Statutory Write Offs--Sellers?

[ken1939]

I know the roadworthy rules in Oz are pretty stringent. I also know that several autos are taken off the road for various Statutory Write Off Reasons.

I am looking for suggestions for a good wrecking yard that handles these autos and sell them for off road use. I missed a pretty decent 2004 XR8 Falcon Ute Boss on Ebay Au about a week ago, it was complete and had no physical damage to it. It ran and drove.

Looking for an XR8 Falcon Ute in Victoria, this is an image of the one I missed. It was selling for $4400 Au dollars.

[commodorenutt]

Be careful with a stat write-off that looks good - often times they are flood damaged, and if you're chasing it for conversion parts, you will have issues with wiring harnesses & electronic modules.

Most of them go through insurance yards - you need to be registered with them, and your ID is recorded (part of the process to crack down on rebirthing & other car related crime & fraud).

You can check out the websites (and search online) of the 2 larger ones in Sydney that I used to attend occasionally - from long before the internet became involved (with lots of bidders & agents in person) to recently - where very few cars were sold to people present - it was nearly all online.

http://www.pickles.com.au/damaged-sa...uctions/search
http://www.manheim.com.au/damaged-vehicles


Might also be worth looking at freight companies first too - some won't ship non-driving vehicles. Others are happy to put anything in a container & send it. If you're shipping a container over, and want to repair the vehicle to use it, then it may be worth buying 2 damaged ones (with opposite damage to each other) to make one good car.

Oh - and if you do win something, you need to act quickly to get full payment through, and have it picked up from their site within a short timeframe, so have all your people chosen before you bid.

[ken1939]

The Pickles auction was one that I caught up on earlier. Not being an Australian National, I was told I cannot bid or buy any of these vehicles. I check in with a few of the auto recyclers that are on Ebay Au. I know I can get a roller Commodore VE for example to bring over and do a conversion on a Pontiac G8. But would prefer a XR8.

[happy1]

Hi,
I believe you have had posts before about sending an Aussie car to US.
As described above, when a car looks that good, but is stat-writeoff then there would be a reason for it, such as flooding, rail damage, roof pillar damage, or tampered VIN number / ID plates. When a car has been declared stat-writeoff, it will have a Stat-writeoff sticker visual on the windscreen or bonnet, and from the wording on the sticker it sounds like it could be an offence to remove this sticker. In addition the compliance plate would have been de-faced, usually by scratching it with a sharp object. I can't see that anyone would try to prevent you from exporting it in one piece, but when it arrives in US with a de-faced Australian compliance plate, and also being a model that was never engineered for LHD or US markets, then I'm not sure what rules your country has for importing it.

What were you thinking using it for? Back on the road with RHD? Track car? Or just as parts for conversion into something else?

Cheers,

[ken1939]

I can import cars for road use over 25 years old. If they are newer that they are mainly for parts or off road use. In the case of the XR8 its just a little piece of history of Ford Australia. The thing about the Falcon, there is no direct variant here in the USA, so there is no direct conversion, it becomes a very heavy paper weight. I would probably show it at the World of Wheels car show we have every year at the Convention Center in January. I have a XF Falcon Ute in process to be sent here, and have an XC Ute that I plan on building this spring. I would like to show all three at the show. A little tribute to Ford Australia if you will.

However, the Commodore VE does, the Pontiac G8. Several conversions have been done here in the US with rolling VE Utes and rear end damaged G8s here. Makes them all compliant in the road use category. I have seen a few rollers from wreckers around Vic and Qld that would be perfect. The downside, even wrecked G8s are still to expensive. Although It would be a bit of work and it could be done, I kind of have the Falcons at heart more than the Commies.

As this example for sale in Florida. You essentially have to keep the emissions control, front end, glass etc that is OK by the US DOT.

https://orlando.craigslist.org/cto/5959836974.html

[lra]

" not a crappy patch together" .......... so how does the RHD to LHD conversion work ?
Pull the firewall and front end out of a G8 and weld it on ? Not impossible but , but sounds a bit suss to me.
Or is it a matter of chopping a G8 sedan in half and sticking a ute rear end on.?
The tray at the back looks like it had a hard lid at one stage.

[ken1939]

Originally Posted by lra

" not a crappy patch together" .......... so how does the RHD to LHD conversion work ?
Pull the firewall and front end out of a G8 and weld it on ? Not impossible but , but sounds a bit suss to me.
Or is it a matter of chopping a G8 sedan in half and sticking a ute rear end on.?
The tray at the back looks like it had a hard lid at one stage.

Well I recon there are two ways to do it, one is where you graft them together. I see body shops here in the US at have done extensive repairs using the A Pillar forward method, I have also seen them cut down the center for side impacts. All done on frame racks.

The firewall method is the most common. Seems they were glued in from the factory. They were built on the same assembly lines. I looked over a GTO that was at a local trade school for sale, it was a shell, but you could see the firewall was glued in. The only difference between the Commodore and the G8 beyond the LHD vs RHD is the nose. The Pontiac nose was to meet the US DOT crash allowance. Or at least that is their story. When I looked over the GTO it was all Holden. From the glass to the door stickers for place of assembly. There was not 1 US DOT sticker on it at all. I guess when your GM you can make up the rules.

[commodorenutt]

If you can't personally bid, then you'll need to employ a willing agent to buy it on your behalf, and sell it on to you.
I'm sure there would be members on here who would do it for a reasonable fee.

That yellow ute is interesting - you can clearly see he kept the sedan exhaust, as it doesn't line up with the cutouts in the rear bar. A RHD SV6 ute of that age is lucky to get $15K in a private sale in Oz.

Shame you can't easily "re-body" an early 2000s Mustang into a BA ute.

[ken1939]

Originally Posted by commodorenutt

If you can't personally bid, then you'll need to employ a willing agent to buy it on your behalf, and sell it on to you.
I'm sure there would be members on here who would do it for a reasonable fee.

That yellow ute is interesting - you can clearly see he kept the sedan exhaust, as it doesn't line up with the cutouts in the rear bar. A RHD SV6 ute of that age is lucky to get $15K in a private sale in Oz.

Shame you can't easily "re-body" an early 2000s Mustang into a BA ute.

Believe me I worked all the possible cars, Mustangs, the mid 90's Lincoln Coupes, Crown Vics, you name it. I did look into possibly altering say a Fusion or a Taurus but the lines are all wrong, and I am afraid it would look more like a hack job than a factory produced car. Not to mention the cost to cut up a new vehicle. Simple ones would be a Focus wagon, but thats to much like Moog and Marty (maaaaaddd)

[ken1939]

Originally Posted by commodorenutt

If you can't personally bid, then you'll need to employ a willing agent to buy it on your behalf, and sell it on to you.
I'm sure there would be members on here who would do it for a reasonable fee.

That yellow ute is interesting - you can clearly see he kept the sedan exhaust, as it doesn't line up with the cutouts in the rear bar. A RHD SV6 ute of that age is lucky to get $15K in a private sale in Oz.

Shame you can't easily "re-body" an early 2000s Mustang into a BA ute.

Oddly enough there is a Holden community over here. My shipper was considering bringing his Kingswood ute over to sell. I think there are a few clubs in Maryland from what he said. I think what they are asking for the conversions are crazy. I can get a roller from Oz with shipping for around 5 or 6k, a V6 G8 with a reconstructed title is $4100 US based on the one that is about 2 hours from me. Lots of time to pull it all apart and do it proper. The donor has mild rear end damage so nothing is really bad mechanically.

But then again we have the odd XB and XC Falcon coupes here for sale at a premium:

https://seattle.craigslist.org/tac/cto/5965507379.html

2 pages on the Mad Max site

http://madmaxcars.com/products/produ...Classified_Ads

[happy1]

With the amount of private cars for sale, I think it would be better to select a private seller or a car dealer to sell you one, and ship it over to US.

There are many running, licensed cars to choose from for $7500 onwards, (and that's AUD, so it will cost you less USD).
http://www.gumtree.com.au/s-cars-van...sort=price_asc

The BA, BF and FG models does not have any preparations for LHD, so you would end up keeping it a RHD expensive paper-weight ;-)
Cheers,

[ken1939]

Originally Posted by happy1

With the amount of private cars for sale, I think it would be better to select a private seller or a car dealer to sell you one, and ship it over to US.

There are many running, licensed cars to choose from for $7500 onwards, (and that's AUD, so it will cost you less USD).
http://www.gumtree.com.au/s-cars-van...sort=price_asc

The BA, BF and FG models does not have any preparations for LHD, so you would end up keeping it a RHD expensive paper-weight ;-)
Cheers,

Yes I am all over Gumtree, Trovit and of course Ebay Au. I have found a few nice Utes of all stripes in regards to options. Distance is an issue, if I have to spend shipping to get it to my shipper near Mel, and of course the shipping costs, the write offs start at a better point. Most of the under 7K crowd on Gumtree are cars that have issues. I realize beggars can't be choosers at a certain point, but I did wait for the proper XF to show up to purchase. Fortunately its within two hours of my shipper in Bris, and the owner is going to drive it to him. The Red Boss would have been $800 to ship, which isn't bad for door to door from NSW. I can find XL BA utes inexpensive, even the odd XR6. But I figure if I am going to do it, lets wait for a V8 version, and if its clean enough it would be a go.

Hope to find something in the next 3 weeks before this shipping window closes.