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What would you do?

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peeeot

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I have 2 midgets, and am trying to decide how best to go about making them into one. The first car is 100% rust-free. It was originally Brooklands green with Autumn Leaf interior, but was painted red by the previous owners. They also had the motor professionally rebuilt (a 1500, as it's a '76), and it has less than 1000 miles on it. All the emissions equipment was removed, and it received a 4-2-1 header and Weber DGV with Pierce intake. All in all, it runs very nicely, shifts effortlessly, and mostly needs interior attention (it was in the middle of being gone through WHEN...) Unfortunately, it was hit in the back pass. side corner by a large cadillac. The pictures in the following link show this injured car, and the damage in detail.

The Wolf Web

The other car is also a '76, but it is lacking a title and a motor. It has been stored outside, parked over a plastic sheet and under a plastic sheet, and although it's very musty and mildewey, there is hardly any rust. The trunk is flawless; I pulled the carpet up and spotted none in the floorboards. There are a few little bubbles along the upward-sweeping body line at the front fenders, and one of them has a little dent in it. Other than that, the body is undamaged. The dashboard is a mess, and the wheels don't seem to be too inclined to turn right now. Nor is the parking brake inclined to disengage. Original mileage is unknown.

It seems to me like the cheapest solution is to move everything good (drivetrain, interior, fenders, trim, etc) from the injured car to the forgotten one, which I would have to acquire a title for. The other option is to have the injured one repaired, but as you may be able to see from the pictures, the rear of the car was bent a little, and those damaged panels would likely have to come from the parts car. What would ya'll do? And how long might it take to move things over to the parts car, if that's the best route? I appreciate any and all thoughts.
 
peeeot, first question, are you going to be doing most of the work?? I think I see a good bit of bondo. If you don't have a porter power to jack everything back in place, it will be cheaper to have a frame shop pull it all back in place for you and if you have to pay them to get all the parts off both cars, there again cheaper to buy new. If you use the good body car and you make all the transfer then all you will have to pay for is a good paint job and get this done while most of the parts are off the car. As far as title goes, I would not be the one to tell you to take all the plates off before painting from both cars and get them confused when you put them back on. If you had to put a front or rear clip on you would have to do this, or so they tell me. I'm sure you will get a lot of advise. Wayne
 
how much money do you have...Just kidding. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif I did pretty much that with my two, a 79,and a 75. the 79 i spent time and money going thru, and decided that the body was twisted, never could get the car to sit level in the rear. found a 75 with a blown motor, but with a better body. It took myself and two friends a single day to mostly strip the 79, and myself alone about a day. took me less than a month to put all the good stuff on the 75. and Voila!! some pics here
i didnt do paint just the mechanicals.

so i guess if it was me i would strip the car that was hit and resurect the other one.

.02

mark
 
I would keep both. You can get titles without too much trouble. Slowly work on the bad one as you have time and money.

Bruce
 
Unfortunately, keeping both isn't really an option, as I have space for keeping them both in the same place only temporarily. Currently, I also have that '56 chevy and '77 Malibu in the other pictures, and (sadly) I need to reduce the number of cars to 1. I'm planning on that 1 being the Midget because of the fresh engine and superior fuel economy. I would be able to have a nicer car for less money for a longer time. Anyway..

As for bondo, there's only one place you should have been able to see that, and that's alonf that panel seam where it tore off. This is because that panel was apparently replaced once before, whether due to collision or rust, and bondo was used to fill in the gap between the tacked-in new panel and the original seam. There is no bondo anywhere else on the car; it is quite clean.

I will have what money I get for selling the other two cars to work with. If the damaged midget is repaired, I would be having someone else do the repair work, as I have neither the equipment nor skills to do that kind of body work. If the stuff swap was the way I went, I would be doing all the work, although I haven't decided whether I want to paint it or go ahead and pay someone to. I've never painted a car, you see. So the swap would certainly be the cheapest option, and therein lies some of the appeal. I've been estimating that a complete repair of the first Midget would be around $2000. If I did the swap, any one of ya'll would be welcome to the spare car when I'm done... it would likely be scrapped.
 
Caddy? I don't follow.

Thanks for the input thus far. I'm definitely leaning towards the swap. Any other $0.02?
 
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