Back in October of 2010, I was in an accident and my 1990 camaro became un-drivable. I was hit on the right rear quarter panel/ tire and the rear axle snapped in two. The right door is dented in about a foot from the end of the door (below the handle basically) and the right rear quarter panel area is dented quite badly. Also, on the other side of the car by the gas tank door there is a dent inward somehow.

The car was my first car and I put alot of money into it. New paint job, headers, an exhaust cutout (dump tube), flowmaster 80 series exhaust with dual outs, tinted windows, chrome "IROC" style rims, 2 new tires, toyo proxes R4 (i think thats what they were) for the front, and many more new parts in the engine bay were replaced. The car has T-tops and is red with V8 305 engine that runs amazing. Never had any problems with the engine.

So my situation is this: my car is sitting in a friends barn on 2 jacks keeping the rear end up. It is being started every week and everything but the rear end is in good shape. I do not know what to do though. Do I save the money and try to replace the rear end? I am a college student by the way and I have no help from the rents for any of my expenses. they are a little old school when it comes to that. My question to anyone who sees this is: what would you do? Try to part the car out and put the profit to a newer (faster, seeing that my car ran a 15.1 quarter) camaro? I have no idea how much I could get for the car though. Any help/suggestions anyone can give me would be awesome..

 

Oh yeah, im not very familiar with this site, but I think you can go to my "page/profile" to see pictures of my car..there are a few random ones there.

 

not the right section for this, this is a for-sale section.

try the appearance/body sections.

any pics of the damage? if the chassis is bent, it will be expensive to fix, if its even possible.

 

305 TBI, correct? That's the engine that enthusiasts want to remove. So, you have a less desirable, used engine to try and sell. With accessories you might get $300-$400 for it but it will take a while because it's not a high demand item. The rims you might get $150 because they are painted red. In other words, they are personalized and work would be reauired unless of course you want red wheels.

if your seats are awesome without any tears, you might get another $200

how is the dash, the gauges?

is it a 700R4? If so, a used tranny yields anywhere from $150-$200 because the buyer must assume that it's close to being shot and will only work for x period of time.

You migt be able to see over $1,000 parting it especially if the hatch motor, weatherstripping, interior pieces are in awesome shape.

 

[quote=ineedpower13;4861900]. Also, on the other side of the car by the gas tank door there is a dent inward somehow.
quote]

Well, from the sounds of it, if you have a dent on the opposite quarter from where she was hit then the body is tweaked badly. I would say that from your description of the carnage that the car is toast. It's a shame because judging from your pictures it was a very clean car. I would hang onto it and find a nice clean roller you can perhaps swap some of your parts into (interior, trim, engine, transmission, etc.). Don't let anybody fool you; the stock 305 in these cars is just fine for what many people would consider an acceptable level of power. While not the most earth-shattering engine ever produced, these little 305's are easy to work on and maintain, which are qualities important to a young kid of limited means. I would not hesitate to swap a 305 in decent, reliable, running condition into a nice roller if you just want a decent car to drive. While your at it, throw a nice set of headers, a y-pipe, and a good exhaust system on it and you will have a sweet-sounding ride. Don't be discouraged, she can live on in another car and it sounds like you have plenty to work with.

 

I will work on getting pictures up..

 

 

Seeing the gap between door and chassis I´d say this one is shot.
Paint looks excellent and most of the parts look new. You definately invested a lot of money from what it looks like, and parting out will not nearly return what you invested in the car.

Trying to repair that damage, if at all possible, would mean realigning the rear subframe to the front one. Trying to find a roller without engine and electrics would be the cheaper option, but again you´d spend time transferring all parts over to the new chassis and most likely a work towards a repaint.

I do not quite want to discourage you but I woud personally ont try to save this chassis. It´s warped. Spend $500-$800 on a good and rust free roller and move the parts you paid for over to that. Wait with the paintob untill you´re out of college.

No insurance then?

 

I agree completely. There would be no point in trying to fix that car. I'd find a nice roller and start transferring parts. I wish you the best of luck.

 

Thanks for the input and advice..and yeah I was dumb and only had liability on it not realizing how risky that actually can be.

 

that sucks that looks like a real nice car , But I agree with them your gonna spend alot of money getting that fixed if it even can be . Some people say that even after a car/truck with structure damage is fixed they never feel quite the same again.

 

My last daily driver (Mitsubishi Lancer) had very similar damage, and it wasn't the same when they repaired it. The car never handled right again.

A lot of my last firebird (rotted out) is now in my Camaro, and I've spent almost nothing on the Camaro so far. Get a roller, make everything perfect as you put it in, and you'll end up with a very very nice car.

 

She's toast. Getchya another.

 

Clean car, but it's toast as others have said.

Don't waste time with a "clean roller", that's an oxymoron in itself.

Since you just had liability and I'm assuming that means you aren't collecting a dime from insurance, then I would try and part it out or just sell the whole thing off as it is.

You're better off getting a fresh start, a roller is just going to be a problematic Frankenstein that's going to take a lot of time and money to get going.