Recent content by flip

A factory just across the road from us was purchased by First Brands a few years ago after being privately owned for decades, just shut down. I think they did extrusions and other rubber products like o-rings for filters. 100+ jobs just gone overnight and they hung us with a couple thousand in...

What was the total damage estimate the shop submitted to insurance? If you got one, was interested to see if you wouldn't mind DM'ing me a copy. Not a big deal, just like seeing what other shops write to help improve how we do things in ours.

What was the total damage?

Frame is about $6K, there should be a ton of one time use hardware that needs to be replaced and likely another 30+ hours to do the swap, not to mention the existing damage. Would like to see what the estimate comes to considering it's a '23 2D it's probably getting really close to total loss...

It's possible that nothing behind the front brackets got damaged but standard practice is to put it on a frame rack, hang targets, get measurements and compare to OE. If the front horns do need replaced the "correct" way is hanging targets after disassembly and the horns are tacked in place...

Cut and weld.

Frame horns the bumper brackets bolt to. They have a front repair section but the body shop will need to put it on a frame rack and take some measurements to make sure the frame isn't tweaked. Procedure manual says frame can't be straightened and requires replacement, some shops would just...

If it didn't get the front frame section I'm going with a $19.5K estimate before supplement.

Get the title signed and ready to turn over, it's done.

My .02.

VIN?

What are they going to make hybrid an option that isn't already? Bronco, Bronco Sport, Ranger? They took away the vehicles (Escape, Edge) where traditional hybrid made sense and would've had a higher take rate (Maverick excluded), F150 hybrid, at least for us has been a turd and plagued with...

Since a few of you have asked in DMs. The OE parts (fuse box, harness and overhead switches) that we were selling a few years ago in the $500-$600 range is now over $900 due to continual price increases from Ford. Ford Performance is coming out with a kit (M-9100-BR) we were told should be...

Our parts store got nailed in December, all of the orders were in the $300 range, different names, different locations. PayPal denied all of the claims even though their merchant service is to screen for fraud. Here's another good one we've seen twice now. Had a guy come out to repave our...