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beater

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alphatarget1

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So there is a guy selling this car locally. '96 accord with body damage on the passenger's side. Supposedly the passenger door cannot be opened. A picture is here...

http://images.craigslist.org/3n73k33o05T45W65R5aa48050c614bd4d1e7f.jpg

Asking all car gurus: do you think this collision caused damage to the suspension? How bad do you think this was from the picture? I'm not too concerned about the door at this moment. I think it's something that can be swapped out and I can put a door + a fender from a junk yard and it should be ok, any advice is appreciated!
 
Kinda hard to tell from that photo, but I'd be concerned about the body of the car where the door bolts up - not sure you'd just be able to swap doors / fender and be good.
 
It's hard to tell from the picture, but it looks fairly superficial. I'd imagine the door can't be opened simply because of the way it's buckled in.

Your best bet is to go look at it in person. Look under the car and make sure there's no frame damage. Take it for a spin and make sure the car drives straight (let the wheel go) and the tire doesn't rub. Open up the hood and look back at the firewall (grab a flashlight and lean over the engine when it's cool) to look for creases or ripples in the metal.

Overall, it looks like a candidate for a junkyard door and fender to me, but you never know.
 
As said I be more worried about the frame and where the door bolts up. Suspension can usaully be fixed much cheaper/quickly then frame damage.
 
I'll have to go take a look. The reason why I'm interested is my dad has a 96 accord with a V6 also with 184k miles on it. This one has 121k. My dad's car got hit in the parking lot and the guy ran away and his driver's side door still opens fine, but something is rubbing the fender. I know for sure his car doesn't have frame damage so it shouldn't take much for the door to be "frozen". The guy is selling it for $1400. When my dad's car's engine/tranny dies, I can possibly just swap it out with the engine/tranny/whatever from this one... lol.
 
It's a unibody car - the only way to tell if there is frame damage is to dissemble it down to the frame and see.
 
Saw the beater today. I think some car just clipped it from the side and the hinges look to be a little bit deformed. I think the frame might be OK, but i wouldn't find out until I take the actual fender out. Engine is sluggish and when I pulled the dipstick out, I saw some stuff that resembles sludge on the dipstick. Transmission seems OK. Engine compartment is dirty with oil leaking around the valve cover seals and crap.

I'm not going to get it. It's one thing to have a otherwise perfectly fine car to have minor body damage, but this car is not in the greatest condition.
 
alphatarget1 said:
Saw the beater today. I think some car just clipped it from the side and the hinges look to be a little bit deformed. I think the frame might be OK, but i wouldn't find out until I take the actual fender out. Engine is sluggish and when I pulled the dipstick out, I saw some stuff that resembles sludge on the dipstick. Transmission seems OK. Engine compartment is dirty with oil leaking around the valve cover seals and crap.

I'm not going to get it. It's one thing to have a otherwise perfectly fine car to have minor body damage, but this car is not in the greatest condition.
Click to expand...

Good choice IMO, if an owner won't even spend $20-30 to have the oil changed before trying to sell it you can bet he/she hardly ever changed it at all, even though Honda's engine designs are usually robust it probably has significant internal wear..
 
BUTCH1 said:
Good choice IMO, if an owner won't even spend $20-30 to have the oil changed before trying to sell it you can bet he/she hardly ever changed it at all, even though Honda's engine designs are usually robust it probably has significant internal wear..
Click to expand...

Oh no, the oil looked clean. It's just that there is a little smear of sludge on the dipstick. The guy is probably just like any other normal person who doesn't know about cars. I saw a Fram filter and oil was kind of all over the place.

My dad's 96 accord v6 revs and drives a LOT smoother than this one and it has 60+k more miles on it. I guess that's why I shunned on this car.
 
JeffreyLebowski said:
You do know what uni-body means right? there is no real frame.
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No, there is very much a frame just not in the traditional sense of a ladder style frame which has a body sitting on top of it. To examine the frame of a unibody car you can't simply crawl underneath and look, you must remove body panels/doors/etc. to get at it and see if it's been tweaked/crashed/fractured/etc. The door not opening is a good sign that such an event has occurred.
 
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