Bought a Cat-D - problems.

[Colvette]

SMcP114 said:

The fact that the alignment is fine suggests that the chassis isn't twisted, at least not anymore.

Thanks. That's actually helpful.

[The Moose]

I'm not being funny OP, but you're really not helping yourself.

Half your replies are face-palm inducing. Surely after being here for over 10 years, you know how this place works?!

[Cerbieherts]

Good luck, although I suspect there will be nothing sinister that's caused it, it could be down to poor paint prep or body filler not keyed to the panel beneath, in which case it's a cosmetic issue and nothing to worry about. Ignore the scaremongers and enjoy your car!

[Colvette]

The Moose said:

I'm not being funny OP, but you're really not helping yourself.

Half your replies are face-palm inducing. Surely after being here for over 10 years, you know how this place works?!

I know how this place works, but perhaps I'm hoping that the fact that I was motivated to buy this car because I wanted to own something I couldn't quite afford, and did my best to do the necessary due diligence, and then have come here looking for help would suggest that all the posts pointing out that I've potentially made a mistake are not really helping. I mean, what do you expect? Me to say, 'yes, you're right. I've potentially thrown my money away, but your legal high-ground makes me feel better about doing so'?

Whatever I do about this in any other regard than the question I asked here (about the possibility of chassis deformation and the potential problems coming from the type of impact this car has had) is totally irrelevant. I didn't come here asking for legal/purchasing/come-back advice - I know where I stand, after selling many, many cars.

That's it.

[Butter Face]

Colvette said:

northandy said:

I'd be amazed if driving up a kerb could twist a big lump of a car enough to crack paint. However has it been filled where there would normally be a panel gap?.

I think pictures would help in making a stab at the reason.

Pics:


The area where the rear of the roof connects to the rear side panel near the boot.


About 3/4 of the way down the rear drivers panel.


The protruding wheel arch trim.

That looks like some top-tastic filler work on that label. Cracking (literally) work there!!

[Colvette]

Butter Face said:

That looks like some top-tastic filler work on that label. Cracking (literally) work there!!

Yeah, I'm hoping that's the case. If so, I can get it fixed, no probs.

[andymc]

I would have done due diligence possibly before I handed the cash over and got it inspected, I would have also laughed in your face if you expected me to repair after the sale, I am sorry if that's harsh but that's why private sellers have little or no comeback

[Butter Face]

Colvette said:

Yeah, I'm hoping that's the case. If so, I can get it fixed, no probs.

I'd be very interested to see how deep the filler goes..

If it's cracked like that I'd imagine it's pretty deep layers under that paintwork, no easy fix there....

[Colvette]

andymc said:

I would have done due diligence possibly before I handed the cash over and got it inspected, I would have also laughed in your face if you expected me to repair after the sale, I am sorry if that's harsh but that's why private sellers have little or no comeback

There are polite ways to do things. Laughing in my face would have resulted in me having to replace my face with my fist.

Personally, being the polite type, I would have not only demonstrated all the damage to the buyer, but also been polite if they came back and complain about it pointing out that they had bought the car with the full information. I would have also been just as considerate as the seller of this car was if there were obvious issues within a few days of them buying the car.

But once again, this is off topic.

Edited by Colvette on Friday 18th April 17:39

[Colvette]

Butter Face said:

I'd be very interested to see how deep the filler goes..

If it's cracked like that I'd imagine it's pretty deep layers under that paintwork, no easy fix there....

Well, if it needs a new rear panel, that'll have to be done. I'm not really worried about that - the car doesn't need to be concourse, just needs to be straight.

[AJB]

Colvette said:

Well, if it needs a new rear panel, that'll have to be done. I'm not really worried about that - the car doesn't need to be concourse, just needs to be straight.

I'd have thought that poor quality filler work and the structure being out of shape would be completely independent. As in I don't imagine that even quite a major misalignment would cause the structure to flex or filler to pop out/crack.

So, although the car could be bent, I wouldn't think that cracking filler suggested that. If one big panel has had a major dent, it might have had a lot of filler poorly applied, but it's still one bit of metal with the original welds holding it together.

[VolvoT5]

Colvette said:

Well, if it needs a new rear panel, that'll have to be done. I'm not really worried about that - the car doesn't need to be concourse, just needs to be straight.

I wonder how much the purchace price + the repair of the original repair job on this will cost you compared to just buying a "straight" one in the first place?

I think you have been unlucky here but some of your earlier posts were a bit . I don't see why the seller has any obligation (legal or moral) to help you out with this issue as he sold the car in good faith and you were obviously happy with it when you paid and drove away.

I bought a cat-C car once and in a couple of places the paintwork wasn't as good as the original would have been, as it had been completely resprayed (not to a perfect standard). However IMO that was part of the deal....given the 30-40% saving over an equivalent car the buyer must accept the car wont be perfect and may have issues at a later date.

Edited by VolvoT5 on Friday 18th April 17:48

[Colvette]

AJB said:

I'd have thought that poor quality filler work and the structure being out of shape would be completely independent. As in I don't imagine that even quite a major misalignment would cause the structure to flex or filler to pop out/crack.

So, although the car could be bent, I wouldn't think that cracking filler suggested that. If one big panel has had a major dent, it might have had a lot of filler poorly applied, but it's still one bit of metal with the original welds holding it together.

Fair enough. That I can live with. Body issues are fairly easy to resolve, twisted uniframe notsomuch.

[Colvette]

VolvoT5 said:

I wonder how much the purchace price + the repair of the original repair job on this will cost you compared to just buying a "straight" one in the first place?

I think you have been unlucky here but some of your earlier posts were a bit . I don't see why the seller has any obligation (legal or moral) to help you out with this issue as he sold the car in good faith and you were obviously happy with it when you paid and drove away.

I bought a cat-C car once and in a couple of places the paintwork wasn't as good as the original would have been, as it had been completely resprayed (not to a perfect standard). However IMO that was part of the deal....given the 30-40% saving over an equivalent car the buyer must accept the car wont be perfect and may have issues at a later date.

Edited by VolvoT5 on Friday 18th April 17:48

Of course, you're right - the fact that it was previously damaged led to it being cheaper. The risks understood.

I didn't ever see this as being a case of buying a 'new' car - I knew given the nature of its past it was always going to be less than perfect - but I'm not that bothered about that. As long as the crack in the paint is simply down to a 'shock' of some kind and there's no underlying badness, I'm really (genuinely) not that bothered. As I said, I plan on keeping the car for the duration, so I can then get whatever is wrong with it sorted out later down the line.

[Dusty964]

Colvette said:

There are polite ways to do things. Laughing in my face would have resulted in me having to replace my face with my fist.

Sorry I can't add anything at all helpful, but you really do come across as being a bit of a dick.

[Colvette]

Dusty964 said:

Sorry I can't add anything at all helpful, but you really do come across as being a bit of a dick.

Thanks. I'm not really a dick - it's just that the internet tends to bring out the worst in a lot of people, so saying things like 'I'd laugh in your face' really doesn't enamour the person saying that to me. My apologies if you don't like my reaction - and I'm serious about that.

I have said it a few times on here, but having people jump on someone's back when they're worried about something really isn't the good thing to do. In my opinion, you should think the bigger dicks are the people who are trying to kick a fella when he's concerned about a situation he's found himself in. I mean, do you think that all of these people who are mocking me will be coming out and saying how pleased they are if my visit to the body shop tomorrow works out OK?

Somehow, I don't think so. Perhaps you should reconsider your definition of 'dick'.

[Tonberry]

Dude just get the car looked at and report back.

None of this is really necessary is it.

[Getragdogleg]

Panels damage under the filler will be significant, there will be an area where a seam has come adrift and this is the flex showing up in the thick filler.

A full strip off of the filler will reveal the panels that needs replacing.

In my mind you should be paying for this work, its your car. The previous owner has no responsibility for this repair unless he was the one who did the poor repair and then hid it from you.

[greggy50]

At a guess would say that panel was badly damaged and instead of the vast cost of removing and welding a new one on they pulled it out as best they could and then used a lot of filler to do the rest.

Only proper way of knowing is to strip all the filler back and see what you are left with and then either place panel properly (easy four figures with paint at a guess) or bodge it back again with some more filler.

Doubt seller will want to pay towards this as probably never knew about it and to be honest he has no liability to anyway so not sure why the fk he would want too.

I would have certainly took a magnet with me or something to see where exactly had been filled on the car and also asked where it had been repaired and if had photos had been taken. You take a risk with a CAT D and seems this one has not paid off.

[Colvette]

Right - so been to the body shop, and there's good and bad news.

They looked at the car for about 2 hours, taking a lot of the easy to remove bits (including the back bumper) off.

They're confident there's no uniframe damage (phew!).

There is, however, quite a bit of badly repaired damage on the drivers side of the car. The rear quarter, where I identified the damage, is particularly bad. There is some minor distortion in some of the other body panels too.

I'm waiting for the full report, then work out what to do next. I'm thinking I'll probably get the panels straightened out, then wrap the car until I can afford to respray it properly.

So with that and the alignment being OK, I'm about as happy as I can be, given the circumstances. Not the perfect outcome, by any means - I am a bit gutted - but the car is still structurally sound, which as I said before, was the important thing to me.

Guess it's a lesson, though - be careful what you buy into.