Wrecked WRX not Wrecked Anymore

"TheRealBicycleBuck" (therealbicyclebuck)
04/28/2016 at 09:59 • Filed to: None

From this:

To this:

And it only took 13 weeks! To be fair, a lot of that time was waiting for parts and waiting for the insurance companies to agree upon damages. Next time, I think I’ll just deal with one company instead of two.

It still isn’t perfect, but I think this is as good as it’s going to get. They did go the extra mile and repaint both bumper covers instead of just spot-repairing the chips and scuffs on the rear bumper and the tow-truck scrape on the front. There are a couple of spots where polishing compound is still in the panel gaps and I did find one spot on the front bumper cover where a piece of dust got stuck in the paint. Other than that, it looks ready for trade-in. :)

I asked for and received the three undamaged tires so I can get a set of inexpensive wheels for track days. I’ll have to buy a shaved tire for the fourth wheel.

As soon as I finish with the “diminished value” team at the insurance company, we’ll have a final round of Guess the Estimate!

For reference, see the following posts:

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DISCUSSION (20)

Noah - Now with more boost. > TheRealBicycleBuck
04/28/2016 at 10:02

nice!! paint matching looks good

DrZ > TheRealBicycleBuck
04/28/2016 at 10:07

Hey! We both got our wagons back this week! Congrats! :)

Takuro Spirit > TheRealBicycleBuck
04/28/2016 at 10:11

From WRXed to not WRXed!

Dru > TheRealBicycleBuck
04/28/2016 at 10:23

Are you being handed a salvage title or was the damage not that extensive?

TheRealBicycleBuck > DrZ
04/28/2016 at 10:27

Excellent!

TheRealBicycleBuck > Dru
04/28/2016 at 10:27

No salvage title. That only comes into play if they total the vehicle.

Tripper > TheRealBicycleBuck
04/28/2016 at 10:39

We’re you planning to trade it pre-accident, or are you trading because of accident?

Rust and Dust - Oppositelock Forever > TheRealBicycleBuck
04/28/2016 at 10:53

Congrats man, looks good! Glad you got everything worked out to satisfaction :)

TheRealBicycleBuck > Tripper
04/28/2016 at 10:54

I wasn’t planning on trading it in, but once wrecked, always wrecked. It’s hard to forget.

I’ll probably hold out until Subaru releases a new WRX hatch. We know it’s coming. Come on Subaru, give it to us!

Steve in Manhattan > TheRealBicycleBuck
04/28/2016 at 11:07

It’s amazing what they can fix.

Tripper > TheRealBicycleBuck
04/28/2016 at 11:10

Lol that is why I asked, I’m the same way. I hit a deer years ago in my 04' STi on the drivers corner so headlight, hood, front bumper, and drivers front fender were all affected. It was relatively minor damage, but the insurance shop did a trash job of fixing it. It was gone a month later, it’s never the same haha.

Yea, way overdue for a new WRX/STi

Dash-doorhandle-6 cyl none the richer > TheRealBicycleBuck
04/28/2016 at 11:28

That looks like good work, I’ve done collision repair on a number of Subarus and picked up on a few things. 1 subies are mechanically superb but the bodies are probably the tinniest of modern Japanese cars I’ve worked on, mitsubishi too, but that’s down-market from subaru in general. 2 lots of nissan/mitsu stuff in the door mechanicals etc, which doesn’t help the supply chain. 3. subies in general, especially fast ones, NEVER EVER crash in any sort of normal way, they hold the road so well that when they let go, you’re going too fast and sideways, so they’re usually wrecked in the same spot as yours. (don’t know the specifics of your crash, not finger wagging, just speaking in generalities here). These cars are normal enough to pull out and straighten, once. Fixing one crashed in the same spot twice is miserable. There’s just not enough metal there to handle the abuse of being crashed and uncrashed more than once.

When you go to autobody school, you’re taught that you’re returning the car to factory specs, making it so that the repaired section will behave as factory in an identical crash scenario. And if you do it to spec, it should. But crashed is always crashed, even if you put it to better than factory spec.

OPPOsaurus WRX > TheRealBicycleBuck
04/28/2016 at 11:39

i’ll trade my allroad for the wrecked wrx

functionoverfashion > TheRealBicycleBuck
04/28/2016 at 11:41

Definitely the right call. It will never be the same.

I had a car that had been in a “minor” accident. I knew about it and generally the repairs had been done very well. But I was still finding out years later about minor issues... always in the area of the repairs. It was the only part of the car that was rusty, it always had *slightly* imperfect alignment ONLY on that corner of the car... yeah.

TheRealBicycleBuck > Dash-doorhandle-6 cyl none the richer
04/28/2016 at 11:52

T-boned by an Accord. Fortunately, he was trying to pull out of a parking lot, so he wasn’t going fast. Unfortunately, he was on the gas when he hit me and the wreck was over before he hit the brakes.

http://oppositelock.kinja.com/not-a-great-wa…

After they got the body squared away, they discovered a bunch of suspension damage. They did the right thing and ordered new parts instead of trying to bend them back into place. Some were off by just a few millimeters.

It feels ok, but I won’t know for sure until I get to flog it on some of my favorite roads this weekend.

TheRealBicycleBuck > OPPOsaurus WRX
04/28/2016 at 11:53

Hah! I’ve been watching your trials and tribulations. You can keep your Allroad, thank you very much.

Dash-doorhandle-6 cyl none the richer > TheRealBicycleBuck
04/28/2016 at 12:08

It should be ok, especially if they got out the frame gauges, its the high speed ditching that really twists them.

Dusty Ventures > OPPOsaurus WRX
04/28/2016 at 20:41

You need to try out my Outback at the meet

OPPOsaurus WRX > Dusty Ventures
04/28/2016 at 20:50

I’ve driven my friends 03 H6 LLBean. It’s slow as hell. U can give the Allroad a spin too. Is kinda hoping you would show up with the peanut car

Dusty Ventures > OPPOsaurus WRX
04/28/2016 at 21:09

The peanut car is in Rhode Island and out of action at the moment with clutch issues. The Outback’s definitely not slow as hell. It’s got the same motor as your old WRX but with a VF52 turbo swap, and when I did a datalog with the Accessport it logged a 0-60 in 6.4 (with a rubbish start off the line).