Saved this Ole Gray Mare from the Glue Factory! Salvage Mach-E Rebuild Project

Put out to pasture, awaiting her fate...


Rescued this '21 Premium First Edition from the Copart Glue Factory. Worked with a local rebuilder who bid on it for me, got it for a song, towed it home myself, and had him do the rebuild work... Saved about 10k off KBB for an equivalent model, so totally worth giving this old gal a second chance at life! She was totaled out, but appeared to have been hit while parked based on the damage, so there was very little that actually had to be fixed... Seems that insurance companies don't really know how to gauge repair costs on these things yet, to my benefit!

She's my first EV, but not my first Mustang... (My first car was a 65 coupe I bought off my uncle in highschool). I couldn't think to even consider any other model than a Mustang for my first EV.

Such a sweet ride!

They did not use the correct lift points

Did you have any problems procuring replacement parts?

heisnuts said:

They did not use the correct lift points

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Ha, yeah, it hurt to watch!

Schmedlack said:

Did you have any problems procuring replacement parts?

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Not really, my builder is a dealer and can buy direct from Ford at a sufficient discount so we got all new parts, except the passenger headlight. I got one from eBay for about $400. They were $1200 from Ford.

TheBaldFox said:

Not really, my builder is a dealer and can buy direct from Ford at a sufficient discount so we got all new parts, except the passenger headlight. I got one from eBay for about $400. They were $1200 from Ford.

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Nice.... I hope you like your Mach e as much as I like mine.

Well

Schmedlack said:

Nice.... I hope you like your Mach e as much as I like mine.

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Thanks, already loving it. So far it seems like it has zero drivetrain or other significant issues, so super lucky on that front because there is no way to test drive a car on a salvage lot so it was a crap shoot, but I won out for sure!

TheBaldFox said:

Put out to pasture, awaiting her fate...

Rescued this '21 Premium First Edition from the Copart Glue Factory. Worked with a local rebuilder who bid on it for me, got it for a song, towed it home myself, and had him do the rebuild work... Saved about 10k off KBB for an equivalent model, so totally worth giving this old gal a second chance at life! She was totaled out, but appeared to have been hit while parked based on the damage, so there was very little that actually had to be fixed... Seems that insurance companies don't really know how to gauge repair costs on these things yet, to my benefit!

She's my first EV, but not my first Mustang... (My first car was a 65 coupe I bought off my uncle in highschool). I couldn't think to even consider any other model than a Mustang for my first EV.

Such a sweet ride!

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Awesome rescue! Congratulations and enjoy!

Keep us up on the progress and how it operates. No cameras to replace?

So far so good, I did not have to replace any cameras, but we did have to replace the entire front bumper assembly and swap over all of the cameras and sensors.

Very cool - not something I'd think I would take a gamble on myself (especially since it sounds like you were depending on someone else to do the work for you (beyond towing it home yourself)), so much respect.

That said, why not share the numbers? Curious what you paid for it, what parts & labor looked like etc. I see this quite a bit and always wonder if the author doesn't want to share the numbers or is simply waiting on someone to ask.

Would be incredible if it's original owner is a member here - would be surreal to see your totalled out car show up as a salvage rescue!

That’s a big frunk!

Kopytka said:

Very cool - not something I'd think I would take a gamble on myself (especially since it sounds like you were depending on someone else to do the work for you (beyond towing it home yourself)), so much respect.

That said, why not share the numbers? Curious what you paid for it, what parts & labor looked like etc. I see this quite a bit and always wonder if the author doesn't want to share the numbers or is simply waiting on someone to ask.

Would be incredible if it's original owner is a member here - would be surreal to see your totalled out car show up as a salvage rescue!

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$12300 bid price. ~$1200 lot fees. Parts, labor, paint, title, taxes, tag, and etc bring the total to $20300!

I had bought from the dealer before, he's been rebuilding cars for 45 years, so I knew what I was getting into.

I had a pretty good idea what the total would be just from my own research.

TheBaldFox said:

Well


Thanks, already loving it. So far it seems like it has zero drivetrain or other significant issues, so super lucky on that front because there is no way to test drive a car on a salvage lot so it was a crap shoot, but I won out for sure!

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Sort begs the question, if this had been a KIA with front wheel drive, if you would have had lucked out like you did.

Saw an advertising from KIA stating that people prefer and front wheel drive car, but I doubt the reason that a front wheel drive is better in slippery conditions for an ICE car applies to EVs. The main thing is since ICE cars have the engine over the front wheels that provides better traction, but with EVs being pretty uniformly weighted, I doubt it applies to them.

ChrisO said:

Sort begs the question, if this had been a KIA with front wheel drive, if you would have had lucked out like you did.

Saw an advertising from KIA stating that people prefer and front wheel drive car, but I doubt the reason that a front wheel drive is better in slippery conditions for an ICE car applies to EVs. The main thing is since ICE cars have the engine over the front wheels that provides better traction, but with EVs being pretty uniformly weighted, I doubt it applies to them.

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Can't speak to that really, and I wanted AWD specifically because of the weight distribution and traction on Hills as my driveway is steep and gravely.

I'd been watching EV auctions all across the country for a few months when I happened upon this MME. I'd bid on a few others things but they always went too high, and I had bid on a Honda Prologue and had the highest bid but it didn't reach will call price, plus it was way out of my state and would have cost 1100 to ship, so I'm glad I didn't get it.

This MME was within two hours or so of me so I could get it myself with no real problems which saved me a ton of money up front... Luckily it fit on my trailer because I didn't even think to measure for it like a doofus!

I wasn't really interested in bidding on a front end collision car because of all the expensive parts in the front, but I figured that since it was listed as "run and drive" and that the pictures seemed to show how limited the damage was (no bags deployed, no broken glass, etc) that there must not be much else wrong with it so I threw out a lowball bid of 14000 and was shocked to win it for what I did.

Pretty sure that this car was hit while parked because of the limited amount of damage, but I may be wrong.

I was only bidding against someone in Georgia the country, so not a lot of action on the block, in my favor.

Now I'm on the prowl for a VW ID.buzz for the wife!