Sure why not, y'all like to partake in my stupidity. So if you didn't see the other thread I have a squished Smart car on my hands. But let's back up a bit. I commute 140 miles a day, for years I drove beaters of questionable status. Finally after one too many "work from home because the car wont start" days the boss presented me with my annual raise with a comment that maybe I could get a new car now....message received. So I like quirky little cars and I wanted fuel economy and the smart had just hit the US shores, so I brought home a nice little silver smart car.
I drove the wheels off that thing for 3 years and 110,000 miles regularly cruising my commute at 80mph.
Finally my daughter was graduating and needing wheels and I was ready for something different (I have automotive ADD after all) I was going to sell the smart and buy her something so I asked what she wanted in a car. She said Green. I thought she meant eco friendly but no she just wanted a green car....sigh, her mother's influence. But I realized for the money I'd get for selling the Smart I wouldn't find a newer, better car so green then...I painted it.
She's been rocking the little car for 4 years now and while she learned well how to properly maintain it mechanically she's not been too kind on it cosmetically. It was never waxed (single stage paint) and she seems to park by feel. Then she was in DC traffic and bashed it into the back of a truck.
Because these are designed to sacrifice parts for safety it did a bit of damage under the plastic. I drove down and did some bandaid repairs to make it driveable back up to my place for further evaluation and planning.
Yes I just happened to have matching green duct tape in my car. So first assessment said the parts were cost prohibitive to fix this. I hit about $1500 when I stopped hunting because I can get a similar mile smart for about $3500-$4000 so we were approaching just buy another car territory. But I found a shop on ebay that bought out a fleet of smarts and disassembled them all. They were offering a full front end rebuild kit for $700, but shipped freight from CA so still kinda expensive. I called them today and dropped a few parts I didnt need (radiator and condenser survived as well as other bits) and got it down to $800 shipped to my nearest forward air terminal about 10 miles away. Deal. And since her mom saw fit to drop the full coverage to save money she's picking up the parts cost I'm providing labor, paint, and mechanical work while its here.
So step 1, make it fall apart. First off with the plastics, took about 20 minutes, pretty easy the second time around.
Then I removed the rest of the broken parts, it is now ready for new parts but I will be taking the rest of the body panels off for paint prep and cleaning up everything while its apart as well as giving it a general checkup and maintenance items.
Pretty sure we're sticking with a similar color green but with some pearl in it this time and a base clear to help survive her lack of waxing. Trying to think of some other custom touches to add to it while it's here too.
Once pars arrive it could go back together rather quick but she doesn't need a car this semester so I will probably take my time and really try and get it as nice as I can.
