Should this have been picked up sooner???

[badskool]

hey guys,
well heres the story, i brought a pulsar with a gtir engine in it about 3 and half years ago, in that time i spent about 25k on it. when i brought it it was deregistered so had to go through re vin process which i thought was pretty hard out and since then 6 wofs all done at vtnz, last warrent done found that some dodgy man had welded on a new rear half after a rear end accident and the welds had broken, long story short car is about to snap in half should it have been picked up? because it would have save me alot of time and money
thanks for your opinions
simon

[Bling]

Pretty hard to answer that really. I'm sure if done right you could hide the fact it's been done. I imagine it was done pretty well to last this long too.

You can easily chop metal in half and weld it back together, grind it flat, paint it up and you'd never know. Well not if it didn't crack anyway. Sounds like a shit situation!

I was talking to a wof guy about damage to the sill on a project of mine. He said if he saw a repair he'd want proof it was done right. After explaining how I was going to fix it, he said it was the right way. But that at the end of the day, if it looks like it did factory, he's not going to know it was repaired.

Got any pics?

[Grrrrrrr!]

As Luke said, weld, grind, a couple of coats of primer then paint = not visually detectable.

If the car was taken off the road with out being marked as accident damaged in the rego database they wouldn't have gone looking for dodgy repairs.
If it was marked in the rego database as accident damaged its a bit different, they should have required proof of structural repairs etc.

WOF guy is just doing his job, your car is not safe so it has to come off the road. Its also not that big a deal, find a straight shell with live rego, swap your bits across and re cert it. Will be cheaper than trying to sue somebody and getting your ass handed to you by the judge.

[badskool]

nah car has been stripped and sent to the crusher, but i can remember that i did take the rubber surrounds off the rear doors and seeing a couple of welds there but didnt really think anything of it. and you could see the crack right through the floor pan but im not sure when it happened.

[badskool]

fair enough not trying to put anyone to blame was just wondering what your thoughts were

[Bling]

Dodgy for sure if repairs weren't done to a standard. I'm not clued up on what can and can't be done. But I imagine the requirements (if even legal) of welding two halves together would be very stringent. I guess this shows you have to be very careful with dereg cars

[Grrrrrrr!]

From memory you used to be allowed to weld panels together like that, i think these days they only allow complete panel replacement. Back when panels were just mild steel it probably wasn't such an issue, but with car makers using high tensile steels any panel repair these days needs to be done properly.

[rollaholic]

i was involved with vinning process at one time, and i recall a STi impreza that had come into the country as an import - they go through the same process as re-vinning - turns out it had been made from three cars welded together.

the re-vin check missed it (which they shouldnt of) and VTNZ ended up paying for it to be put right. not sure if they paid for repairs to be done to standard or just replaced the car / paid the guy back or what. i do remember the car in question sitting in a corner at the local VTNZ for about 6 months though.

but if the car is crushed you are probably screwed.

[Sick Puppy]

A cut and shut?! Jeez, I haven't heard of that since I was in the UK...