My Salvage P85 rebuild

[ucf_motorcycle]

Being a Model S fan since I test drove one in 2013 I have always wanted one but couldn't justify/afford to buy one. More recently I started looking for a used one but the prices were still pretty high. Saw a couple rebuilds go for auction on Ebay so I started researching fixing a wrecked one. Came across the carGuru videos and started looking at the Copart auctions. Bid low on a few and lost the auction. Found a running one with rather light side damage and won it at $25k.

Its a 2013 P85 37,000 miles. Passenger side damage looks like it hit a guard rail. This was October 29 Copart auction in Illinois, I live in NW FL.

Wired money to dealer (I used Dashub, don't recommend them) price, plus copart fee, plus dashub fee, plus shipping, plus sales tax (more on that later). $28670

Car arrived by the shipper Nov 10. Shipper drove it off the truck lots of noise coming from the steering, bumper barely hanging on, curtain airbags flapping.
Pics from Copart were deceiving in that the curtain airbags and seat airbag was tucked back in so it looked like no airbags had deployed. This angered me so I called Dashub, who then called copart. Long story short as is sale sorry. Beware buying cars from Copart that are not sold by the insurance company lesson learned.

Some good stuff: car ran, came with charger, all parts appeared to be there.

So warning lights were: replace 12V battery, Parking assist disabled and Airbag light was on. Front passenger window appeared stuck half open but I was able to manuever it back into closing. There was tape and plastic all over to keep rain out.

After initial walk around I took it for a short drive just around the block basically. Lots of rubbing and steering noise noted but otherwise drove fine. Also AC was not working.

Began a damage assessment and parts list. Was as follows:

both curtain airbags
drivers seat airbag and drivers seat cover (seam tears when back blows)
drivers seatbelt locked and pretensioner retracted
Upper B pillar trim damaged
front bumper not mounted properly and lots of rash
parking sensors missing
12v battery bad
RH front fender misalinged
RH marker light missing
RH fender liner damaged
both RH doors badly damaged
RH rear quarter panel dented
Both RH wheels curbed and rashed

more to follow...

 

[gaswalla]

best of luck! Hope it all worked out.
If you can do the repairs on your own somehow on the cheap, this could be a good deal, otherwise it'll end up costing as much as a used 2013 Model S

 

[demundus]

two doors and a rear fender is 22k at least (ask me how i know? )

I have a front psgr door i can sell you, its black though.

 

[Mickie]

This looks and sounds like a typical Tesla CPO delivery people experience around here...

Kidding! Sorta

GL on your rebuild though. Hope you end up saving a bundle.

 

[Mickie]

two doors and a rear fender is 22k at least (ask me how i know? )

I have a front psgr door i can sell you, its black though.

The quarter panel might be able to be reworked. That’d save a crap ton of money vs a new one installed. As for those doors, AFAIK Tesla doesn’t do door skins; the whole door needs replacing. Maybe locate two good doors with matching paint from another salvage to save even more dough.

I’m sure you’ve probably thought most of this out, but just incase.

 

[ucf_motorcycle]

Spoiler alert.

I have all needed parts.

 

[demundus]

Are you going to do the rear quarter yourself? should video it, i wanna see

 

[demundus]

The quarter panel might be able to be reworked. That’d save a crap ton of money vs a new one installed. As for those doors, AFAIK Tesla doesn’t do door skins; the whole door needs replacing. Maybe locate two good doors with matching paint from another salvage to save even more dough.

I’m sure you’ve probably thought most of this out, but just incase.

Those RQs are paper thin. Try to uncrinkle a coke can... similar concept

 

[Cram collision]

LOL
They told me easy fix or twisted the photos
You have to basically show up in person for a true story of what your buying. There are resources out there to help you fix this not cheap but you can fix it.

 

[MP3Mike]

Spoiler alert.

I have all needed parts.

How much did they cost you?

 

[ucf_motorcycle]

So first thing was to locate needed parts. #1 on the list was the 12V battery as I didn't want the car to suddenly stop functioning so after searching online for an aftermarket fit I found that only 1 exists which is the Battmobile Lipo (someone please correct me if there is another). At $400 its likely a great replacement but I wanted to keep the budget down so I called the nearest Tesla shop to (which is still 250miles away) to see if they would send me a replacement. First shop in Atlanta said they can't ship it since its hazmat. I insisted that you could ship it ground and it would be fine they argued they could not so I called Jacksonville. They agreed to ship it but needed my VIN "for the invoice" I knew what was coming, I gave them the VIN, he said he would call me back. 20min later he calls back and says he can't sell me the battery since its a salvage car but their service manager might be able to help. I said forget it.

I pulled the battery I had out of the car found it to be low on water and holding about 8 volts. I topped off the water and put a 2amp charge on it. 12hrs later 12.4 volts and holding. I put it back in the car (easier said than done) and figured problem solved (more on that later).

On to find the rest of the parts. Ebay has always been my go to. I used to fix salvage motorcycles buts its been a few years since my last one. Lots of Tesla parts are on Ebay but the majority are damaged and pretty pricey. Tesla Parts Group on Facebook had a few things but everything I needed was spread out between three different sellers and shipping on some of these larger pieces was going to be pricey. Searching on this forum I found Autobahn a quick call to Henry there revealed he had a silver model S (same color as mine) with front and drivers side damage coming in. Which meant everything on passenger side was in good shape. Perfect. I told him everything I needed and he said he would get to work on pulling the stuff off and sending me a price list.

A few days went by and I was starting to get anxious as to what I was going to be charged for the parts since I didn't know if it would be cheaper to buy it all from Autobahn and save on the shipping or start buying from multiple private sellers. I called Henry again and explained this. He understood and started qouted me prices over the phone. They all sounded about reasonable to what others were charging online so I said that would all work. Henry's biggest concern and mine as well for obvious reasons as some of you stated above already was the rear quarter. He said he has never pulled one off before and wasn't sure if he could. He insisted it would be much easier to just cut the section that I needed and weld it into place rather than replace the whole panel.

After calling just about all the body shops in my town and even a few welders none of them were comfortable with doing this on an aluminum car. One shop said they would do the whole panel no problem but not the piece meal welding job. I reported this back to Henry and he agreed to pull the whole panel but it would be a few weeks. In the meantime he would send all the other stuff I needed as the parts required two seperate shipments anyway.

So he put together the first box.

Two door skins
Two curtain airbags
All three RH impact sensors (I ended up not needing this)
Front RH fender (I ended up not using this)
RH power folding mirror
Two parking sensors and mounts
RH and LH plastic front bumper mounts
RH marker light
exterior temp sensor (I ended up not needing this)

$1685 shipped to my door.

With holidays in the way full two weeks later I finally get my parts. from the freight company. They were a nightmare to deal with.

More to come

 

[demundus]

Henry is awesome, glad hes local to me incase *sugar* hits the fan around here.

Pulled the WHOLE panel is an interesting approach. I guess the forewarning is, if FHP makes you pull the seats and sees the weld they may not agree. Still... way to be a pioneer! Lets see how it turns out

 

[jelloslug]

Stuffing airbags seems to be a big issue on places like copart. That is something that you should play close attention to.

 

[ucf_motorcycle]

Stuffing airbags seems to be a big issue on places like copart. That is something that you should play close attention to.

Yes its very obviously deceptive and I am surprised Copart does nothing about it as its only going to cause aggravation and complaints from the buyers (who are also Copart customers in the end). Dashub agreed that this was very shady and they said they attempted to get some resolve about it but in the end they couldn't get anything. As is sale was the final answer.

I was out probably an additional $1000 in parts and 12hrs or so of my labor due to the airbag deception. When even one blows its likely going to need the seatbelts reset, the SRS module reset as well as the actual airbags too.

Luckily it was the only real surprise in this deal. I'd love to know the full story on this car as it crashed sometime in March and when I got it in Nov I had a bunch of spare parts in the trunk so it looked like someone was going to try and fix it but then changed their mind and decided to stuff the bags and make a few extra bucks.

 

[jelloslug]

Yes its very obviously deceptive and I am surprised Copart does nothing about it as its only going to cause aggravation and complaints from the buyers (who are also Copart customers in the end). Dashub agreed that this was very shady and they said they attempted to get some resolve about it but in the end they couldn't get anything. As is sale was the final answer.

I was out probably an additional $1000 in parts and 12hrs or so of my labor due to the airbag deception. When even one blows its likely going to need the seatbelts reset, the SRS module reset as well as the actual airbags too.

Luckily it was the only real surprise in this deal. I'd love to know the full story on this car as it crashed sometime in March and when I got it in Nov I had a bunch of spare parts in the trunk so it looked like someone was going to try and fix it but then changed their mind and decided to stuff the bags and make a few extra bucks.

Was your car from an insurance company or another seller? It seems to be more prevalent from dealers and body shops that doctor up cars to make them look less damaged than they actually are.

 

[ucf_motorcycle]

Was your car from an insurance company or another seller? It seems to be more prevalent from dealers and body shops that doctor up cars to make them look less damaged than they actually are.

Yes it appears it was doctored up and put back on Copart unfortunately a lesson learned.

 

[ucf_motorcycle]

So while I was waiting for the above parts to arrive I started working on what I could. At this point I found the entire Tesla service manual on the Pirate Bay which was very convenient and FREE!

I removed the drivers seatbelt which was locked up, the pretensioner and the SRS module. The seatbelt was very straightforward but the SRS module was the toughest thing I have done on this car so far.

It sits behind the center screen on the floor of the car. The service manual directions say to access it through the drivers side footwell after removing a few trim pieces and unbolting some of the bolts from the passenger side footwell. Ultimately the module comes out through the drivers side as there are many wires and other things in the way on the passenger side.

Anyway the entire process is very difficult because it is so extremely tight in there. First the Air Suspension module must come out which is bolted to a large plastic shroud which is nearly impossible to pull out because its so tight. After several hours I managed to free both the Air suspension module and the SRS module came out soon after. I ended up unbolting the accelerator pedal which I feel is a mandatory step in removing these modules but not written in the service manual.

I sent the module and seatbelt to Safety Restore. They have an ebay store which actually offers the service for much cheaper than what they advertise online. SO I went that route.

Two seatbelt components and SRS module were $125 total plus whatever it cost me to ship to them which was $9 I think.

Next I found a seller on ebay that offered to fix the blown seat airbag. This was $250. I had to pull the leather off the seat though which wasn't that tough but the instructions again were not great. I sent the leather and blown airbag to get fixed.

At this point I started wondering where my Title was as it was now 4 weeks since I paid for the car but still hadn't received it so I began calling and emailing Dashub regarding that. More to come.

 

[ucf_motorcycle]

Are you going to do the rear quarter yourself? should video it, i wanna see

I haven't decided yet. I got the original one looking better with hammer and dent puller and hoping that will be enough to pass inspection but more on that later.

 

[albatore]

Hey UCF, I also bought a car from copart in Miami with Dashub and same nightmare with them. I bought the car on Nov 22 and I still don't have the title. this company is just a mess !
let's tchat to share our experience with Dashub....

 

[ucf_motorcycle]

So my seatbelt and SRS module arrive from Safety restore about a week later. Very quick turnaround The seatbelt looks great but the buckle portion also known as the pretensioner is still completely retracted. I call Safety Restore and they say mail and back and we will fix it. OK sent that back again.

About this time 12V battery dies completely. I had noticed that I had severe vampire drain about 10-15miles a day and then the car would not respond at all so I had to jump it. Since I couldn't buy a 12V from Telsa I decided to just cough up the $400 and get one from Battmobile. So I ordered that.

A few days later my seat leather and airbag arrive. This was about a two week turnaround. I put all that back together. Which requires hog rings so I had ordered those and a pair of hog ring pliers from amazon a few days prior. I took my time putting the seat back together as I really didn't have anything else I could have worked on at the time. It took me a full day and I had messed up by forgetting one of the electrical connections which required me to partially disassemble the seat again after I had it all together. But it now looks great has an airbag and all the functions work.

Finally the freight company a few days later shows my package from Autobahn is in the terminal. I call them and they schedule a delivery. I get a 11-3 window for delievery the next day. Wait for the package all day and the guy shows up at 7PM.

The next day I start taking apart the doors and putting the new skins on.

MOre to come.