This past Friday, I was cut-off by another driver and rear-ended a mini-van. No serious human injuries, but my beloved 71 240 was trashed. I hit the right rear of the van with my left front. Since it has been 21 yrs. since it's restoration,

and I now have some medical problems that would limit my ability to do the work on the car that I used to; I am posting pics of the damage and some details that are not apparent in the photos; with the question; can this car be restored, or should I total it and try to sell off the remaining good parts?

The left frame rail is mangled, the radiator support as well. The left front inner fender is trash, as well as the left door.

It would not be practicle or cost effective to attempt to repair this damage . The left wheel is driven back into the cowl. This is an indication of the severity of the impact.

If you remove the carpet on the drivers side you should see significant damage to firewall with a good possibility of the floor below the brake pedal being buckled.

Unfortunately, I would agree with Larry. You may want to hold onto it while you get another car to swap the parts over to. Call about the 71 advertised on Craigslist Atlanta quickly! http://atlanta.craigslist.org/wat/cto/3163713654.html

Remove the fender, hood and cowl for us. A frame shop might be able to pull a lot of that out. The radiator support, LF inner fender and LF frame rail might need to be replaced. I'd like to see more pictures before scrapping the car. It _can_ be fixed but like Larry said it might not be practical.

Chuck

Thankfully you were not hurt. Cars in general weren't very safe when the 240Zs were new, and cars don't get safer with age.

Could it be saved? I don't really know without seeing the condition of the unit body. Personally I doubt that I would try, particularly if I had to pay someone else to do all the work. (Which I assume is what you meant when you mentioned that you have medical issues that would preclude doing the work yourself.) But that is just my opinon.

You would have to want that car saved- and find a healthy doner. I have seen worse damage repaired-somewhere I have pictures...

Will

We're all sad about this. I lost 721 in March. Yours appears to be rebuildable, though. Best of luck to you.

It all depends on how far rearward the damage went. My '78 was hit before I bought it and I had the whole left front corner cut off and replaced. It wasn't as bad as yours an it had already been pulled, but I decided to cut and replace. It is now straight and solid. These pics are scans from 20+ years ago, so they are a bit small an grainy.

Here it is with the bent steel cut out

Here is the donor inner fender, strut tower and rail

And here it is after welding and painting

Here is it after reassembly

Edited July 29, 201212 yr by Jeff G 78

Ouch! Glad you're OK, save it for a donor for another build, you've probably got a ton of good parts, engine, etc. that can be used and at least the inspection lid is still good.

Got news today that insurance is declaring it a total. I asked about buying it back, with a salvage title. Will find out tomorrow. I will probably look for another early Z that has been 'finished' and make it my own. Hopefully I can part out this one. As it is now, the left front and door are the damaged areas, (including the frame rail) Everything else is perfect. We'll see what happens.

I would say in your situation i'd find another car if you aren't too attached to driving it. Almost anything can be fixed but it costs. It would be nice to keep for parts though. Jeff thats a nice repair on your 78, came out good. Not many make it back on the road after a bump like that. Like you said you have to want it fixed... Glad everyone was ok.

Well, got the news today that they will let me buy it back (salvage title), but they want to reduce my payout by $4,000. Seems a little high. Has anyone else bought back a totalled car from their insurance co.? Can the buyback be negotiated somehow? What do ins. co.'s usually do in cases like this? Do they send the car to be stripped for parts (i.e. sell to Zcar source in Az.) or is it simply crushed? I will call my adjuster tomorrow and ask some questions, but if anyone has any experience with this situation, I would be most appreciative.