Looking for former owner of wrecked blue 02 WRX wagon (pic)

[toxic]

Did this used to be your car? It's an '02 WRX Wagon with seccs.org stickers on the roof racks, and damage to the front and back. Your insurance company totalled it with about 40,000 miles on it.

If this was your car, I'd like to contact you.

[qksubi]

Is this Debbies old car

[MattR]

Originally Posted by qksubi

Is this Debbies old car

Yes.

[dknv]

That's mine. PM me and let me know how to contact you.

[dknv]

I have been PM'd, and just want to say 'Welcome' to Jeff. As I understand it, the car is fixed - Yay!

Pics plz, if/when you have the time. Thanks.

[toxic]

Hi everybody!

Indeed, Debbie's car has been fixed, and it's now my car. I'm Jeff, I live in San Francisco, but I make my way up to Truckee frequently during the winter. A body shop in Sacramento did an outstanding job straightening out the frame and putting everything back together.

I'm starting to get to work on some of the other things you do after rebuilding a car (i.e. seatbelts), and I'm hoping to use it as a not-quite-daily driver in the not too distant future.

Pictures:

[Nick Koan]

Nice job. What bodyshop did the work?

[sonicsuby]

Originally Posted by nKoan

Nice job. What bodyshop did the work?

I wanna know too.

[toxic]

Originally Posted by nKoan

Nice job. What bodyshop did the work?

Vlad's Toys on W. Capitol Ave in W. Sacramento is responsible for the current state of the car. They run a body shop, mechanic shop, dismantler, and dealer all in the same location... and they have something of a following among the recently-landed Russian immigrant community.

Dismantling and rebuilding cars is by it's very nature, a fairly shady business, and Vlad's does not disappoint in this nature. But their work is good, and they're very up-front about the formerly squished nature of most of their vehicles.

I'm comfortable with the deal that I got, and I'm comfortable with the repaired frame. It's not the same as an unwrecked car, but that's not what I was buying.

[dknv]

Blue wagon reincarnation, that is awesome! Dean had said it would most likely be back on the road, and I didn't believe him.

And I find myself feeling fondness for the wonderful memories that car brought me. May it serve you well.

How did you come to find it, to buy? Ad in a paper, know somebody?

MikeH: have you heard of this outfit in Sac?

[tysonK]

that's pretty sweet.

I sure wasn't exspecting to see the re-birth photos!

[Dean]

The seatbelts are likely fine. A good inspection may be all they need. Unless it was replaced, I would give the driver's seat itself a good looking over, especially, the seat back.

[MikeSTI]

Originally Posted by dknv

MikeH: have you heard of this outfit in Sac?

There are so many of these type shops poping up in Sacramento that it is hard to keep track of all of them :?

the Russian immigrants have made an art of buying high demand salvaged vehicals for resale, just check the paper for Honda Civics or Integras. I'm sure that most want to do things right but the other side is the ones that just want to make money.

[dknv]

Originally Posted by MikeSTI

the Russian immigrants have made an art of buying high demand salvaged vehicals for resale

wow, learned something new. There's a niche market for everything these days.

[ArthurS]

Its amazing to see your wagon again Debbie!

[toxic]

Originally Posted by Dean

The seatbelts are likely fine. A good inspection may be all they need. Unless it was replaced, I would give the driver's seat itself a good looking over, especially, the seat back.

The driver's seat was repaired, though not as well as I'd like it to be. I'm replacing it as soon as I get my hands on a replacement. Enough people have put racing seats in their WRXes, that stockies aren't all that hard to come by.

As luck has it, all the belts in the car turned out to be fine on close inspection, except for the rear seat middle. That belt is anchored fairly near the impact point, and the collision appears to have damaged the retraction mechanism. I'm not sure that I'll ever trust that anchor point again, so I'm probably just going to remove that belt entirely, and limit the car to four passengers.

Seat belts often are replaced after significant accidents. Some are designed to essentially self-destruct in the process of holding you in place as you accelerate through several Gs.

[Dean]

I agree about belts in general, but based on the dynamics of this collision, very little extra load was placed on the one belt in use, the driver's. I would not discourage you from replacing it, but wanted you to know it was the only one in use during the collision and that the primary acceleration of the driver was rearward, not forward.

That rearward load appeared to have severly weakened if not broken the driver's seat back.

I would also agree on not using that center rear belt anymore.

Oh, and if nobody mentioned it, each of those SECCS stickers is worth +5 HP...

Also, I don't recall if they sold or not, but there were a set of ski racks, and possibly stock wheels sitting around that went with that car if you are interested, but you would have to ask Debbie.