It appears a couple of you from earlier on in this journey may get your wish. I have the option of essentially restoring the Blackberry Pearl 1996 LS400. As you may remember, the interior is trashed and the mechanicals appear to have not been taken care of very well.

My 1996 pearl white LS400 went to car heaven today. I got a hard t-bone hit just rear of the right rear tire today. There were no injuries but the LS400 is a total loss. Being that the car is 20 years old I did not opt for collision insurance so the outcome is on me. That is neither here nor there. What is important is that all of my time and money that I have put into the the car to this point is wasted. The right rear of the car is caved in about 2 feet. The trunk and fuel door will not close and the right rear door nearly doesn't close anymore. She'll never see the road again.

I have a couple of options that I will consult the viewers of this thread on.

1. Part out the white LS400 and scrap whatever is left. Then get the black car running and sell it off for a few hundred dollar profit from what I paid, get out of driving an LS400, and go back to the Passat TDI that we were going to park to increase it's value for the diesel gate buyback.
2. Strip the interior, engine, trans, and steering at least from the black car and replace all of those running gear parts and entire interior from the white car to the black car. I could maybe score a few hundred dollars for the black car's engine. I may keep the trans for parts. I would then remove any possible good parts from the white car down to every side window and door component to the point where it is just a metal shell with front and rear glass and haul it to the scrap yard.

What do you guy's think? I may know your answer but let's exchange a few posts here and get my mind head in the right direction after this crappy day. The black car's body is overall straighter than the white car ever was. It doesn't appear to have ever been in any sort of accident. There is a little damage from rubbing up against something behind the left rear tire but otherwise is pretty straight. The trunk closes with even gaps unlike the white car used to. The problem is the paint quality. It's crow-footed all over the hood. Cracks all the way down to metal. It has also been keyed a few times. I'm confident that I could get the car mechanically as good as the white car (with all of it's parts of course) but the paint on the white car was soooo much better. I suppose if I commit to this I could get the car running, drive it for a while how it is, then look into some paint work at a later date.

Discuss...

 

Wow Banshee sorry to hear that, and I'm glad all is okay with you and any passengers. And that's the bad thing about driving any getting to antique status car or trucks.
So is the idiot that hit you okay too? What was their excuse?
Have you ever hearf of the bump to pass stock car racing? If that happened to a car of mine I think I'd straighten it out, and weld the best internal skeleton and exo skeleton I could, and make it into a tank of sorts ready for the next time some goof that's drunk, high, or on their cell phone decides to run into my car. I would not be driving another nice LS in that area if that's the kind of drivers are there. Hmmm how about an old army truck? Just puttin out some ideas.

 

Wow, glad to hear you are ok and I am sorry to hear of your loss, you invested a hell of a lot of time into this car. I also always appreciated your input on issues I am working out with my 96 as well.

Seems like your options are to sell and move on to other things, or rebuild and stick with the LS400 world. I can see the option after all that work being flushed down to just want to be done with these cars... but in the end that is only a call you can make. Id like to see pics of this black car, I dont remember seeing you mention posts of it.

As for the damaged car. If you do decide to part ways with it and strip it for a junkyard there are 2 smaller interior pieces I could use if it does come down to it.

Another option for the damaged car would be to turn it into something else, if that is possible that is. Find a way to straighten it out or someone who can do it an oldschool cheap way, fix anything thats broken in a cheaper way and turn the car into a no-****s-given car.

 

The other driver was an elderly vet. He was very nice about it and we could both be held partly at fault but I sure wasn't going to push anything, especially on Veterans Day. His '12 compact SUV didn't fair too bad. He will need a front bumper cover, grill, and a headlight I think. We both drove off. He didn't even tap the brakes or he woe have missed me. Water under the bridge now.


To me the white car is dead and will never see the road again. It's a shell of parts now. The running gear, suspension, and running gear have proven themselves to me in the white car. I've never had the black car running, and the interior is 100% garbage. The time and effort isn't worth anything to me as my career allows me a lot of time off and the work is very easy to me. To get the black car to the point where I'm comfortable driving it i would swap the engine, trans, steering components, and entire interior from the carpet to the headliner. I would also swap some suspension components if they were worn on the black car. The black car has 235k miles or so and the white car HAD 167,000.

For photos of the black car goto page 2 of this thread.

 

Good Banshee, I expect to see the best write up ever on the full interior swap, this is going to be some good stuff.
Just don't let that happen to your airplane.
Hmmm your posts number 377 does that remind you of anything?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_377_Stratocruiser

 

The B377 was a few decades before my time but it sure is a classic looking bird. I'll stick to my FMS and autopilot though.

 

Very sorry to hear about your accident. Glad to hear no injuries. I would build the black car using the parts from the white car. These cars are so nice and it would be awesome to see one saved from the junkyard (your black car). Plus we would all learn a lot from your adventure.

 

Can't imagine how heartbroken you must be after all that work. The 96 I worked on for a year and reworked the interior completely, sounds much like what you would do to your black one. I scoured pick/pull places for a long time to get mine in shape. I too, have only liability and it would kill me if it got into an accident, because there is no way I could get the cost or sweat equity I have put into the car. The good news is that you are okay, and that certainly counts for something. I hope you stay in the ls 400 world here, as your expertize is second to none.

 

Keep the black one and use parts from white one. The3se rides are so damn reliable they are worth it

 

Ouch! I am glad that both of you are okay. Sorry to hear about your LS.

All of this depends on how much time you have. Of course, I would take the best from your white LS and install it on to the blackberry one, but do what's most practical for you.

If you do keep the blackberry LS, I would definitely find a way to temporarily seal the paint where the metal is exposed. A rust reformer, such as miracle paint, may help (it's also black in color).

 

Yeah I'm into those wasp majors. So what is your plan Banshee?

 

The general consensus here seems to be stripping the Blackberry Pearl LS400 and swapping the components from the white car into it. So maybe I will do that. It would make for some interesting photos at least. I've got plenty of time lately so that's not an issue. I've got a engine R&R for head gaskets and valve train issues in an F-150 that I'm in the middle of right now. Once that's out of my 'spot' in the driveway I'll put the Blackberry LS400 there and start on it.

First I think I will reassemble the engine that is currently in the Blackberry car from the starter replacement so that I can run the engine and try the trans. At that point I will take a few videos of it and park it for teardown. This is so I can sell the engine and trans out of it and advertise it as ran and tested myself. I don't care to have a spare engine or trans. I already have a toasted trans sitting in the garage for spare hard parts or solenoids if I needed, and the engines usually just don't go bad. I would like to do that to at least get some of my money back out of what I have spent on the two cars so far. I don't see why $700 or so for both would be too crazy for me to get.

When the Blackberry car is ready for disassembly I think I'll go for the mechanical parts swap first so I can possibly get the drivetrain sold out of the Blackberry car. I'm planning to pull the engine and trans as a whole on both cars and install into the Blackberry car as a whole. This would sure be the time to do any work on the trans but it as operating SOMEWHAT perfectly before the accident. It would, once in a while, refuse to downshift while coming to a stop and it would shutter from the low RPM until it downshifted. At this point, being that I've done several transmission R&R's on the LS400 that removing it down the road for an overhaul or something wouldn't be worth spending the $500 overhauling it now for 'good measure' while it's out. While the engine and trans is out of the Blackberry car I'll probably detail the engine bay and swap some of the other bits over to it that are in better condition on the white car. The Blackberry car has some autoparts store modified battery terminals so I'll switch the OEM intact cables over from the white car. While the engine and trans it out I'll swap the entire power steering system over from the white car to the Blackberry car. The Blackberry cars PS system has the incorrect fluid in it and is leaking all over the place. I had the white cars PS system working sell. I'll switch the rack, pump, and some of the lines. I'll actually probably replace the pressure hose or have it overhauled as it leaked a hair on the white car. Once the engine bay is detailed and the smaller parts are swapped I'll install the white cars engine and trans, of course after looking over the unit while it's out of the car. This includes things like the EGR tube and exhaust manifold gaskets. Once the engine and trans is in I'll start on the interior. Honestly I'm planning on parking my truck next to the Blackberry car and as I remove parts from the interior most of them are going into my bed to head to the landfill. At least the dash, front seats, center console, steering wheel, carpet, and headliner. They're all trashed. If you remember, the Blackberry car was built with the Nak sound system. The white car has the Premium sound. I think the dash harnesses and possible some other harnesses are different. I pulled a nice clean dash and harness out of the junkyard a few weeks ago so I will just use that dash. The harness is routed through the dash in a fairly complex manner so it's easiest not to have to switch a harness in the dash. The rest of the interior swap is pretty self explanatory. As far as the AC goes I'll test the AC in the Blackberry car prior to the disassembly so see if I need to swap the evaporator box.

Once the mechanical and interior swap is complete then the question is what to do with the white car. I'm thinking about stripping any part that I think could be worth something and storing it. Off the top of my head I'm thinking brake master cylinder, brake booster, headlights, radiator, ac condenser, ABS unit, dash and harness, door window glass, window regulators, door latches, door lock mechanisms, window and dock switch panels, all suspension components, independent rear end, wheels, the one good remaining tail light, steering column, AC evaporator case, heater core, air bags, ac control unit, AC blower unit, and I'm sure there are more. Those could be very valuable having 2 LS400's in the family. Really I'm talking about stripping the wrecked white car down to a care shell with the front and rear glass and maybe a few wiring harnesses. The doors are all straight from the wreck and the paint is VERY good on 2 out of the 4. Two of them have a couple key marks or something. Maybe the doors are worth trying to sell rather than just crushing. Once the car is pretty well stripped I'll try to haul it off for scrap.

It sounds like a lot of work but the drivetrain and interior swap wouldn't take very long at all. The stripping and collecting of parts on the white car can come at my own pace.

Thoughts and anything to add or suggest doing different?

 

Sorry to hear of your collision, that sucks. Glad you are ok.

 

Sounds as if you have a solid plan. I'm hoping you complete this project, save an LS from the junkyard, and take us along for the ride. Wish I lived close enough to help and learn.

 

Well, what part of FL are you in?