Well that sucks. That’s pretty bad.
Do you have a friend with a truck that could back into it for you? Call the insurance and say it was hit in the parking lot. Let them take care of the rest.


Edit: May not be apparent. joking of course.

 

I got screwed on a Camaro SS I bought some years ago. What didn't seem like much ended up being significant rust which I couldn't see because the car sat too low for me to get under it. I ended up buying a roller with a near perfect body and decent paint job for $1,000 and swapped everything over. For what I've got into it, I should have just bought a nicer car to begin with. I thought I was geting a deal and got anything but a deal. At least the powertrain was good.

 

That initial "repair" job was horrendous.

I don't think this one is worth saving. Would be better to swap everything to a roller like the poster above mentioned. Any left over parts or body panels that are decent could be sold or kept as spares, and then junk the rest.

 

This repair looks like the body work equivalent of getting a car running and clearing out any check engine codes just long enough to sell the car. Unless you can access the car you pulled the core brace from and pretty much strip the entire driver's side wheel well and connecting pieces I would say it isn't worth it unless you are wanting to do it for the satisfaction. As to safety, pull the tire and check the mounting points for the A-arms and suspension housing. Given how the fender was fixed to not look like it was in a wreck I would treat the rest of the car as suspect as well.

 

What a shame... It could be fixed correctly, However it's usually not cost effective.... Given what we can now see under the fender, that tower could be pushed in or back which means it needs to go on a frame rack to get aligned properly before new parts can be installed.

I am not familiar with the 4th gens enough to know what parts are available for a repair like that. All I can find is used parts including body panels.

 

It can be fixed with parts from a donor car but at what cost?

 

Wow way more replies than I was anticipating.

yeah im bummed, i knew pretty quick after buying it that it was bad but was not anticipating what i found. The roller idea has been on my mind but I still owe 14k on it and don't know how that would work if something were to happen. They wouldn't want the roller with everything swapped and idk if charges or anything could come from handing this back as a roller in the worst case, lose my job, financial burden, etc. The car has about 55k miles and hadn't been registered in almost 10 years. I'm thinking dude procharged it for the track and threw it into the wall at some point. There has to be about 30/50 washers for height and depth spacing and like I said self tappers in the fender, wheel well, etc. I will take the tire off and check that the suspension is at least not janky but it seems like it handles fine and rides smooth. I think the part that pisses me off the most is my 1st TA had been totalled due to hail and instead of getting it back paid off through insurance I got this hack job totalled TA for way to much. I can't blame the guy to much, I should have caught the damage with how obvious it was. I was just blinded by the power and the procharger noise.

 

There's a couple camaros in a yard by me. How idiotic is it to go get that driver fender rail and that peeled out frame piece out of it and then use to core support I already have out of the firebird I cut up? I know it's a lot of work, complex, etc. It's never gonna be a show car, just trying to make it not look SO crooked and if need be my uncle has been a professional welder for 30 years, I'm sure I could get him to do the welds. I've been looking for rollers but no luck in my area. For just trying to straighten it up better than it is now is it a fools move?
just for experience sake I have never done something like this but ive redone multiple gm front suspensions, rebuilt my own 4l60e, LTs on my old camaro and trailblazer, etc. Like I said nothing like this but I can get things done when I need.

 

Nothing worse than gettin got that hard.

Since you owe on it and they nailed you hard on it your options are take a bath and dump more money it it or throw it together and roll it roadkill style and just ignore it. Or part it out pay off as much as you can on it to try and offset the sting and then go get another one once that ones paid off. It's a **** sandwich and your fingers will stink no matter what route you go.

If you go to a yard and saw one off at the A pillars and across the floor board then drop it all off and they can dissect the donor parts to repair yours. Then find you a excellent body shop it's definitely fixable. It's just not economically feasible based of the value of the car in the eyes of others but since you got screwed with no good way out just bend over and put a bigger dent in your wallet and set you back probably another 6-8K in labor and materials time when it's all done. But in the hands of a good shop it'll be good once again. If you really like the car fix it gear heads are poor accountants anyway's and we rarely make the smart move. Especially since you owe on it your stuck with it till it's paid off

 

a few very quotable lines in this post lol
I'm gonna go and look at the yards. I'm curious if the rail is just attached with spot welds as well and then maybe be a idiot and try this myself. I really don't know if it can get much worse looks wise than it already does and on a safety aspect this thing can't take another shot on the driver front.

 

I am going to be stupid here, but a friend of mine has a really clean low mileage 97 Formula. She got t boned in the same spot by a drunk driver on her way to a car show. I didn’t see it after they took the fender off, but can that piece that is horribly repaired not be cut off of a wrecked or junk car, and be re welded. Sort of the way first gen guys replace the inner wheel wells on them? It is probably a dumb question, but we all know 90% of a ll first gens took some sort of hard hit at one time or another. They didn’t total her car and fixed it very well from what I saw. I looked it over pretty good.

 

No, it doesnt un bolt like a first generation. This is a unitized structure that is all spot welded together.

 

I hope you didn't pay much.

 

I got hosed. Paid a lot. 48k miles and procharged....screwed so hard.

It is all tack welded in....I cut one out of a junkyard today and already have a new core support to. I think this cam be done. Am I stupid, crazy, etc....can I really make this much worse than it is? Thing currently might as well be held together with tape and from the front if I'm squared down I can see my freaking fuse box...

 

Like the other guy said, lots of spot welds. I think I'm gonna tackle this unless I get talked off a ledge but I am very ambitious

 

It's interesting that the car is not even it's original color. Looking at the engine bay, the car appears to have originally been pewter (11U) and repainted (poorly) in black, probably during the accident "repair". Did you ever determine if this is actually a Trans Am (Y82) or Formula (W66) in the first place? It looks to have all the Trans Am parts except for the front bumper definitely being from a Firebird/Formula.

I don't mean to sound harsh but I get the feeling that you are looking for some very candid answers here, so I will be blunt: Understand that if you head down the road of trying to do an at-home DIY repair, you are just polishing a turd here. Sure, an experienced professional could probably make this a very nice car again, but it needs SO MUCH to actually be very nice that it would never be worth doing unless money was no object at all and you had incredible sentimental attachment to THIS specific car. Otherwise, the shell of this car is a great candidate for scrap and the drivetrain should go into a nice, clean roller (assuming the 48k mileage isn't a farce, considering this car had a lot of secrets when you picked it up). You could probably make it "better" by yourself if you are really determined and you have the time and patience, but I don't see there being any miracle outcome here without some experienced/professional intervention. As long as your expectations are low, and you have an abundance of time to deal with the unknowns that you will surely encounter as you try to learn your way into piecing this thing back together, then I guess I don't see the harm. Again, I don't mean to be overly harsh, but just to frankly state the most realistic outcome here (meaning plenty of headaches, and a finished product that might still look like a car that has been bounced off a wall and had a shitty patch-up + repaint).

 

Hey sometimes you just need to hear it bluntly lol. I'm definitely not looking for a miracle it's just so ugly looking it drives me CRAZY and I'm so sick of people in traffic telling me "your hoods open" its embarrassing especially considering the car community here is MASSIVE. Im one year into a 5 year loan so there isn't sentimental attachment just this could be just a cheaper and "better" option than a roller right now. The miles have made me suspicious considering how messed up the car is but i had paperwork showing it hadn't been registered in almost ten years so my best guess is this guy was using it as a quarter mile car and threw it in a wall. I feel like that explains the miles, no registration, clean title, etc. The car definitely use to be pewter and the paint is probably worse than the pictures show. I haven't honestly been bothered enough to look up if it was a firehawk or trans am but I'm guessing it's a trans am. Doors have the trans am lettering and it has the trans am spoiler. I think they just probably found a cheap base model bumper in a yard and threw it on. I have a trans am bumper and "new" fender rail and core support. I think I just might take a long weekend from work soon and give this a go.

I just messaged the guy I bought it from just to ask for the details on the carnage. I wasn't a di** about it just told him I want to know it's history is all.

 

The only way to ever get the car right can't be done in a driveway diy. It needs to be strapped to a frame table and take all the measurements with tram gauges to see whats off where and whats even kinda savable if any of it. Then it's gotta be dissected part at a time and weld in all the pieces off the donor unibody. All the while taking measurement after measurement. Then and only then will it be right it's the only way. as stated above.

 

I don't believe you can make it any worse. The only issue I see for a DIY repair at home is if the strut tower is pushed inward. Like say, toward the motor or back toward the fire wall. Then it should be pulled on and verified the frame rail is straight, Everything is built off that frame rail so if the rail is not straight, you already in a can of worms. It will be though to get proper fitment back.

You may want to find a local body shop and pay the money just to see if the frame rails are straight. They usually charge a set up fee and a like an hour of labor to measure and evaluate it that area. You can call around for pricing in your area. I am guessing it could be $300-$500. I have been out of that game for nearly 20 years. You can explain to them that you want to make sure it straight and that you are going to attempt your own repair. It may not be cheap but if it needs a few hours of work, you will have a better foundation to start with and you will know the frame is straight. If you find a good reputable shop, they may be able to fit you in during a low spot since they are not doing the repair and get you in and out for a fair price.

 

Just for what it's worth, throwing out some advice from being in a similarish situation.

Bought my wife her TA forever ago, was a sleek beak and of course wanted the hood, at at some point someone keyed the side of the car. Got a hood and took the car in to have it painted and keying damage fixed, and then got the call that the entire passenger side under everything I could see was mangled. Little things made sense now, like the hood clearly having weird patch/prime marks on it, key mark under it looking like good paint, rear sail panel not sitting correctly, door alignment off, taking off the door molding it having different color paint on under it. At the time, we were both 19, car was fast, what we wanted, didn't care. Paid what I could for them to get the hood on and it looking decent out of pocket and didn't think much of it until a year or so after wife hit an oil slick at the top end of the track @ about 120, bounced her off both cement walls and destroyed the rear of the car. Fortunately, someone I knew had a roller that I was able to buy that was super straight to move things over to.

Over winter and into spring, wife and I spent time moving everything over that was worth anything to save to the new body. In doing so, I could see first hand the hack job that was done by the guy I figure sold us the car. Honestly felt like cutting it all out and leaving the scrap at his shop that I expect he did the hackjob with a note from the auto body place "just throw away your tools and stop doing this."

Long story short - I know EVERYTHING about the current car/body. I did have a decently fresh template other than a hacked up core support for a turbo that at the time didn't have, but now do so it all has come full circle and worked, and the rest of the body was straight. I know the details on aligning the ttops, aligning all the body panels, where a screw might have been left out or exchanged for something not OEM, and as crazy as it sounds, it was all worth it, even sacrificing two quarters of college just to sneak off home and work on the car to have the wife drive it when Spring rolled around.

My suggestion, especially if you plan to keep the car forever, is to find a roller you're happy with, even if you might have to travel a bit for it, and move everything over. Do things right, clean stuff when you can and improve where it's needed. In the end, you'll be happy not trying to make something work that from the start was rough around the edges and in the end will probably finish up a little smoother, but still be rough.