Tis a sad day indeed. My son is perfectly fine. That's by far the most important thing. But his G35 is potentially a goner. The ditsy girl he crashed with is OK too. I'm glad about those facts. The fact is, the fault of the accident is my son's. And he is beating himself up badly, because he loves the car, and hates that he wasted so much money. I explained to him that I got it fairly reasonably ($7,500), and that due to the chances of a crash, is why I didn't buy him a more expensive car.

He was turning left through a busy intersection. He creeped out into the intersection trying to ensure that the oncoming right turners (that would wind up going the same direction as him after completing the turn) were going to yield as they are supposed to (which they did), but were moving toward the intersection. But because the road he was turning from curves off to the right and crowns, he lost focus on the other oncoming lanes, and fixated on the right turners. A witness lady said that the car that hit my son never slowed down and she only saw brake lights an instant before the crash. As if the ditsy girl was looking at her phone not paying attention. In any event, the crash was my son's fault as he was in the way. But he is taking this very hard, and is beside himself. Hates that his car is tore up, that he tore up someone else's car and put them in danger, etc, etc.

But now the question is, what can I do? We had liability only on his car. So whatever gets done is on my dime. The right door is G-O-N-E. Unsalvageable. The B-Pillar area behind the door looks like it could be bondo'd and hit with single stage black. The underbody is likely damaged. The door mount area is the biggest problem. It is all bent up also. The front and rear wheels were untouched and he drove it home. It drove just fine. So my son and I would rather cobble this car back together ... but only if we can do it for less than the cost of replacing it. The fender in front of the door is damaged.

As far as I'm concerned (and my son is in agreement), that we can find a new used door, and cobble this thing back together as inexpensively as possible, and just keep driving it. As long as it is not dangerous. Which I think it wouldn't be dangerous. It won't be perfect, but it will be good enough. Mechanically, the car was PERFECT. Running great, no issues. Shifts through all 6 gears still. I'm going to let a private repair guy take a look at it and see if he's willing to take a shot at it. He does fantastic work, but generally doesn't do big jobs. No hurry to get this thing repaired.

On a positive note, I just bought my middle son a 2007 G35, pretty much the same as the 2005. 6-speed Rev car. Red in color. In good shape too. Got another good deal. Took a long time to find it though.

What do you guys think about the black 2005? What would you do? Cuss me, provide solid feedback, wander off into other topics, I don't mind. I appreciate your feedback.


7milesout

 

Fix it, specifically make your SON help fix it. Doesn't sound like it hit the side impact crash sensor hard enough to trigger the SRS system (flashing light on the dash if it's been triggered) so you should be able to fix pretty much anything else, obviously pictures would help too. That crash sensor is located right above the seatbelt retractor and it's bolted to the interior metal.

Before doing any hammering be sure to disconnect the battery, all the work near that crash sensor you need to unbolt the sensor from the chassis as well.

Will the right door open/close and still latch? You can straighten the b-pillar by removing the trim on the inside of the vehicle (probably also yank the passenger and rear seat just to give more room for work) and with the interior trim removed you'll see all the skeletonized sections where you can use body tools and hammer it out from the INSIDE of the sheet metal. Usually a steel rod that you insert through the skeletonized section then hammer the end of it. If you have to make some more holes in the interior sheet metal behind the body trim (to get a better angle with the rod) then use a small holesaw, something like 3/4". It's all going to be covered up with plastic interior trim anyways, just put some of that aluminum duct work tape over any holes you make.

As long as the door can latch you can probably straightened and hammer the rest out to roughly where it was and filler as needed.

You can body work the door in the same fashion if you want, it's already VERY skeletonized once you have the inner metal panel unbolted so it might be salvageable as well, just be sure to remove the glass before you do any serious hammering.

Talk to your body shop guy and figure out how much of the work you will do vs. how much would be better for him to do. Body work gets really expensive really quick once they have to start cutting and replacing metal, try to keep his side of the work to just dent removal that's bey9ond what you can do and the paint when it's done.

You don't need any fancy tools to start, disassemble the interior and get a game plan for knocking out the biggest dents, you probably don't need a fancy body tools kit either, a 24" long section of some 1/2" steel rod will probably be your primary dent tool. The door jamb lower section will be tricky if it's damaged since it needs to be pried back UP, you might be able to drill out a hole near the edge sort of below where the seat sits and get a prybar inside to get it close enough for filler.

Post pics if you're able.

 

Perhaps I didn't make it clear. It was a severe impact. The right side curtain air bag deployed. If it has seat side air bags, I'm betting they deployed. It's been cold and rainy here so I haven't messed with it. I'll get some pictures when the weather clears up a bit. It was a huge impact.

 

I'll post up a couple pictures below. Guys, I'm going to sell this car. Aside from the obvious crash damage (right door) the car is / was perfect. I have been driving it here and there to get an estimate. The car still drives really awesome. Handles good, power is good, everything works. The only difference is the airbag light on the dash is on. Of course the right side curtain and right seat side airbag deployed ... and is the reason for the light on the dash.

It's a shame to let 90% of this car go to waste. The engine alone is worth what ... $1,500? I'm just guessing could be more or less. But the engine is awesome. In the last couple drives, it pulls some awesome low rpm torque, and then turns around and runs it's guts off all the way to redline. What an engine.

How could I sell to an individual or a commercial outfit that will make use of the rest of this car?

 

The motor should be a rev-up so make sure to post that in the sale description, $1500 is a good price for one since they're fairly hard to find.

Tranny should be a CD009 which is the one people want, sell for $700-$900.

Headlights should sell for $200 apiece

Tail lights probably $150 for the pair.

Tires/wheels on the OEM 19" rays should sell for close to $1000 for the set.

Steering wheel + airbag should sell for $200

If the seats are in good condition they'll go for $300 apiece for the fronts.

Rear diff with VLSD probably $500-700

IPDM, ECM, BCM will go for $100 apiece, same with the engine wiring harness.

Take the rest of the chassis and part it out locally until May/June then have a wrecker haul it to the junkyard for scrap for an additional $50 typically.

 

If someone has a G35 they'd want to transplant all these items listed above into theirs, this would be a great project car.

 

Where are you located?

 

I'm in the Atlanta metro (south) area. If someone wanted it, you could get here and drive it all the way home ... no problem.

Can you guys see the picture I attached? On my laptop I cannot see it, from my smartphone I can.

 

I can see em from my mac, if u gonna part it out, i might interested on the rays but im at charleston SC tho

 

I doubt I will part it out. It would set here in pieces too long. And I don't have a good place to store it in the process.

 

If you're selling it as an entire vehicle I would mark it at $5k for two months and see if you get calls, accept $4500.

 

If you're in the Atlanta area and the car is drivable, take it to AutoGlo in Tucker and let Ted the owner take a look at it. Ted has kept my '05 G35 looking brand new over the years fixing numerous dents and dings. He LOVES not having to deal with insurance and so he'll work with you and your budget to make the car look however you want it to. If you want it perfect, he'll do that, but he'll also come up with clever ways to make the car safe and looking decent if you're looking to save money.

They're great people and good to do business with. It's definitely worth a trip over there to see what he says. These are great cars and they're not making any more of them, so it would be a shame to part it out and not keep one as nice as yours on the road. I've got 217,000 miles on mine and wouldn't sell it for anything. A new clutch a while back and new valve covers is all I've done to it except regular maintenance. Let us know if you find a good solution!

 

FinallyFlying - I took the car to AutoGlo. I'll say that he didn't want to work with me and my budget, he said he was only interested in fixing it back to perfection (pretty much). I told him that I was only interested in having it "barely fixed." Meaning, a right hand door that opens / closes / and seals for the most part. He wasn't willing to consider such a repair. He said that the A-Pillar would likely need to be cut out and replaced (which I can see that), but in doing so, part of the bulkhead would need to be replaced, and the whole dash would have to be replaced. So ... that repair would be getting into the millions ... in comparison to what I'm willing to spend.

The car drove like a dream there and back, it was an hour ride each way. What a shame. I wish somebody here had a project going on and would give me HALF of what the parts of the car were worth. Sounds reasonable on both our parts. In my neighborhood, I would not be permitted to have a car in pieces for more than a few days.

 

I'm retired after owning a collision repair center 20 years and coincidentally also have an 05 g35 I'm dressing up for a grandchild. They're great cars but if you have the damage to the a-pillar like you're describing the damage is 2-3 times the value of the car if not more. During my working career we had numerous cars(some new) that were hit at the junction of the rocker panel and cowl/a-pillar and the insurance companies weren't shy about totalling them as it's an extremely involved and tedious operation to do right. The reason the shop doesn't want to attempt a patch job just to get a door to close is it will be so off you'll think you're driving with the door open from the wind noise. They know you won't be happy with the result vs the expense and the "repair" won't help sell the car or even make it usable as it'll probably leak like a sieve. In my experience they're just being honest and trying to do you a solid in this case.

 

Mike - I figure as much. And I don't blame them. That's pretty much the size of it ... you summed it up well. For example, let's say I find some shop that will slop around with this A-Pillar and make a door fit, I don't think there's any way on Earth I would be paying less than $2,500 no matter what. And for $2,500 dollars, I'm going to bet just like you said, it's going to always sound like crap, leak air and water, and totally **** me off and wish I hadn't spent $2,500+ on trying to fix it. It's a shame though ... everything else on the car is so good.

Thanks for the feedback.