Two wrecked leafs (during transport)

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GoneSilent

Active member
Joined
Oct 22, 2013
Messages
33
Location
Oakland, CA
I got these from a wreck dealer. Going to rebuild the blue one and the silver will use as a toy.

leafs_wrecked.jpg

This picture is after we stuck a forklift in the rear and pulled up the roof.
leaf_blue.jpg

Pulling the roof off one spot weld at a time.
blue_leaf_wrecked.jpg
 
By the looks of those cars (especially the blue one) this is going to be a Bionic Man level of rebuilding. Hopefully it won't cost you six million bucks ;)
 
http://www.copart.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; lists insurance auctions. All the major systems stayed intact. Build dates of April 2013, SV and SL trims. Both of these cars are new with under 50 miles on them. Both got damaged in transport. I will be the first registered owner. Because of this I can still get the CA and Fed rebate. I even called the CA rebate admin to make sure. Both of them run and drive fine. I don't think the silver car can be repaired too much body damage. The blue one I have taken the roof off of and started to remove the qtr panel and top of aperture panel. This is my first time ever attempting this much body work before. About $2k in metal parts from Nissan. Have had to get a few hundred in tools. Measuring tram, Spot weld drill, Spot Weld bits. I am sure I will need to buy some copper rod and make up some bigger tongs for my spot welder. After all rebates and parts from Nissan I am looking at $4k final I think on the blue one. The silver one is getting turned into an artcar project for Burning Man.
 
GoneSilent said:
http://www.copart.com/ lists insurance auctions. All the major systems stayed intact. Build dates of April 2013, SV and SL trims. Both of these cars are new with under 50 miles on them. Both got damaged in transport. I will be the first registered owner. Because of this I can still get the CA and Fed rebate. I even called the CA rebate admin to make sure. Both of them run and drive fine. I don't think the silver car can be repaired too much body damage. The blue one I have taken the roof off of and started to remove the qtr panel and top of aperture panel. This is my first time ever attempting this much body work before. About $2k in metal parts from Nissan. Have had to get a few hundred in tools. Measuring tram, Spot weld drill, Spot Weld bits. I am sure I will need to buy some copper rod and make up some bigger tongs for my spot welder. After all rebates and parts from Nissan I am looking at $4k final I think on the blue one. The silver one is getting turned into an artcar project for Burning Man.

Interesting projects. Make sure you post pictures of the artcar for those of us not going to Burning Man.
 
Not 100% sure what I want to build yet for an artcar. Here is a pic of the last one I did. It was based on a cheap lead acid work truck from china and we did drive by wire

109615125220.png
 
Keeping most everything from both cars. Will list little some of the plastic and other trim items from the car for sale soon. I have been stripping out systems on the silver car and see what I can have removed and still get the car into the ready state. I am kind of bummed it seems that both cars do not share the same wiring harness. One of them has bose and backup cameras but I cant move that over to the other car with out changing just about every wiring harness.
 
GoneSilent said:
Keeping most everything from both cars. Will list little some of the plastic and other trim items from the car for sale soon. I have been stripping out systems on the silver car and see what I can have removed and still get the car into the ready state. I am kind of bummed it seems that both cars do not share the same wiring harness. One of them has bose and backup cameras but I cant move that over to the other car with out changing just about every wiring harness.

Murphy's Law: something always throws you a curve...
 
I started with some cheap "OTC" spot weld cutting bits and after killing them and getting pissed off at those bits I went out and got a dedicated spot weld drill. I went with the DF-15DX Spitznagel Spot Annihilator. I have gone from 2-3mins a spot weld to about 30secs. I also got the tungsten carbide bit for the HSS parts.

spot1.jpg

spot2.jpg
 
^ Nice! I have a set of Blair Rotabroach bits myself (the Combo kit). They do dedicated spot-weld cutters, but these work just as well, except you need to take care you don't punch through the metal you want to salvage - they cut through automotive sheet metal like it's butter!

http://www.blairequipment.com/Rotabroach_Cutters/rota_cutters.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
 
Nice work. Did you buy new body parts to fix this car or are you going to use body parts from the other car to fix this one ?
 
I will be giving a lucky local dealer near $2k for new body metal. I got the small metal items online but the big items would hurt for shipping. I could cut out parts from the other leaf but new does not $hurt$ to bad. I have also spent about $500 on tools.
 
$2300 in Nissan metal parts later I have 99% of the parts I need now with only 10% damaged in transport. You can see some of the metal sticking out of the crushed box. The part in the box is the whole rear inner section. Will try and correct the replacement part and if I cant beg for another....
leaf_box_dent.jpg


Here is a pic of why I have to replace it. As far as I know this kind of denting/folding cant be fixed. I have this section out now but I attempted to get on the ladder and take a pic from the top down and well I suck at taking photos.
leaf_right_rear.jpg
 
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