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I used to have a car like that - relative in car business specialized in buying late model cars that had one end (front or back) in good shape, and other end wr

I used to have a car like that - relative in car business specialized in buying late model cars that had one end (front or back) in good shape, and other end wrecked, and would use the two good halves to make a new car. He used a jig to get the alignment precise, and claimed it was as good as factory. The car seemed fine - there was no way to tell.

paulryanrogers 2y ago
Sounds like a salvage title to me
GJim 2y ago
A 'cut and shut'? Where do you live for that to be legal? https://duckduckgo.com/?t=ftsa&q=cut+and+shut https://duckduckgo.com/?t=ftsa&q=cut+and+shut
- rightbyte 2y ago
  Most limousines are made like that. The practice is fine in theory but I guess the business is too shady for the vehicles to be fine in practice.
  - deleted 2y ago
    [deleted]
  - seized 2y ago
    There's a whole Well There's Your Problem (an engineering disasters podcast) about exactly that. I think the conclusion is that it isn't fine in theory or practice... https://youtu.be/K5sQJB6Jvkw?si=hq8yGx2i9FQy-wAB https://youtu.be/K5sQJB6Jvkw?si=hq8yGx2i9FQy-wAB
- HarHarVeryFunny 2y ago
  Well, this was a while back (90's perhaps) and he was building these in upstate NY. I've no idea if it was legal the time - I was driving plenty of cheap crap cars back then (Ford Pinto, Ford Ltd II ex. cop car with single digit mpg, '78 TransAm), and relative to those this was pretty nice!
semanticist 2y ago
This is called a 'cut-and-shut' and is considered to be extremely dangerous. There's no way you'd get insurance for one if you disclosed its origins, which he probably wasn't when he was selling them on. In the UK at least, passing one of these off as a standard repair is illegal (it's a 'radically altered vehicle' and would need to be registered as such with a special licence plate).
lnsru 2y ago
Funny thing is that one can do it properly and it even will be as good as from the factory. For that one must peel off whole car’s body sheet wise and weld/glue the not damaged sheets again. Also add anti corrosive paint in between. However this is not the cheap way. A business doing this will not survive. It just takes too long. So it would be healthy to assume, that such repairs are rolling coffins at the end. And you’re right - to identify coffin car a mobile x-ray device is needed. Edit: and yes, I was driving a car that wasn’t well repaired and absolutely safe for 5 years.
robbiep 2y ago
In Cuba I had a hairy drive from Havana to Vinales driven by the owner’s 12 year old son in a stretch Lada - ⅔ of one and ⅔ of the other

paulryanrogers 2y ago

Sounds like a salvage title to me

GJim 2y ago

A 'cut and shut'? Where do you live for that to be legal? https://duckduckgo.com/?t=ftsa&q=cut+and+shut https://duckduckgo.com/?t=ftsa&q=cut+and+shut

rightbyte 2y ago
Most limousines are made like that. The practice is fine in theory but I guess the business is too shady for the vehicles to be fine in practice.
- deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]
- seized 2y ago
  There's a whole Well There's Your Problem (an engineering disasters podcast) about exactly that. I think the conclusion is that it isn't fine in theory or practice... https://youtu.be/K5sQJB6Jvkw?si=hq8yGx2i9FQy-wAB https://youtu.be/K5sQJB6Jvkw?si=hq8yGx2i9FQy-wAB
HarHarVeryFunny 2y ago
Well, this was a while back (90's perhaps) and he was building these in upstate NY. I've no idea if it was legal the time - I was driving plenty of cheap crap cars back then (Ford Pinto, Ford Ltd II ex. cop car with single digit mpg, '78 TransAm), and relative to those this was pretty nice!

semanticist 2y ago

This is called a 'cut-and-shut' and is considered to be extremely dangerous. There's no way you'd get insurance for one if you disclosed its origins, which he probably wasn't when he was selling them on. In the UK at least, passing one of these off as a standard repair is illegal (it's a 'radically altered vehicle' and would need to be registered as such with a special licence plate).

lnsru 2y ago

Funny thing is that one can do it properly and it even will be as good as from the factory. For that one must peel off whole car’s body sheet wise and weld/glue the not damaged sheets again. Also add anti corrosive paint in between. However this is not the cheap way. A business doing this will not survive. It just takes too long. So it would be healthy to assume, that such repairs are rolling coffins at the end. And you’re right - to identify coffin car a mobile x-ray device is needed. Edit: and yes, I was driving a car that wasn’t well repaired and absolutely safe for 5 years.

robbiep 2y ago

In Cuba I had a hairy drive from Havana to Vinales driven by the owner’s 12 year old son in a stretch Lada - ⅔ of one and ⅔ of the other