VTBuckeye

I'm looking at an S2000 that was damaged by hail and (allegedly) repaired with OEM parts; current owner says all parts have VIN tags (what does that mean if they are not original?). In one of the pics I was sent, I can see that the front driver quarter-panel is misaligned with the front fender at the seam between the front driver tire and the headlight. Attempting to attach photos:

If these are OEM parts, why would this happen? If it was only superficial hail damage and the parts are OEM, is this misalignment easily fixable? Are body panels adjustable enough to gain perfect alignment here?

Thanks for any insight here. I love the car and it looks good otherwise. Just a little potential sketchiness...

VTBuckeye

Wow, I just saw the paint chips and cracks on that front fender. Not as nice as I thought, or that I could originally see on my phone.

92gli

If any of the metal panels or the bumpers were replaced they wont have tags with matching vins. Only the original parts have the tags. There are 10 of them - each front fender, each door, each rear quarter, each bumper, hood and trunk lid.

The cracks you see are on the bumper, which was likely caused by a minor collision with something.

92gli

Whats the second pic showing? That ain't right, whatever it is.

VTBuckeye

My guess is that second pic is of the trunk. Could that be the spoiler at 12:00 in that shot?

Here's the quote: "The deck lid is a lil off from the driver quarter."

92gli

Pass. That's something more than hail.

Hfreak

Could be just poor panel alignment on the decklid but you would have to see the entire rear of the car to evaluate it properly. The front bumper cover/ fender alignment is a little common but this looks like a light impact as previously mentioned. All can be corrected with time and patience.

VTBuckeye

Owner says title is rebuilt due to hail damage. I don't know, it would have to be pretty severe hail damage to warrant a rebuilt title, correct?

VIN is JHMAP21467S001096 if anyone wants to investigate. The free vehicle history report shows one instance each of hail damage, salvage, and collision. Could these all be the same incident? Hail and collision don't seem to overlap in my mind, but I'm new to this.

Any thoughts are appreciated. I like the car and the price is right (although maybe not as "right" as it should be considering the above).

Thanks!

Car Analogy

It could be that separate from the hail damage, there was a light impact to front at some point, and the bodywork wasn't done well. There is some alignment adjustability of bumper, headlight, fender relationship. But not for adjusting how the edge of bumper aligns with edge of fender. Especially is the opposite side, where fender and bumper meet at corner of headlight, is not also off by the same amount. It looks to me like fender is pushed in at the lip. Bent.

But that's just cosmetic. The larger issue is a salvage car is not easy to insure for comp and collision. Well, it may be easy to find such coverage, but it can be difficult to use. Insurance sees salvage and suddenly don't want to pay out anything to fix it, and only give you pittance for its totaled value.

IMO, its ok to buy salvage, but only if you are planning to run without comp and collision, and pay for any future repairs out of pocket.

windhund116

Misaligned body parts indicate mounting points were not fixed back to proper positions. Could indicate other, more serious problems --- like bent frame.

Check under the car for fit and alignment issues. Esp where suspension parts meet the frame.