Big Secret dealers

Interesting article Artem Krasnov, the census here

Sale of broken cars - this is a serious business, and for someone - a piece of bread with red caviar. Because trade them profitably. Damaged cars bought on the cheap, and repair napomazhivayut so that the phrase "new state" does not hurt the eyes. The price tag put appropriate.
Inexperienced buyers often peck on a beautiful wrapper adds excitement and classic trick: "Over 450 wanted to sell, I will give you for 420 ..." And then the desire to buy a nice car outweighs common sense.
But standing next to a fair option, but his body into chips, paint has faded, and the price is higher ... But inside - a healthy iron, just like to learn about it?
Typically, the recovered cars are sold through resellers professional car markets, but may slip battered and plain dealer-owner-driver, but what's there - even the official dealer. Distinguish alarm instance is really easy, and learn how this is, at least to a good bargain. In addition, not every machine is broken - it is a reason to abandon the purchase, and must be able to distinguish between serious "automotive body" of the decoration.

Interested - welcome under the cut.
Please do not break, I will inform finish.





Suspiciously good condition Paint
Even with careful operation on the car body appear chips: they usually focus on the front bumper, radiator grille and the hood. The "vazikov" thickness and strength of the paint small, so that the "pock-marked" by chipping the hood - a normal phenomenon. In the instance under consideration with the claimed mileage of 75 thousand kilometers of the hood and bumper amazing black and, most likely, recently repainted.
Pay attention to the thresholds - they are usually covered with a mesh of small scratches on the shoes. If on the one hand they do not, it is an occasion to look at the rapids more attentively: it is possible to paint them.

Uneven body gaps
Artisanal repair often produces "curvature" of the body, which is especially noticeable at the interface panels. "It is not so much the absolute value of the gap, as it evenly along the length of the difference with a gap on the side of the car balanced. The Russian machines gaps usually have more curves from the factory, but if somewhere breaks a finger and just below the details are almost lapped this instance beaten ».

Look at the photo: Walking the gap between the edge of the hood and grille Ford Focus - unhealthy phenomenon.



Broken body may issue a fuzzy closing doors, so be sure to experienced buyers verify their operation: there are no jams, squeaks, fuzzy locks work?



And the photo below - hatchback Chevrolet, which in the case of a back lantern find inconspicuous crack. A closer inspection reveals that this marks the fifth door, which, when closed, beating on plastic mount stoplight, damaging them. The reason - the rear of the car repaired.
Curves gaps or "rastoporschennye" panel sometimes show the use of cheap Turkish or Chinese parts, the geometry of which is often not identical with the original.



Treacherous fasteners
The photo shows that one of the bolts on the door of the car is not colored. On the other hand it is clear that the factory it was covered with enamel with the body. This is a clear sign that the door was removed, likely to repair ».
It is necessary to clarify that not all the screws of the car must be painted over: the factory of the elements installed after painting works.
Pay particular attention to body parts and fasteners interior linings. "If the car body repair dismantled, some fasteners are lost or broken, such as caps for fixing interior panels. If you notice nedotyanuty, unpainted or non-standard bolt, and lost or broken piston - is an occasion to examine the item carefully. Compare fasteners suspicious elements with the same details on the other side of the machine or a new car. Check "walk" Whether interior paneling: after body repair often not fastened properly, or they bumped or flies ».



Issue "of automotive body" may even door handles. "Small details like the door handles in the body repair the budget does not change, so unexpectedly bad their condition should suggest a problem with the machine, as is the case with the Ford Focus».



Hands at the seams
The factory car bodies are welded parts mainly from individual spot welding, and then seal the joints of special sealant. A method of applying sealant is different: in the factory Nissan near St. Petersburg do work with special guns, workshops Hyundai «Solaris" and "Rio" - robots. Subsequently, the sealant is subjected to fusing, and the body is painted.
Factory sealant looks neat, well-dyed and often almost imperceptible. When the body repair it is applied more nodular, often smear, and sometimes consistency is similar to dried paint.



Note the rough seam around the arm of the fifth door Chevrolet, the same one that caught our attention is split housing stoplight. "One can see that the sealant nezavodskoy here, from both sides, then, most likely, was a blow to the back of - because now the boot lid can not be closed, as it is necessary».
Sometimes sealant put quite carefully, and if in doubt, it is better to look at new seams or guaranteed not broken car of the same model.



With welded seams difficult. When repairing method using two welding: spot and seam (including inert gases). Spot welding is used in the plant, so it would seem, the fact that the repair should be invisible. However, it is not. If you look at the lower part of the rapids hanging on the lift car - on the one hand from the factory point of welding, and the other - the traces of the workshop. The points are not as smooth, traces of burn marks, then re-welded threshold ».
Use spot welding at repair is not always possible. The plant parts are combined in a specific sequence, and crawl in the workshop with welding tongs to every seam and get the desired overlap is not always possible. Then use a continuous or discontinuous weld seam, which can be easily distinguished by eye.



If at some point you have not found traces of spot welding, while on the other side of the car they are likely to undergo major car repair.
But there are little tricks - Masters often sealed the weld filler, and then the back of a pencil eraser to make the mark that looks very reminiscent of traces of spot welding. Then plot primed, painted over and kind of resembles a factory option.
At Nissan plant some details so that's boiled clamp



Hidden cavities
Primarily concerned with the appearance of the client's car. Therefore tinsmith spend the lion's share of time and effort to restore basic geometry and "smoothing" the visible eye panels. So, a lot of interesting things can tell cavities: the bowels of the engine compartment, the niche of a spare wheel and the luggage compartment floor, the inner ends of the doors and so on. Experienced evaluators take the inspection and do not hesitate a screwdriver to remove the trunk trim, to look at the inside of the rear fenders, if people came back to the car, as a rule, in these cavities there is plenty of evidence.
When paint finishing polishes are used, which are washed off from the outside of the body, but often remain hidden cavities. Externally polish similar to the Cretaceous sediment, which is easily washed off with water and washed his fingers. Sometimes the masters are too lazy to disassemble the item before painting and completely sealed with adhesive tape adjacent parts, but not always "tight", so traces of paint remain on the details of the interior and seals. It is useful to bend the finger rubber elements and look at the places of their contiguity to roughness: if the elastic bands have traces of paint - the car was in painters.
The boundaries of the painted areas of the factory in a secluded place, say, the Ford Focus in the photo rough transition of color inside the doorway.
The color transition from this Focus is located in an inconspicuous place, but treated rudely



What to tell the gas tank hatch
Many machines for fastening flap immediately clear whether or not he was shot. Non-standard or damaged bolts, "left" rivets - all this shows that the flap is lifted. A shot is likely for tinting, i.e. the color matching.
Fuel tank flap is suitable for kolerovschikov as compact and its absence does not interfere with the movement. It is true that some cars (eg Ford Focus) hatch can be removed quickly. Again, the fact of tinting does not speak about any serious problems, but it is an occasion to ask the owner what was painted. Many respond Duty: "Yes it's me on the bumper snowdrift split, here and repainted." But is it really?

We are looking for spot colors and joints
In good shops damaged area is painted with the so-called transition, that is, the enamel is applied including the neighboring fragments of the body to the color contrast between the painting and repair factory was not so sharp. For example, after the replacement doors are usually not just the color, but also the adjacent wing and adjacent car door. If the repair is "budget" and walked only on the door, a difference in hue can be quite noticeable, as to provide a perfect hit in color is rarely possible. Even the two new machines from different parties may have different hue.
To distinguish the colored areas need bright lighting, clean body and a good color sensitivity of the beholder. Typically, the difference is noticeable at certain angles, so you should walk around the car or ask the owner to travel in a circle, first one way and then the other.
In theory, you can paint so that not even notice professional- perhaps, but in reality almost no. An experienced eye sees not only the difference in color, but different surface quality: grain, shagreen. To ensure a perfect match to a paint factory, it takes too rigorous and expensive approach, so most of the trained eye immediately sees tinted areas.
Measuring the thickness of the LCP
A more accurate method is to determine the thickness of the paint using a special instrument, which is in the workshop often referred to as "thickness gauge". Factory paint layer is usually much thinner and more uniform than the repair. If used putty, then the sensor will be great. And the machines from different manufacturers its own regulations on the thickness of the paint: the Japanese and Russian are thinner at the US - are generally thicker ».
Such a device has almost all of body shops and dealerships, so that in case of doubt to drive the car to the experts. Surely in your city, there are mobile teams of experts who can evaluate the car directly in the market or in a convenient place for you.



To take or not to take?

Damaged car, painted and even more so - not a reason to abandon the purchase. First, the mere fact that the repair does not mean that hurt the vital organs: may have been minor accidents. Painted bumper with no other signs of repair - it is likely the result of a failed attempt to host parking or remove chips. Minor injuries are almost inevitable in the operation.
Secondly, even if the strike has damaged the bearing elements of the car, shifted the point of attachment of the suspension or deform the power structure, quality repairs after a car may well serve as another. The main thing - not to overpay for him too much, but in itself bitost - this is not a sentence.
Worse, if the repair was done poorly: the abundance of filler, bad paint, the more cracks in the paintwork, the shortage of fasteners - signs anyhow-repair.
Very bad if it was not possible to restore the geometry of the body: that's when you can ogresti whole heap of problems from bad closing doors to an inability to put the recommended wheel alignment. And it is not safe.
Determine the change in the geometry of the body to face a very difficult, but there are indirect signs - it is recommended to pay attention to the uniformity of deterioration of tires, if they erased differently or their parts to wear out more quickly, most likely brought down by camber and toe, and this may be a sign of critical violation of the geometry of the body. If the machine is a second set of wheels, such as the winter - and check it. Machines with unevenly worn wheels worth checking twice carefully, and be sure to check before you buy, whether exhibited camber and toe angles in principle. If not - take a car is not necessary.
If you want to, and prickly - do not take money for the instrumental measurement body geometry: such equipment dealers have a serious or services. With Probing the complex can be determined relative position of several vital points on the bottom of the car, allowing the judge to maintain the geometry of the factory.
Instrumental measurement of body geometry



The process is simple: on the laptop screen wizard prompt is displayed with a photo of the next point to measure, he touches it with a sharp probe tip and the system determines the position of a point in a coordinate system tied to the car. Then, the coordinates are compared with the database, and concludes that, if the geometry of the body needs to be corrected. In general, this equipment is used in the repair of seriously damaged cars, and the computer gives out clues along the way, in what direction and how to pull the body. But you can use it for diagnosis as much as the type of machinery: the cost is about 4,000 rubles.
According to the standards the offset points should not exceed 2-3 mm - for each point of the value. If the body is "left" to 4 mm, most likely require repair. If the client does not want to pay 4000 rubles for instrumental diagnostics, we offer a visual inspection - it is about 1,000 rubles. Skilled craftsmen will not be difficult to find the problem areas and determine how well they repaired.



There are machines, which is best avoided: for example, welded from two halves of emergency vehicles. Such "centaurs" in this accident are often torn in half with fatal consequences. Of course, this car can look good: fresh paint, new interior, perky engine ... but only for the layman view, that such "designers" and addressed.
Another way to insure - to buy a car in a showroom Trade In an authorized dealer: the machines are pre-diagnosis, so that they know the future of the background to the buyer in advance. Usually Motor Trade In general, do not take to implement the broken items.

What should not get hung
Minor dents without damaging the paintwork usually do not threaten anything other than loss of aesthetics, and some services are straightened by CIP Paintless Dent Repair (for example, the marks of "enemy" doors on the side of the car).
Chips and scratches on the bumper shall not affect the functionality. At the close of European cities skived bumpers - a normal phenomenon. Crooked or torn aerodynamic bumper aprons underneath often indicate an unsuccessful road outing, but if the other elements are intact, it's not critical.
Grid micro-scratches on the surface of the body appears in the first months of operation after washing - it's almost a necessary evil.
Local coloring elements is likely not a problem, and if in doubt, check the area with the help of "gauge": whether under a thick layer of putty paint? In any case, it is an occasion to bring down the price a bit (if the buyer did not claim damages in advance).

Technology body repair
Briefly describe how the machine is reduced with serious injuries.
First, the injured part of the disassembled "dead" parts are discarded, and body parts are subjected to a thorough Troubleshooting. Sometimes it is more profitable pulling spar, sometimes - to change to the next.
In major centers use the system to measure the geometry of the body. They are different: laser, patterns, mechanical, but the meaning is one - to determine the displacement of points of the body and the direction in which it needs to draw.



Pull at the special stocks: the car is attached to the base of the rapids with clips, and the force is transmitted from the power unit (for example, a hydraulic lever-type) through special chains with hooks. On stocks provides for a system of lines and patterns by which the master determines how it is pulling element.







All.

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