Those with rebuilding experience, please.

[C.Hermsen]

I won't post any links to the car for sale, but I will post some pictures. I have a few questions about rebuilding a Viper.

1) This APPEARS to be minimal damage, woud frame damage still be an issue?

2) Things I see that need replacing are; Front bumper, right headlight, right fender, rear window, rear bumper, rear 1/4 panel. This is all that I can physically SEE. How much more severe could it actually be? The fact that the rear window shattered has me believing the frame must've twisted...correct?

3) What would be a FAIR price for this car, as is? 2006 First Edition coupe, 7,000 miles, airbags still intact. If one could snag it for $25k, would that be a deal?

I am NOT concerned with resale in the least, I will keep this car forever, and then be buried in it!

You must be registered for see images

You must be registered for see images

You must be registered for see images

You must be registered for see images

You must be registered for see images

Thanks for your help and opininions! It is greatly appreciated.

 

[TowDawg]

With the used part vendors that are out there, you can get those parts for a pretty good price. If you have a good painter that you can deal from, then you're really looking good. My biggest worry would be frame damage and suspension damage. It's the things you don't "see" that can kill you when you go to put it back together. I would have TRUSTED and EXPERIENCED body man go over it with a fine tooth comb before making a move on it.

 

[viper067]

I would agree that someone with knowledge needs to look at the car in person. If the damage was just cosmetic, then the car probably would have been repaired.

I know I've seen those pics before ..... if memory serves me right, this car was parked in a garage and a delivery truck pushed it into a wall (or so the story goes). That would explain the front and rear end damage as well as the lack of airbag deployment and the shattered rear window.

 

[redtanrt10]

I saw this viper on-line the other day but can't find it. (Remember seeing the very poor quality pictures).

More than likely it has frame damage that caused them to total it. Frames are fixable, but costs vary widely depending on damage.

When you see pictures of these cars they all look much better at 15' then they do up close. I've seen pictures of viper's that look OK but on close inspection, every body panel needs medium to significant work

If you're really interested in buying a salvage viper you need to look at it in person and know all the things you need to fix or replace and know the costs.

If you're looking to rebuild and not part out, then instead of saying should I pay $***, think of, do I want to own it for $*** fixed with a salvage title.

Good luck, Mike

 

[C.Hermsen]

Thanks for the help so far.

Do we know anyone in the South Valley, UT area that would be knowledgeable enoguh to look at it? I'm in WI so that is a full 24hrs away. Long hike just to get dissappointed.

 

[C.Hermsen]

One thing I have going for me is that I am very close to, and have a friend who works at Don Scharf Auto, and they have 100 of everything I would need.

 

[CEJ]

Look at how the front wheel sits in relation to the rest of the car in that first photo...it looks like you have something gorked up either in the suspension or frame.

Did the air bags deploy?

Also, it looks as if the rear glass is heavily damaged. Not sure if something hit it or the body torqued and cracked the glass.

Does it run?

I would definately have a very experienced Viper tech look this over. Maybe its a good deal, but would you rather buy a nice car and enjoy it vs. rebuild this one at who-knows-how-much-time-and-cost?

 

[Sonoman]

Not to be a downer, but I went this route before (non-Viper sport car) and even after getting the car cosmetically perfect the other defects related to the crash kept popping up. I'm sure this is why salvaged title cars have such reduced value, but for me, it took a lot of the fun out of owning the car and I never really felt good enough about the quality of the car to consider it a keeper. If you're any kind of perfectionist-- forget about it. Also, with damage to both ends of the car and little things all the way around, could really get expensive. To me it seems, the cost to restore a car to "like new" is always higher than buying a "like new" to begin with, though at first it seems a bargain. I also believe with fine sports cars the expectations are much higher than for normal daily driver cars in areas such as appearance, anything that doesn't work, and maintaining its optimal performance. For instance if my DD has a scrape on the door and the shocks are about ready to be replaced it doesn't bother me much... on the Viper, it definitely would. So when the wheel shop told me my old sports car "doesn't align quite right anymore" due to frame repairs, it drove me crazy wondering how the handling of the car could be affected. YMMV.

 

[ROCKET62]

Having rebuilt a Viper (and loving every minute of it) it would help to have a lot more information going into it to help decide if it's worth from a pure financial perspective. Also, everyone has different levels of tolerance as to how perfect the repair has to be which will directly impact what your total cost is going to be. If you are a perfectionist - I would say that generally speaking, you can find an un-wrecked Viper for a cost close to what it is going to cost you as what it takes to repair to perfect.

As far as this Viper goes, I would want to see the frame underside and all the frame areas where the wheels mount. How does the front frame horns look. Do either or both of the front inner fenders need to be replaced (expensive and a lot of work to replace.) Does the rear trunk tub need to be replaced (or will you tolerate a repair.) How much damage was done to the hardtop and hatch? You also need to factor the cost of shipping some of the parts that you need to replace as most are large pieces and come with large shipping costs.

My rebuild was a bit unique in that I wanted to go the Street Serpent route with a custom color. I once started to add up the receipts to see how I did financially and stopped about half way through as it was not looking good.

 

[Phun70]

I would go ahead and jump in with both feet, But I work on cars for a living. A good frame shop will be your first stop!!! Make sure everything is perfectly square, then go from there.