Quote:
Originally Posted by RSTarga
I don't understand why there are not more of these benches all over the country. I remember going to a MB dealership who had one, but it was basically being used as a tool rack. I asked why it was not in use and the body shop manager said that insurance usually did not cover the expense of mounting a car even if the chassis was bent.
|
They are quite an expensive piece of equipment to initially purchase and set-up properly with the jigs and fixtures, in addition to the other ancillary pieces needed to really do the required work. The bench and towers also take-up a lot of space when not in use. Some shops just wont make the investment required to purchase.. then of course their are the fixtures. If you are doing marque specific work, then you probably own your own fixtures.. for a shop that does multi-marque.. they may own some fixtures for their mainline product, and may have to lease the other fixtures which is an added expense and definitely creates wait time with regard to availability when needed, and shipping.
As for the Benz example, I kinda understand as they are a dealership. Between frequent model changes, and the overladen electronics in these cars.. they loose value very quickly. The insurance companies don't want to continue paying for post repair electronic issues that may occur due to a shaken "black-box" fractured fiber-optic etc.. so they tend to due less heavy structural repair where you would need a Cellette.
Quote:
Originally Posted by David Liam
I agree with onboost, Celettes can be tricky to use, the really difficult part is knowing how pull on the 911, you have to know the car inside and out. You can do a lot of damage if you're not delicate. It's not like some old pickup truck frame you can anchor into and yank, the 911 is just sheet metal, it's tough to get a grip on it and it can be easily pierced or torn.
You have to fabricate custom "pulling fixtures" to get a grip. You also have to make a lot of different "bearing surface fixtures" to distribute the power of a pull and spread out the force over a large surface area.
Also, the Wielander & Schill Vario Drill WS90 is the best tool in the world for taking these cars apart. Depth set drill, only goes though one layer of sheetmetal, very precisely, leaving the good stuff behind unharmed. He uses one in the above video and here's a few below of it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pWGWL6mBZ-Y
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9VVniLdF2u0
Below is another great way for breaking spot welds, the belt sander.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hvHiJQL7_9s |
David.. you are spot on with that assessment!
Love the WS90 and the mini belt sander.. they are invaluable!
I also like my old Spotle 902
