My "New" Peugeot

[505T]

Sorry Rabin but I couldnt think of a better title....

I just managed to get my hands on an '80 (?)505 S, in the hopes that its parts might give life to my fallen Turbo. For those who aren't in the know I had an accident with it and the front is caved in (will post pics) and one fender crunched. I have not spoken to any body shop yet and I have little knowledge of how it works but I assume that they would need a complete front end in order to fix my car. Fortunately the bumper was unscathed but I'll need a new radiator, lights, hood, twin-fan-thingys-infront of radiator, and who knows what else. So I have sourced the donor car and what remains is to get a good price for the job from a local body shop.

I'll post pics of the 'S', but welcome any comments and advice, especially from those who have been down this path before.

More later....

[Guest]

How unfortunate. I have been in a similar situation recently.

Here are the results of drunk driver & nissan sunny colliding to my cars front end. As you can see, the bumper, headlamps, mask, hood and the left front wing are wasted. Luckily the chassis didn't bend too much.

I started with hooking the rear end of the car to a tractor with a towing rope. Then I drove another tractor (luckily my dad has two of those. ) to the front end of the car and started to straighten the front end with a chain pulley attached to the tractor.

This helped a bit, but in the end was next to useless. So I ringed to the nearest Peugeot dismantler and asked if I could buy the first 20cm from the front of a 505, a hood, bumper etc. He was very cooperative, and so I got my parts.

Here are some pictures of the repair operation. I used some cardboard to duplicate the profile of the front end part, so I could cut the car's wasted front end similarily, so the fitting would be easier. As you can see, the right edge succeeded quite well, but the left edge was a little more crushed, so it needed some adjustment after cutting.

After all, it was easier than I thought. I also welded some holes from the inner fenders, and removed this. I cannot even guess what it might be. It was located in the right fender, around the location where the stock turbo is, but at the outside, should be visible when the wheel is off. Saves some weight to take it off.

Now my car has been waiting for assembly, haven't had the time because of my studies.

[505T]

Thanks a lot! That is very inspiring....and gives me hope. I'll post pics soon to let you know my level of damage...

Once again thanks for sharing.

[505T]

Some pics of the damage on my car.

[august]

ouch! i'm really sorry to see that, such a shitty situation. did you get hurt at all?

i may have a good spare turbo radiator radiator if you need one.

any idea on how much it's going to cost for the bodyshop to do the work + new parts? being you can get these things so cheap, have you considered buying another one, and swapping over all the good parts from your white car to the new car?

[505T]

The 505 S Donor Car

Thanks August. I wasn't even bruised or sore after the accident. Its been a year but it still sucks as hard as ever....especially considering I was on my best behaviour when it happened. I will definitely need that radiator, and I will start looking for parts one at a time.

I havent gotten round to going to a shop to inquire on prices yet, but I thought it would be better to repair my car rather than transfer the parts over to the S. I just don't know if I would successfully end up with a Turbo, rather than an S with Turbo parts, know what I mean? I'll have to look at the body long and hard and make my decision. My Turbo's frame was not badly affected and seems to be fine and thats a plus. Any advice?

Anyway I take the 'S' home tomorrow...lets see what happens.

[Guest]

Luckily you didn't hurt yourself. Me and my girlfriend weren't hurt either when we crashed, we both wore seatbelts. The drunk driver didn't, so she hit her head nastily to the windscreen.

Looks like you have bought a decent donor car. And there should be nothing to worry about the body, it seems like isn't bent. Basically you would just strip all the smaller parts from the front end, throw away those which are broken. Then measure, measure and measure, cut the bent metal away, cut the same shaped part/s from the donor car, and weld to place.

Of course if you don't have mig-welding machine and a what-the-hell-is-it-in-english metal cutting machine, like this:

It would be better to take it to a body shop.

But I think you can cut the cost by dismantling the front end yourself. Those front wings/fenders can be a pain in the ass, they are somewhat glued to the body. I used a hot air blower and a hacsaw blade to get through the stuff and eventually succeeded. It's easier for you, because you can use brute force to tear those off, after you have taken the screws off, of course.

There are those screws at the top of the wing, which are visible. Then there are few screws at the lower part of the wing, near to the door. One or two are under the... hmm... what's it in english... thin metal plate which runs from the front wheelarch to the rear wheelarch, under the doors. I hope you get it.

And the last one is actually in the car, when you remove the speakerholder from the lower front corner of the interior...

It continues to amaze me how many words there are in English I still don't know...

But the best of luck to you, I'd say it isn't really bad. You can always look what these guys have done, and think to yourself, "oh, my car isn't in bad shape at all!"

E: I like those headlamps in the "S". Are they common in the US? I would like a pair of those...