Hey all,

I bought a 2001 cobra roller with the intention of doing a coyote swap in it. I knew from the carfax the car had been in a front-end collision and totaled. It was branded a salvage title in 2009.

In 2011 it was issued a rebuilt title deeming it safe to drive back on the road and was driven through several owners through recently (2020 maybe?) when the motor blew. Previous owner when the motor was in it, it drove straight and had no alignment issues.

I bought it in December as a rolling chassis (no drivetrain). Since it was branded rebuilt I figured it was repaired fine but I just noticed in the engine bay some buckling a tad on the sides. I was just curious if it needed to undergo more fixing or if the rust and buckling is to be expected for front end damage repair and its nothing major to worry about before we start putting in drivetrain components.

I have a gallery of images inside of the engine bay here on Imgur: https://imgur.com/a/sakAPHT

 

for the most part it looks superficial looks like most of the damage and poor work is in front of the strut towers, the buckles are typical of a front end hit that swayed the front to one side or the other. Does the sheet metal line up? you can measure the front out and see if it is square under the car, you can find control points and measure to the center of the ball joints from the rear forward and from LT to RT. You can do the same for the top under hood find holes that are the same from side to side and measure it out dont use fender bolts they move when lose as far as the rust goes take a screw driver and push on it hard if it pushes thru then it will need fixed if it dont you need to clean it up put a rust neutralizer it on it then repaint it if it looks like that on the outside I doubt it has and rust proofing / cavity wax on the aeras where it was welded. what you see is poor craftsmanship for the most part if it measures out. rusted areas to clean it up before paint. you can also sand blast the rusted aeras to bear metal then bring it back up from there. I dont know your know how or tools availability but if it is not fixed it is gone to get worse. if it measures out beat the buckles down clean up the lose paint and get some paint on it before it starts to rust. There is much more involved with this but i am not gone to type it all out you tube is your friend. But you can always take it to a shop and pay them to fix it.