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I recently bought this wrecked 15 GS350 sport on copart and I wanted to show my fun 2 week journey on putting this wrecked frame back in place. This thing was tboned on the driver side with them aiming towards that back and striking the B pillar on the front bottom portion. I didn't take any pictures on how I got it but it cracked all windows on the driver side and deployed all airbags on that side. Anyways we started with grabbing our forklift and welding on pieces of metal and grabbing it with a special c clamp that's held down with a bolt that goes onto the little tab that's welded on. We then used a wrench to pull it out, and I was hit a few times by the welded part breaking off and flying towards me. I want to say this that I have never seen a Frame that strong before, at times we had drive back with the forklift with it lifting the car up and this frame not budging. Here's a couple pictures of that:
Next we grabbed the skin from my parts car which is the same except its a 2013 instead of 2015. We welded all the points back on and made sure it was all straightened out before bonding and sanding. Before we finally primed, sanded and then painted:
Anyone else done anything like this before and if so what's your story?
PS: Currently putting the interior back together before painting the doors before the vin inspection in 2 weeks so I can drive it!!!
I've done civics in the past but we had access to a frame puller. They bent like tin cans. Inspections here are luckily very easy. Do you have any parts left over from your donor car ?
I have basically the whole car except some parts of the interior, the pillar and the right front end that was hit originally. Planning on making it look nice and throwing it back on Copart
Have any before photos? Seems you didn't replace the B pillar inner (the actual strong part) so this repair shouldn't be too "dangerous." Seems you did some light pulling plus replacing the skin which should be fine. but also i don't know the mfr approved repair procedures for the b pillar. but as long as its for your own personal use and you disclose the repair to potential future buyers, then i think it's ok.
The B pillar mid/upper and about a 4-5 foot section of the connecting roof rail (T shape) are 1500 uhs so yes it will be hard to pull. The lower sill and floor and bottom of the B pillar are 440 uhs
Do you run a shop or have any prior experience? Interesting to see the progress.
I don’t run a shop but buy a lot of those wrecked cars and fix them up as a hobby, when I wrecked my last Lexus which was a 08 es350 I moved up to this one.
Have any before photos? Seems you didn't replace the B pillar inner (the actual strong part) so this repair shouldn't be too "dangerous." Seems you did some light pulling plus replacing the skin which should be fine. but also i don't know the mfr approved repair procedures for the b pillar. but as long as its for your own personal use and you disclose the repair to potential future buyers, then i think it's ok.
The B pillar mid/upper and about a 4-5 foot section of the connecting roof rail (T shape) are 1500 uhs so yes it will be hard to pull. The lower sill and floor and bottom of the B pillar are 440 uhs
post some photos when done.
Only photo I have is from Copart when they were selling it which is here, I’ve worked on a lot of cars before but this one was easily the most challenging to pull, we usually just use a special jacks inside to push it out from the interior but it wouldn’t budge at all and started bending the interior. I don’t have a picture of the actual area that was hit but best one I got
This is good to hear about the frame being impossible to budge. Means it s a good safe car. God forbid I get into an accident with the GS, ill probably just get another one to be honest, I love mines too much.
03-07-23, 11:29 PM
Fixing the B Pillar Journey
