Is this safe ?

[J4CKO]

Spotted this on Ebay, can sort of appreciate the look but what would happen in a crash, Am thinking the bodywork now has hundreds of small holes so could not be guaranteed to fail in the normal way, but it is just external panels, what do the more knowledgeable folk of PH reckon ?

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2001-AUDI-S3-QUATTRO-SIL...

[J4CKO]

ging84 said:

J4CKO said:

Spotted this on Ebay, can sort of appreciate the look but what would happen in a crash, Am thinking the bodywork now has hundreds of small holes so could not be guaranteed to fail in the normal way, but it is just external panels, what do the more knowledgeable folk of PH reckon ?

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2001-AUDI-S3-QUATTRO-SIL...

I wish people would stop inventing thier own problems


If a bunch of pot rivets in the body panels was enough to undermine the structural integrity of a car, we'd all be in trouble

What do you think happens to every car which has had a wide arch kit installed, or even just some body work repair on rust or accident damage, ok usually they'll go for spot welds rather than rivets especially anywhere exposed, as they are a lot easier to smooth, but a lot of the effects underneath would be the same.

If this is your level of paranoia, modified cars are definitely not for you, in fact probably any used cars especially of that sort of age should be avoided, god know what sort of repairs have been made and what holes have been drilled where to make way for some after market gadgetry at some stage.
If it was a few years older, you could gurantee the first owner would of paid someone to indiscriminately drill holes into the floor/fuel tank/brake lines to make way for the all important car phone.

I am not paranoid or inventing problems, was just interested as to whether it would reduce the structural integrity of the car, am well aware that the external panels are generally cosmetic but that has numerous holes drilled in the roof.

I have run old cars, have welded and modified so am no stranger to such practises but I have never drilled numerous holes into body panels, for rust repair work rivets are not accepted for the MOT and there must be a reason for that. Generally a repair will be localised, not across every panel. And for repairs it isnt spot welds generally, its meant to be a continuous weld.

I love modified cars, done properly and can sort of see the look he was going for with that even if its not the right car to do it to, was just thinking that it may be a bad idea to introduce perforations across the bodywork, I suspect in reality it wouldnt help but it would have to be a pretty hard impact to make any difference and at that point you are probably screwed anyway.

I wonder what the insurance company would make of it, they probably dont have a modification category for several hundred rivets in the bodywork.

[J4CKO]

I know those arent worth a great deal but they do seem to have a folloing, quite a decent car, and fairly fast with a "Re Mapp", but though not wortha huge amount in the scheme of things, they are still worth quite decent money for a 15 or so year old Audi A3, so that is pretty hardcore doing that to it, must have been a bit ropey.