Dang, sorry to hear about the accident Liyan... The 8's still driveable hopefully... Alex's shop looks like they did a really good job on his car. So, u might want to check with him.

If my 8 were to get damaged, I'm not entirely sure where I'd go either... I think I'd either go with Alex's place or follow your advice & call Rusnak Porsche in Pasadena & see who they use.. LOL =P. Mazda's body shop, Seidners in Alhambra, is ok but not great. I've had the Beamer fixed there couple times & they're good enough but not pristine enough if you want a 100% top notch job...

What r u leaning towards?

 

lucky it was only the car that got damaged...

well... i do have one suggestion, since our car's don't have such great resale value...

if you're repair bill are a bit too high, repair it at a low-price alternative, at least just the visible parts thats badly damaged.

and sell your car, and pick one up with a clean history that can work out value-wise. if thats somewhat possible... or at least within a certain price range.

being "mildly modified", there isn't much work done to your car that you've put in, or things that aren't reversible w/o too much hassle.

at least that way you wouldn't be driving around in a body thats been compromised in some way, or just to simply have that in the back of your head...

just my .02

 

Just got the car back from the alignment place; at least the car holds alignment and the range seems to be about where it was before so at least that's good news. The bodyshop guy says he doesn't think there's any frame damage, but I think I'm going to spend the couple hundred bucks to get it measured properly for peace of mind. The car will be going to the shop on Friday and we'll see how much of it can be fixed before I head down Saturday noon.

I can't really take the advice of buying a comparable used car. This is my mountain car, and so I need something that I know the full ownership history of. Yes I realized I've already banged the car a little bit, but at least I know the extent of the damages and what was repaired, and I'm confident that I can restore it to as new condition mechanically. I can't buy an used car to drive mountains with as unless I completely strip down that car and rebuild it, I don't 100% what happened to it before I come into possession of the car, and so there's always the possibility of a fault that I missed coming back to haunt me. It's quite obsessive, but it needs to be done that way to ensure safety.

Speaking of mountains, I'm not going back up until the car is back up to spec. I figure it'll be a little while before everything is the way I want it to be.

 

^^ i see what you mean, and too bad that engine history has to be sooo important on this car.

honestly... in any other car, i wouldn't care. if its got a straight body, and i know it, what other things i would have to worry about is overhauling the motor, in which i'm not afraid of...

but THIS motor on the other hand... i don't trust the remans or any rebuilds,even from the factory as they can re-use old parts. and even those fail... so having never built/overhaul a rotary, i see why its really important to start with a original motor.

on the topic of the frame... you stated that the alignment guy gave your car back with numbers within spec range. and that he "thinks" the frame is not damaged...
if it truly eases your mind, have the frame laser aligned. don't think your frame is not damaged, know so.

and the only reason i'm saying this to you is, not knowing the extent of damage, that the car can "dog track" and still hold proper wheel alignment measurements. edit: ( having a RWD, you now have to worry on the importance of a straight drivetrain and thrust angles and so forth...)

i'm no replacement for a laser frame alignment rack... but lets take a quick look under the car if you don't know where to look.

 

[QUOTE=LionZoo;2774482 but I think I'm going to spend the couple hundred bucks to get it measured properly for peace of mind.

^^i guess this is what you mean, and that you've got it covered.

hope you got a healthy car...

 

I'm getting the frame checked, so it's not an issue. The suspension link points aren't actually my main concern; I figure if anything is going to have moved it would be the shock mounts. I have pretty high confidence that that won't be the case, but it's best to get it confirmed.

As to car history; it's not the engine that I'm worried about, but the frame. Yes everything can line up, but a good body guy can get a bent body back into shape. However, if you bend the body quite a bit, it'll have work hardened and even if you get it back into shape, you won't get the strength that it originally possessed without some stress relief procedures.

 

my friend who's a rotary mechanic told me that next to VW's old air cooled engines, rotaries are the easiest of engines to work on. he actually rebuilds his engine himself a lot. but it's all astro physics to me....

 

So when are we doing that detail day Gerry? I have some scratches I need to buff out!

 

[QUOTE=Detrich;2774857]my friend who's a rotary mechanic told me that next to VW's old air cooled engines, rotaries are the easiest of engines to work on. he actually rebuilds his engine himself a lot. but it's all astro physics to me.... [/QUOT

yes, they should be. the rotary is smaller, and with less moving parts, so working on the motor itself or around it should be rather easy compared to a V6 crammed into a small passenger sedan. at least that was how it was for the older rotary cars.

this new rotary we have is a lot less tolerant to... well, anything. a foul plug, coil, misfire, ports stuck open/closed, clogged cat, lean conditions, etc... anything that can link itself to take out a rotor, can and will take one out it seems. and any ignored maintainance will come back to haunt you with a motor needing to go thru a tear-down.

its wise to keep the original motor in good shape at all cost due to it being so hard to get your hands on even a decently built motor, if you don't have to build it yourself.

 

i have some time off the last week of this month... wanna get together to do it then?

 

New Year's Eve detail day? Either that or the last weekend of the month I guess.

 

I'm off btwn 12/27 ~ 1/4 so any of those days.

Just let me know ahead of time...

 

Frame is straight.

 

That's great news

 

Is there still a meet tonight or are u guys going to K1?

I'm too tired to go to K1, but I'll come to the meet tonight if there still is one...

 

i'm gonna drop by the meet for a short... dunno if the usual suspects will all show tho.

but will be there jerry.

 

ill be at au!

 

ill be there as well but probably a bit late.

 

really? :LOL:

 

haha something came up and just didn't make it to the meet, but i made it to track day.

 

So does anyone want to recommend a bodyshop down here? A dog ran out right in front of the 3 yesterday and I had nowhere to go. Dog was fine, but the 3 less so.

 

teh drivin godz be madatchoo

 

you sound lucky this week.. that sucks...whats the damage?

 

Bent front bumper cover and broken front left front foglight bracket.

 

ouch....http://s12.photobucket.com/albums/a2...12_21/?start=0 only drift b up so far.