Chassis straightening

[cackshifter]

Unfortunately my daughter, dog & 110 had a coming together with a Transit van crammed with a builder plus scaffolding, cement mixers, barrows etc yesterday. Luckily no living thing suffered worse than bumps and bruises. However... the Transit I think will be written off, and he went into the side of the 110, across the driver's door and offside front wheel. In the admittedly poor light and it was snowing for a lot of the time, the front of the Defender seemed to be pointing slightly to the left when viewed along the sides. Apart from that it burst either the oil cooler or a pipe to it, judging from the oil running from it (couldn't open the bonnet), and had a puncture. The front doors seemed to be misaligned, suggesting distortion of the body, but then again they never fitted very well anyway, and the sill was rather mashed up into the bottom of the driver's door. I must admit I was pessimistic about the chances of getting it back but the recovery truck driver said he was certain it would be repaired, and suggested the chassis would be straightened, new wing etc. Now I know that chassis can be realigned properly by jig, but I wondered if anyone knew of whether this is what might happen, or whether they would put it on a new chassis, or whether that sounds like too much damage. Apart from that the body damage looked fairly superficial, outer wing, maybe inner wing, bumper, headlight panel, indicator, and I'd guess the oil problem would be easily repaired. Of all the days for it happen....

Regards

Nigel

[LandyLee]

The quickest check we carry put is to measure from wheel center front to back and compare n/a with o/s measurement , this usually shows if something is seriously amiss.

[cackshifter]

Well I won't know till tomorrow at the earliest. It took 5 hours to get it recovered yesterday and the body repair place was closed today. But that means it's easy to tell quickly, so that's good. And if they are bent what do you do? Is it usually written off?

Nigel

[LandyLee]

depends on a thousand different things , I could never tell which were write offs , biggest factor is obviously age/value. We used to straighten ordinary cars (monococque) both using the jig or the dozer and chaining the car to a ramp!!! jig work was very expensive due to the hours needed to mount a vehicle on it. we never tried to straighten a LR chassis so others on here will have to tell you about this. We usually rebuilt onto a new chassis etc as the landies were typically council/big company newish ones

[bishbosh]

Who was at fault for the accident?

The reason I ask is if the builder was at fault then you can insist that your vehicle is repaired - his insurer does not have the right to write your vehicle off. (Learnt that on this forum I did!)

So, if he is to blame, demand it is repaired. I expect a new chassis would be cheaper than straightening a bent one, but at the end of the day it is the insurer who will decide.

[Steve Hiatt]

The quickest check we carry put is to measure from wheel center front to back and compare n/a with o/s measurement , this usually shows if something is seriously amiss.

In my experience Land Rovers can be an inch out as 'standard'

[cackshifter]

Well, the builder was not to blame, unless maybe he had been speeding but there was no evidence of that. But at least all lived to tell the tale. But I am in NFU's hands as to how they want to proceed. At present it is locked in some yard belonging to the recovery firm somewhere. It was supposed to be moved yesterday but the weather intervened, so at the moment it is in abeyance. I have a feeling it is reasonably far out of alignment as we though we could see by looking down the sides it was out of kilter, and that was in the light of a dim streetlight in a snowstorm. I could imagine straightening it would be not too difficult given enough push in the right place. Frankly otoh it could do with a new chassis, so if they wanted to do that I would be happy.

Nigel

[white90]

If the axle has moved/brackets damaged

check the transfer box as this takes the brunt through the prop shaft, breaking it open.

[cackshifter]

Thanks for that advice Tony. It certainly had a mighty smack on the offside front wheel. TBH the general ambience of the accident was not condusive to crawling about underneath, so further investigation will have to wait till it gets to the repairers.

Nigel

[mike4444244]

Depending on how much its insured for, a new chassis is around £1400 add in labour to swap it and they may want to write it off, Sureterm tried to write mine off when a door lock and steering lock got broken during a failed theft attempt, I seem to remember they quoted £800 for a new door then another few hundred to colour match it

I would certainly advise talking to a grown up about your legal rights first and not taking any poo off the insurance company however persistant they are!

Hope you get it all sorted out and are back on the road soon

Mike

[Pob]

Insurance companies seem to use strange logic sometimes. I had an accident in a Westfield that was worth about £8000 it had an agreed value by the insurance company of £7500. I made a bit of a mess of it when I spun it at 50mph into a ditch, the cost of the work was £8000 and they paid it/authorised it. I was convinced they were going to write it off but no they didn't.