going to collect a polo gt tomorrow that has hit a kerb at some point and the current owner has said that the "front right of the chassis is cracked after being curbed which has pulled out drive shaft, in need of welding" does this sound a fairly easy job? i've bought it anyway as i reckon its worth alot more than i will pay for it in bits so if its unrepairable i could break it and keep the bits i want. Has anyone got any experience with a cracked chassis?

Edited 27 May, 201115 yr by VW-JW91

with a gt i would be inclined to reshell it. would probably work out cheaper than getting the chassis leg aligned, strengthened and welded

must be somewhat bent as well as the crack , anything is repairable with enough money and time

If its the chassis leg then it would probably need jigging and a lot of a very good welding done to it. It's not really some thing that should be attempted by just any one tbh.

A re-shell is probably the safest and cheapest option imo

looked underneath it toady and it looks like this:

is it worth doing? or should i rip the perfectly good engine out of my cl, gut it and fit everything onto the cl from the gt? bearing in mind there is nothing wrong with the cl at the moment and only chassis damage to the gt

I would say that it's pretty goosed, looking at the state of the chassis leg. Looks like you'll need to cut another leg from a better car and stitch it all together. Whether it's worth the time & effort is really up to you, but it looks quite rotten around the damage and you might be better off taking the best bits off and GT'ing the CL.

I've killed a Derby with less damage, gulp...

Id reshell that tbh, it will never be as strong and with a reshell you wont have to worry about it ever coming unstuck

get that shell to the scrapyard tbh... I wouldn't drive it even after welding.

Convert the CL, and then sell all of the bits you have left over.

Not a huge repair for a good bodyshop, not worth it from a money point of view though.

I'd drive that after repair, a good weld is stronger than the parent metals, all the people on here make me laugh " If it comes unstuck? "

lmfao.

you laugh, but the guy obviously can't do it himself.

how will he know if it's a good repair or not? it is not worth the gamble or the money.

ok if it was well repaired and jigged etc so it's all straight no doubt it would be fine, but not every bodyshop would do a good job

Not a huge repair for a good bodyshop, not worth it from a money point of view though.

I'd drive that after repair, a good weld is stronger than the parent metals, all the people on here make me laugh " If it comes unstuck? "

lmfao.

i'm probably going to get a price on a repair from a bodyshop, if its going to be too costly a reshell will be in order, most likely into the cl but its a bit of a shame since the cl itself is an mpi NZ model and i've spent quite a bit on getting that right, so with a reshell i'd be killing two cars to get one completely different one :( anyway here are the two:

The cl cost me £265 a year ago and the gt cost me £360 with lots of bits including the 13x7 classics (although quite kerbed in places), momo corse wheel, 88k genuine mileage, decat with a standard centre box and smaller powerflow backbox with downturned pipe (sounds great!), leather trimmed rear splitting bench, g40 front seats, k and n air filter, 60/40 lowering kit, debadged grill, boot side carpets, pressed plates, cd player, better dash speakers but needs 2nd gear replacing and obviously the chassis damage too

o yeah also the insurance for the gt would be £1000 where as the renewal for my cl would be £1500! yep £500 cheaper for 25 more bhp and a shorter ratio box! you've got to love insurance

That would he a massive repair for a bodyshop, the chassis leg has torn and as mentioned would probably need the whole chassis leg removing from another car and stitching in plus any of the metal around the damage that is rotten cutting out and replacing, you can't weld to rust

replacing any major structural part of a shell is a major job body shop or not and it would defo be uneconomical to repair unless you had the skills and tools to do it properly yourself, you couldn't just weld that back together and expect it to last or even drive right afterwards and bearing in mind the forces being out on that mount and the importance of it you would have to do a good job of repairing it for it to be safe.

There have been some nice cars broken over similar damage, sorry about the small pic but iirc this was broken over a cracked chassis leg

If it was too much work to save a g40 like that then I'd guess it would be a lot too much to justify saving a GT

if this had a subframe conversion would the frame bolt on to where it has cracked or further back on the chassis?

Had some one take a look at it this morning and he says it possible to do but would always run slight camber on the right hand side and be about £430 to sort so therefore looks like a converison will take place !

you can sort camber out though with shims, but then again £430 to still be wrong :S maybe find a cheap gt shell or something to swap it all over to instead of killing the cl

Edited 30 May, 201115 yr by VW+SWFC=:)

you cant sort the camber with shims. Theres no where to shim it.

That looks well dodge. Its proper structural damage. Wouldnt be worth over 400 quid even after its repaired!

Buy it, scrap the shell and put the engine in another shell.

Dont get deluded into thinking its a cheap GT and will be nice with some money thrown at it.

Edited 30 May, 201115 yr by neil_dubgt

subframe conversion would have to be custom built as i can guarantee all the holes will be outa line.

Proper subframes are a tight fit on straight polo's never mind one that looks like a banana

Lets face it - pearl greys a much nicer colour anyway

Nice bit of crabbing never hurt anyone lol

Ever followed behind a saxo or 106? that'll be you crabbing all the way up the road.....scrap it

Nice bit of crabbing never hurt anyone lol

Ever followed behind a saxo or 106? that'll be you crabbing all the way up the road.....scrap it

What makes you think a 106 crabs? Mine drives straight as an arrow.....

Most 106's I've driven behind crab, you wont know it until someone follows you. Our work fiesta does it but you cant tell driving it.

Noticed alot of cheap hatch back cars crab mainly 106/saxo/fiesta but lets face it there cheap cars.

Edited 30 May, 201115 yr by mc_hawkings24

I have a straight shell with the NZ lump in can take that out and store the engine and do a full conversion that will be the best option shame though as the blue is a nice colour ! but my CL is having resprayed

Most 106's I've driven behind crab, you wont know it until someone follows you. Our work fiesta does it but you cant tell driving it.

Noticed alot of cheap hatch back cars crab mainly 106/saxo/fiesta but lets face it there cheap cars.

So is a Polo hah?

My AXGT rep only crabbed when i put it sideways into a kerb, ahh the joys of being young. haha.

BTW, sorting the camber with shims is actually pikey as fuck, who ever can suggest that shiming to make a poor chassis repair drive straight shouldnt be around cars.

I never said a polo wasnt i got my mate to check mine was driving straight and it does :)

Edited 30 May, 201115 yr by mc_hawkings24

BTW, sorting the camber with shims is actually pikey as fuck, who ever can suggest that shiming to make a poor chassis repair drive straight shouldnt be around cars.

Gotta agree with that, if the steering and suspension needs bodging to cover up a serious fuck up in the repair then the car shouldn't really be on the road. If they couldn't be armed to jig it up then what else will they have over looked while 'repairing' it?

Best bet would be to find another GT shell if you are getting better quotes on them than your cl, at least it would be classed as a standard GT rather than a modified cl with an engine swap, conversions can some times be harder to insure for a decent price so it would be worth getting a couple of quotes if you are considering converting your cl imo.