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Alright....I figured I'd share this save......
Last fall I was contacted by a former SVOCA member who had this '86 1C. He had been led to believe by the previous owner that it was a low mileage SVO....while it was in decent shape it had over 100K miles on it...well cared for but typical for the mileage and age. His son slid into a curb in the rain...tires were old and hard and he was going a little fast. The resulting damage was that the RH frame rail was pushed back a little, K member bent, wheel damaged beyoned repair(chunk missing), tie rod end bent.
The car runs like a top and is completely unmolested...the ONLY addition was a K&N drop in air filter. The original rear Konis were replaced with Monroes at some point in it's past and while the Konis were still on the front, the RH one has no pressure left in it.
Fred contacted me because he didn't want to see the car junked, scrapped or parted out....he had liability on it and knew the cost to repair at a local body shop would be excessive for him at the time so he hoped that someone like me would save the car. We agreed on a price and in January of this year I loaded up the truck and drove to Alexandria, VA to pick up the car. The car had spent most of it's life in the Northern Virginia area but just prior to moving back there he had it in Florida so it still wore the Florida plates at the time of the mishap. 12 hours to Alexandria....bitter cold, loaded the car and back on the road in 10 minutes because it was so cold...and headed straight back for Alabama.
I have a local BMW/Lexus dealer that I am friends with the body shop manager and they have a Genesis laser frame rack that we send our frame work to when necessary....they do a fantastic job and have always gotten our cars 100% back to original measurements. I left the car with them with instructions to get everything back into it's place when they had time. They were busy so the car spent 3 months there....I wasn't in a rush so it was no big deal how long it took. The damage was amplified by the fact that the passenger door stuck out at the back top and was a little difficult to close....when I went to pick up the car I was once again impressed with their work...the door lines were perfect and the door functioned perfectly. The hit on the curb had pushed back on the rail and rolled the rocker in a little...they reversed the damage and you can't even tell which is exactly what I was looking for.
Now back to the shop......being in the SVO business I had a spare K member(coincidentally from another 1C) and we were able to save and repair the original RH fender where the tire had gone back into it.
This has been a "when I have time" project so as of today I am just now replacing the K member and suspension. The ball joints were worn out and while the control arms are both good I have decided to upgrade to serviceable parts and improve the brakes so I'll be installing SN95 control arms, spindles and '02 Mustang PBR 2 piston calipers.
The whole purpose of me buying this car wasn't because I wanted another SVO....I have enough....rather I intended to save it and offer it for sale once fixed so that someone else could enjoy the SVO bug and get a decent car that they could make their own. So once fixed and once I add up my costs involved I will be offering this car for sale.
So I will continue to update this as I go along and follow it along to the point that someone else gets the opportunity to take over and enjoy the car.
Last fall I was contacted by a former SVOCA member who had this '86 1C. He had been led to believe by the previous owner that it was a low mileage SVO....while it was in decent shape it had over 100K miles on it...well cared for but typical for the mileage and age. His son slid into a curb in the rain...tires were old and hard and he was going a little fast. The resulting damage was that the RH frame rail was pushed back a little, K member bent, wheel damaged beyoned repair(chunk missing), tie rod end bent.
The car runs like a top and is completely unmolested...the ONLY addition was a K&N drop in air filter. The original rear Konis were replaced with Monroes at some point in it's past and while the Konis were still on the front, the RH one has no pressure left in it.
Fred contacted me because he didn't want to see the car junked, scrapped or parted out....he had liability on it and knew the cost to repair at a local body shop would be excessive for him at the time so he hoped that someone like me would save the car. We agreed on a price and in January of this year I loaded up the truck and drove to Alexandria, VA to pick up the car. The car had spent most of it's life in the Northern Virginia area but just prior to moving back there he had it in Florida so it still wore the Florida plates at the time of the mishap. 12 hours to Alexandria....bitter cold, loaded the car and back on the road in 10 minutes because it was so cold...and headed straight back for Alabama.
I have a local BMW/Lexus dealer that I am friends with the body shop manager and they have a Genesis laser frame rack that we send our frame work to when necessary....they do a fantastic job and have always gotten our cars 100% back to original measurements. I left the car with them with instructions to get everything back into it's place when they had time. They were busy so the car spent 3 months there....I wasn't in a rush so it was no big deal how long it took. The damage was amplified by the fact that the passenger door stuck out at the back top and was a little difficult to close....when I went to pick up the car I was once again impressed with their work...the door lines were perfect and the door functioned perfectly. The hit on the curb had pushed back on the rail and rolled the rocker in a little...they reversed the damage and you can't even tell which is exactly what I was looking for.
Now back to the shop......being in the SVO business I had a spare K member(coincidentally from another 1C) and we were able to save and repair the original RH fender where the tire had gone back into it.
This has been a "when I have time" project so as of today I am just now replacing the K member and suspension. The ball joints were worn out and while the control arms are both good I have decided to upgrade to serviceable parts and improve the brakes so I'll be installing SN95 control arms, spindles and '02 Mustang PBR 2 piston calipers.
The whole purpose of me buying this car wasn't because I wanted another SVO....I have enough....rather I intended to save it and offer it for sale once fixed so that someone else could enjoy the SVO bug and get a decent car that they could make their own. So once fixed and once I add up my costs involved I will be offering this car for sale.
So I will continue to update this as I go along and follow it along to the point that someone else gets the opportunity to take over and enjoy the car.
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