplace for the energy of the crash to go other than the people in the car. Not such a good trade off. The engineers specify the weld positions and lengths based on computer and real crash-test data.

 

[AviP]

Well impact speed was 25-30mph so the chance of an injury with seatbelts on would be on the low side anyway. But you make a very valid point. Changing the weld specs would change the torsional strength of the chassis but since Recall 998 is doing some of the same for different reasons, it might be a moot point.

-Avi

 

[AviP]

I'd like to thank everybody for their support and help. I'll get under the car over the weekend and do some detailed analysis of the chassis given my new found understanding of the front clip.

-Avi

 

[RockyTop]

Mine had the exact same frame damage, as well as damage to the control arm, hood, various body cracks etc. Got the frame clip from Dodge ($8,500; Jon B. may be able to do better) and the car is right now frame wise. In that I was returning mine to a street car, I had to replace airbags etc. It has a few extra rattles and the fascia, hood, etc. spacing aren't perfect. Unfortunately, my incident happened on a track and my insurnace company was unwilling to pay at first (but see earlier posts re my victory over the insurance company in earlier posts !). Consequently, I had to cutr some corners in the repauir process regarding hood hnges ($1,400 part), etc.

The hood and body panels can be fixed well by a good Corvette shop. Replacement parts like the hood, side sills are exhorbitantly priced and can be readily repaired by a good body shop.

I am conviced the car car be made darned near perfect again, but for the time being I am driving it like it should be driven and when I retire it from track days, then I will endeavor to make it near perfect.

 

[dansauto]

I don't agree with manasas1. I know of no factory that sets up crumple zones by welds. This is just not true. Rather crumple or fold zones are set up by design. All welds are made to insure complete structual intergrety of the unit as though it were one pc. The fold points are designed like an accordian to aborb the kinitic energy of an impact. These points are "weakend" by stamping folds into the rail-NEVER by inadiqute welds. I will agree that you should not "add" to the stucture. (welding braces) But it does not hurt to make a more though weld than the factory did. ( I am a master ASE collision repair tech-not to toot my own horn, just assuring I have some trainging on this)