note that the right pannel needs pullin some what, and the absence of the stone guard, but umm those are the parts ive got and a general picture of the work that needs doing. Feel free to comment and/or make suggestions

ahh, Been a while, just a little update on how things are going.

1stly i've been away in Mexico so i havent really been 'actively' doing anything on the car, until i got back.

So whats new? Well i originally had a mechanic from up the road to come round and put the parts together (bolt ons) to which he observed the wheels were buckled and both shocks bent?!? also the drivers side wishbone is bent too so would also need replacing (budget totally shot to bits) so i've purchased to new front shocks AND a drivers side wishbone from dealership.

However having gone back to the same mechanic hes now booked up until end of October so drastic measures have to be employed in comes RICHMOND MOTORS (who mostly do insurance work) and where the car is now gettin 'fixed' so should be done by next week YAYNESS

only manual work ive done is the front bumper which i've had sprayed, and inserted all the 'grille' bits most of which were transfered from the old front bumper.

SO in closing, i should have a working car end of next week

(now just need suggestions on a good body shop to knock out the dents, suggestions?)

OK, so here's the 2nd to final update, i finally after 3 MONTHS! got my car back from Richmond Motors (Birmingham) after much pleading and them staggering me.

They did do a better job than i expected, and were able to salvage a few things for me, thus reducing cost and so forth.

I will admit, the budget did spiral well above 1st cost projections for the project, and yet MORE parts were needed, (airbox filter, radiator sending unit, cam belt coverings x2, crank sensor) but i finally was able to drive it away today. Apart from a few asthetics (still havent replaced/fixed scratched panels on the right side) everything is fine..oh and the battery needs replacing too.

so here 'she' is.

(oh, and in the last picture, there is a green liquid situated around the VIN plate, where is that coming from? what is it?)

that green liquid looks remarkably like the stuff I add to my washer bottle called bugs off (or something like that, not really sure)

The green liquid looks like antifreeze to me, could just have been spilled when the cooling system was filled or you could have a leak.

You going to do the rest of the bodywork? Certainly come on a bit, its a car again, congratulations.

yeah i plan to do the body work, just considering the options,

a.) get a new panel and have it sprayed and bolt it on
b.) salvage current pannel (have it beat out, painted)
c.) hold out for scrap yards to get a panel already in my cars color

what you all think!?!

Hi mate,

your car has come a looong way ! if i was you for the driver side ,i would just replace that wing ,have a search around breakers though for a genuine fiat wing ,as aftermarket wings may need modifying a little to get them to fit,

its looking good though ,like the colour~!

That fluid looks a lot like the dye we put in air-con systems to look for a leak

Yeah in regards to the liquid, i have checked the 'circular' anti-freeze bottle and the liquid is the same, and is relatively full. So im going to assume it was spilt accidentally whilst topping up at the repair centre.

I've decided to salvage the wing, and just get it beat out, and touched up, as the simpler option.

I also found out that both headlights are from different models (WOOPS!) Though they work perfectly well, the left hand head-lamp has a bulb missing (I think the side light) but main beams/indicators and so forth work perfectly well.

ahh, now to replace the front rub-strips which are missing (under head-lights) and that should be it for the asthetics! So the final update should be within the 1st few weeks of the new year.

I appreciate your attempts but aesthetically at least, its looks a mess still at the moment, and is going to cost a lot more to get done properly.

Which panels are dented? Looks like drivers side front wing, drivers side door, poss. more?

To fix the airbag light, you have to get a new seat and/or airbag, fit it, and possibly get the codes read/reset by FIAT, only about £35 for the read/reset though.

I think though that you must tell the insurance if driving a car car that has had its airbags set off, but as it was a right off I'm sure they know/expect that anyway.

Overall do you think it was worth it, or if you could see into the future, would you not bother again? If you did most of the work yourself it would have def be a good learning experience though eh

Kristian

ahh, let me answer those in sequence Kritip,

1.)front wing is indeed dented as shown, door is fine it's only scraped close to the arch but NOT dented, and also the side skirt on that side close to the arch is slightly scratched.

2.)drivers side seat has indeed been replaced completely (a nice chap in bedford drove down and sold me one, as he'd upgraded his interior to leather) so light is now out and has been reset. (it occured to me to do it this way, rather than replace the airbag which was in the region of £550, drivers seat cost me £80!!!)

3.)indeed insurance would have already known its status.

Overall, yeah it was worth it, it helps to have alot of people around you who have faith aswell. As for doing the work myself mmm, i wouldnt say that, but i sourced ALL of the parts myself which cut the cost down considerably (for example i got the front bumper for £40, fiat wanted £130)and they're all Original FIAT parts too!

Would i do it again!? i actually spoke about this last night, and right now i wouldnt, but in the future perhaps, depending on how readily available parts are and damage sustained really (just like if people are going to renovate a house for e.g). It does help that Fiat parts are a dime-a-dozen, though having said that the stilo isnt THAT popular..BUT...i may be in the market for a Grande Punto..
who knows what the future holds, but for now im content.

(FYI - the original project was supposed to be a Clio)

Well folks, i said i'd update you with the final update so here it is..

finally got the panel damage sorted out and the car fully re-sprayed looks beautifull if I may say so myself, i've been around in it and it pulls great glad i took it on, but yeah um' enough of my 'yammering' you want to see pic's right? so here it goes...

as you can see, i took a few shots of the qtr panel which was in bad shape, and the front wing, also the door and the skirt was scratched (forgot to show pix of this) but all of the drivers side was filled in and smoothed over and re-sprayed, the guy even did the back-bumper for me and filled in the cracks and splits in it. Panel beating is such a dying art but heh, there are a few out there who can still do it and for that im glad.

So if for those of you who followed the progress from the first day, what do you all think? honestly? the pictures don't do it justice since i used a camera phone but in person it's almost like a brand-new car well the outside is anyway, inside too, to a degree (still got the new-smell!)

So all in all i haven't totted up the pricing, though i know it took a LONG TIME (don't remind me) but it still was and is a good 'splerg'. car drives fine everything is A-OK, only 17,343 miles on the clock! with added connect nav+ sun-blinds and headlamp protectors, im chuffed might go out and do a lap-or to in the city centre!

thanks in advance for all comments,

Pen,

P.S (i know about the bump strips on the front, they're in my garden im gonna put them on-on Sunday! relax)

You have a nice car there. Providing the budget worked out for you then it’s all good.

I have done a lot of work with write off cars in the past. To be honest the trick is picking the right one.

The insurance company will not care if its been a write off. So long as it has had its vehicle check and has passed an MOT. It will always carry its category rating when a HPI check is performed on the car.

Many cars are written of for surprisingly little damage. This is because the insurance company use dealer parts costs and their body nominated body shop repair rates. Work isn’t estimated in the way it would be if you or I go to the body shop, but it is done on a tariff per job basis so each item is incremental, rather than factoring in that whilst doing job A, job B is only half the labour cost. They see it as Job A costs £X Job B costs Y so the total cost is X+Y.

The other consideration insurance companies have is the cost of the claim. E.g. hire care costs, accommodation, personal injury damages, damages to the other party if there is one, other 3rd party structure damages etc.. all add up against it being viable, they will attempt to settle the claim. Most of the time they will use the bottom trade price valuation for a car. However if you haggle with them and come to an agreement based on the average price for a representative spread of cars on Autotrader for example then you can drive your settlement value up.

Buying your own car back off the insurance company is also your right. As the owner you always have the first right to salvage. Normally they will set the salvage cost of the car to you at this point at 20% of the payout value you agree with them. Either way you will have to send them your V5 and MOT. You then need to reapply for the V5 and get the car re tested before it goes back onto the road.

Salvage auctions are all either run by the insurance companies, their subsidiaries or disposal agents. You would be surprised what they sell. I have seen burned out M5’s being sold as unclassified (no insurance black mark). This is just plain silly as the only people that would be interested in this sort of salvage are ringers. (nick your M% and reshell it (takes about 5 days) and hey presto clean M5. they don’t help themselves sometimes.

You can only buy category C & D cars at salvage. The A & B stuff is only allowed out to waste management or specialist scrap yards for destruction. This stuff is cheap and ranges from the tangled mess that is unrecognisable as a car (some come with added intelligence still in them if you get my meaning) to drug / customs seizure type stuff that is perfectly good but not allowed on the roads. It is the mangled messes that get out into general population and become cut and shuts that are to be worried about. The uneconomical to repair stuff is normally ok. But, like I said, you still need to pick the right one.

That a really good job there mate... well done!!!

On another note, i thought that putting a written off car back on the road was never good news when it comes to insurance, i was under the impression that if an insurance company had payed out once for a car they wouldnt do it again if the thing was written off or stolen?
i could be wrong and i hope this isnt the case... i would never insure a car now less than fully comp because of problems ive had in the past with claims, but if the insurance wont pay out then it makes the car a 3 party risk only.
Anyone??