rebulding my CLS350 AMG BLUE-E 2013 AFTER A WRITE OFF CRASH.

[dillbar123]

I bought a Mercedes CLS 350 cdi AMG 2013 a few months ago, sadly I was involved in an accident.
Subsequently the car was written off by the insurance company deeming it uneconomical to repair. They where quoted £10,000 to repair the car.
I purchased the car back from them for 30% of my claim value. I really love the car and could not let it go to salvage, so I have set about repairing it myself.
I am quite a DIY kind of person, and I did used to work in a car factory so I am good with clips electrics and can generally follow instructions lol. My best mate is a Mechanic who is also giving my guidance.

So the accident involved me hitting the crash barrier on a dual carriage way at 40mph. The damage sustained was:
FRONT WING
FRONT LEFT DOOR
REAR LEFT DOOR
REAR QUARTER PANNEL
FRONT LEFT ALLOY WHEEL
NEAR SIDE SUSPENSION ARM

So far a have purchased the following parts:
(SADLY SILVER) FRONT WING £200
2X LEFT HAND SIDE DOORS IN WHITE (PLUG N PLAY) £290
SUSPENSION ARM £85
4X ALLOY WHEELS HAVE BEEN SENT OFF TO BE RE ALLINED AND POWDER COATED BLACK £250


I WILL POST ALL PHOTOS PRE ACCIDENT, POST ACCIDENT, AND DURING REPAIR STAGES.
THE CAR IS NOW A CAT S.

 

[dillbar123]

Post accident photos of the car

 

[dillbar123]

After the accident

 

[dillbar123]

More post accident

 

[dillbar123]

Progress so far….
Wing fitted.
Both doors fitted.
New suspension arm

 

[dillbar123]

Progress so far….

 

[dillbar123]

Not sure why some of my photos are upside down lol

 

[E55BOF]

That's bugger-all for £10K, isn't it? All down to the cost of brand-new parts, I suppose. Even if you had not been able to repair it yourself, an independent body shop would do it and leave you a nice chunk of cash in your wallet too.

A friend of mine had a similar accident, but no mechanical damage. He couldn't afford the repairs, though, so he simply painted rings around the damage and added 'HERS' next to each of them...

 

[MrGreedy]

Good luck!
Hopefully it will all come together and you will have pocketed a bit of cash at the end of this.

I trust someone is going to have to work some magic on that rear left quarter around the door shut and latching loop? Quite a bit of buckling there that needs to be sorted.

When it comes to spraying the bumpers, I strongly advise this is all done with lights out and bumpers off and stripped of components.
Motorpoint Derby were selling a repaired Golf that we looked at, that was the cheapest rear end repair possible (they didn't know about it and pretended it wasn't there when I asked them about it). There was poor paint masking that was blatantly an eye sore around all the rear lights and overspray all around the rear wheel arches.
I've had my rear bumper sprayed off the car, and it's a great job!
The bumper and diffuser on the CLS looks very similar to my E-Class.
The diffuser is probably rivetted on, and again, remove to get a 'factory' job. You might be able to replace the rivet with something like carefully sized stainless bolts, nuts and washers from someone like Boltbase on eBay.
So get some old carpet behind the rivets when you drill them out, as the body shop probably won't want to do this. Just make sure you protect the bumper, because you can drill them from inside to outside, so you don't want to over do it with ape strength and fists of ham and then risk blasting through the bumper (there is a gap between the rivets on the E and the bumper, hence put some carpet in).
Also on the E, the rear exhaust tips are bolted to the bumper with torx bolts, so you can remove those and get them polished up

 

[dillbar123]

That's bugger-all for £10K, isn't it? All down to the cost of brand-new parts, I suppose. Even if you had not been able to repair it yourself, an independent body shop would do it and leave you a nice chunk of cash in your wallet too.

A friend of mine had a similar accident, but no mechanical damage. He couldn't afford the repairs, though, so he simply painted rings around the damage and added 'HERS' next to each of them...

hahaha thats funny!
Yes the damage was not that bad at all in my opinion, no damage to lights or bumpers. No airbags gone off.
the suspension arm only bent because the wheel was turned when I hit it.
I'm pretty much ready for the bodyshop rear quarter repair.

 

[zipdip]

A nice bolt on repair,who is doing the rear quarter,amazing no head lights gone,I suppose the air bags are ok as well,shame about the silver wing but should spray ok and match the rest white cars are easy to match.

 

[dillbar123]

Good luck!
Hopefully it will all come together and you will have pocketed a bit of cash at the end of this.

I trust someone is going to have to work some magic on that rear left quarter around the door shut and latching loop? Quite a bit of buckling there that needs to be sorted.

When it comes to spraying the bumpers, I strongly advise this is all done with lights out and bumpers off and stripped of components.
Motorpoint Derby were selling a repaired Golf that we looked at, that was the cheapest rear end repair possible (they didn't know about it and pretended it wasn't there when I asked them about it). There was poor paint masking that was blatantly an eye sore around all the rear lights and overspray all around the rear wheel arches.
I've had my rear bumper sprayed off the car, and it's a great job!
The bumper and diffuser on the CLS looks very similar to my E-Class.
The diffuser is probably rivetted on, and again, remove to get a 'factory' job. You might be able to replace the rivet with something like carefully sized stainless bolts, nuts and washers from someone like Boltbase on eBay.
So get some old carpet behind the rivets when you drill them out, as the body shop probably won't want to do this. Just make sure you protect the bumper, because you can drill them from inside to outside, so you don't want to over do it with ape strength and fists of ham and then risk blasting through the bumper (there is a gap between the rivets on the E and the bumper, hence put some carpet in).
Also on the E, the rear exhaust tips are bolted to the bumper with torx bolts, so you can remove those and get them polished up

thanks for the advice, i have an extremely good bodyshop local to me who are going to do all work to the rear quarter and then repainting the full side.
The alloy wheels are currently being powder coated black... thinking about putting 20mm spacer on the AMG wheels hmm.
Maybe i should concentrate on getting it fixed first lol!

 

[dillbar123]

A nice bolt on repair,who is doing the rear quarter,amazing no head lights gone,I suppose the air bags are ok as well,shame about the silver wing but should spray ok and match the rest white cars are easy to match.

yeah mate fairly straight forward and im happy with the progress. I have an extremely good bodyshop local to me who are going to do all work to the rear quarter and then repainting the full side.
The alloy wheels are currently being powder coated black. hopfully not to long till shes going again!!!

 

[Skd884]

Leave the wheels silver.

 

[E55BOF]

^ +1

 

[dillbar123]

Leave the wheels silver.

thankfully the alloy wheel refurbishment company is friend of a friend, So i can have them redone silver when i curb them! just fancied black for a change.

 

[dillbar123]

also putting the gloss black panamericana AMG GT grill in, once finished!

 

[chic0821]

Looking good. Good to see threads like this, so interesting.
Have a look at this guy's repair videos. He can repair anything. Loads of different cars

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[KillerHERTZ]

also putting the gloss black panamericana AMG GT grill in, once finished!

Great job rebuilding, but I would keep wheels sliver & the grill standard otherwise it will end up looking chavvy

 

[E55BOF]

Grille might be OK, but with black wheels as well? TBH, a bit too far downmarket, imho.