Salvage title Mustang

There's a salvage title 2015 Mustang GT that I'm really tempted to buy, but there's one thing that's holding me back. First let me start by saying I have no dellusions as to what the car is. It was sold at auction and I'm mostly aware of all the repairs that have been done to it (front driver's collision, knee and steering airbag deployment. Hood, grill, headlight and fender replaced, as well as lower suspension arm. Supposedly no frame rail damage). I spent some time on a video chat with the seller and it seems to have been repaired fairly well with good panel gaps and pretty good paint, but the caster on the impact side front wheel is off by 2 degrees AFTER alignment. Passenger side is 7.7, and the best they can get the driver's side to is 5.5. I haven't gone to see the car in person yet, but it's being sold at a downright bargain price, so it's tempting to go and make the 4 hr drive with a trailer. With only 50K miles on it, I'm thinking it would be a great platform to build a track car/daily beater.
So is the caster issue indicative of a much bigger problem, or is it something that you could easily live with?
Thanks!

 

If you want to track it, and can't get good caster angles on both fronts, its gonna suck a bit

 

My gut tells me there is a significant kink somewhere that is likely to become the source of a lot of grief. If your gut is telling you that as well, go with it, not the but ...

 

Remember when airbags go off... they lock all the seat belts too... so that is a whole other cost to go over... all the airbag system.
I have done a few minor damage salvage to reconstruction title projects.
Enhanced inspections for my area are just like $150...
Just keep all your receipts for parts... and take pics of the before after repairs

 

introduce yourself to FORScan if you havent already to see what DTCs are popping.
For a free piece of software... its the shit!
https://www.forscan.org/home.html

 

Caster and camber are very important for track car.
If you want track ready mustang I got 302 for sale, but not bargain

 

If it wont align, it has frame issues that were not completely taken care of. run far, run fast. not to mention, it is only worth 50% of a clean titled car. your resale will be worse yet. Unless you are doing it yourself, I usually tell people to run from salvaged, rebuilds. not worth the headaches. if they fixed it right, and didnt cut corners... they would be keeping it. they bought it cheap, fixed it cheap, now want to off it. RUN, dont walk from this. (30 years in the collision industry). Ski

 

Can't sell for 50% when fix cost more. In most states salvage is 60% of value.

 

Sounds like a real heap.
Is it for ditching after a robbery?

 

Details!

 

2013 boss 302, 50k miles on it. $15k in suspension. pm for more if interested.

 

I'm a big fan of salvage vehicles as inexpensive, reliable transportation, or a track bike/car...IF it's repaired correctly, and if you plan to keep it for the long haul (i.e. don't care about resale). In that case they are great.

But I agree, if it won't align correctly either there is frame damage that was missed, or that they were unable to fix, or they messed up the control arm install.

Do the sell an aftermarket arm (or bushings) that allows more adjustment? Those are generally pretty common.

 

I should rephrase and say the car has a “rebuilt” title, so it’s been finished and put back on the road. According to the seller, there was no damage to the shock tower nor frame rail aside from the bumper bar mounting point. The auction details point to a straight on telephone pole hit just outside of the frame rail, so it stand to reason that either they didn’t replace both control arms, or maybe the subframe maybe got pushed back a touch. But yes, they do sell caster camber plates.
I’ll try and post up some pics of the car in a minute.

 

Yeah...that's a pretty big hit.

FYI here in GA if you bring a out of state car with a rebuilt title in, they make you get it inspected again. YMMV.

 

That left rail has more damage than just bumper mounting plate, that is why the bags went off. also, that is why you can see the left front tire, close to the back of the fender opening. it is shoved back, and or the engine cradle area is compromised. If you need huge adjustment cams, plates etc... there is an issue. there is no reason other than cradle, frame, or upper, lower, control arms, strut, and or steering knuckle damage, for the alignment not to meet specs.

if the suspension components were replaced look to the structure. if the suspension components were not replaced you can start there. but, doing so, you just start throwing money at an unknown. you could put all that money into suspension and still not make specs... now you are into the frame/structure again. Paging @cortezmachine straighten this guy out. (in a good way )

you've been warned. Ski

 

I have a rebuilt title 2015 similar impact to yours. Competition orange. I bought it for cheap with a shit ton of mods. Supercharged, fuel system, driveline, gt500 body etc etc.
I’ll part it out and make more money in aftermarket parts alone than what I paid for the car.
I don’t know what they’re asking but the toys are coming down in price. It was you couldn’t find an s550 for less than 40 grand a year ago. Now you can get 1000+ whp built motor cars for less than 40k

 

not anymore. the market has affected rebuilt title vehicles as well.

I do have to note this. Anything is fixable to safety spec. There are factory spec repair methods developed for every part for every vehicle. The repair methods can even change from one day to the next in the ALLDATA system because they found the previous repair method had an unwanted weakness in an accident and didn’t absorb one impact angle in a particular way that compromised the energy absorption. Usually they’ll do that when someone gets seriously injured or hurt. they redesign the repair and upload it to the system we all access.
The only thing holding a vehicle back from repair is the price. They factor in a few things like rental time. Whether it was an insured or a claimant (they’ll always push the repair to total value if it’s the insured’s and it’s a cheap policy. if you’re a claimant they know that the opposite party’s company can win that fight in arbitration so they’ll lower it to 70% or less. it CAN be deemed a structural total without writing the insurance estimate if say floor pan structure is buckled/torn beyond repair etc. You have to disassemble the entire vehicle to replace that so the labor and part costs (you can’t reuse the old panels that are resistance spot welded). Flood and biohazard are automatic total losses stolen cars with drugs having been smoked in them can be deemed total losses if you want them to. super duper high end cars can be totaled for just being lightly damaged. Are you going to fight in court with the guy that can afford a Ferrari about the car not being “perfect” from the accident forward? then Pay his court costs?

 

that repair actually doesn’t look TOOOO bad without seeing the damage torn down. I’d wager the LT rail has a little bit of mash and a lot of sway, which means the RT rail is off spec as well because the front impact bar bolts them together. which you can fix with frame a frame machine and A LASER OR DIGITAL ARM measure system. And likely the upper LT apron/rail and the A pillar might be a little wacky. With an impact directly to any corner with sufficient energy you can have buckling on opposite ends of the vehicle from energy transfer. They are designed that way. Look for that.


Edit: oh wait. That upper rail HAS to be replaced. So motor out. Dash out. Carpet out.

ANOTHER thing. if you don’t have a factory spec resistance spot weld machine your vehicle will NOT be safe and will NOT handle the way it’s suppose to. ever. The type, structure, heat
of the welds change the dynamics of the vehicle. If you plug weld structural panels
that are meant to be spot welded with a lot of pressure you not only make the car stiffer on that side but more brittle and completely useless in another accident because high strength steel and ultra HSS change at the molecular level. Any high heat cycling makes it completely useless in a crash. A lot of companies do t allow welding on their vehicles at all. Not even spot weld dent pullers on exterior panels.

if you have any questions let me know.

 

I think the term varies from state to state (salvage, rebuilt, etc), but we are on the same page...we're both talking repaired, inspected, and back on the road.