Oh bother

[classicswede]

Originally Posted by Chris1Roll

The aluminium beams would always snap.
J663 MFJ taken from us too soon!
Dad hit an oak tree while towing a heavy trailer (hence why the whole car is banana shaped) after avoiding a 3 series on the wrong side of the road.

There is no give in an Oak tree. The car looks a mess but all that bent metal is what gradually slowed the car down rather than a instant stop. A lot of modern cars do not bend but rely on the air bag and better still hitting something like a 940 that will absorb the impact just like the Modus/940 video we have all seen

[Jebus]

That's not true at all

Modern cars are built far better to keep the soft squidgy bits inside safe, the rest of the car isn't really an issue, how well even modern small cars crash and keep the passenger compartment the same shape is impressive, even after heavy accidents you can still open doors, the firewall hasn't been pushed back etc, nothing todo with a plan to squash whatever you hit.

Airbags are part of the injury prevention for the passengers, and yes do have some dangers to kids in wrong seats, or mess hearing up for a while but much better than hitting the door/dashboard steering wheel etc.

If anything the very solid build quality, as well as for its day very good crash system in place the 940 etc used what other cars it hit as a crumple zone, imagine a 940 crashing head on to a Renault 5 turbo or mk2 fiesta!

I work for a salvage and breakers yard, as a hgv driver so collect many accident damaged cars, and spend plenty time in recovery yards, bodyshops yards etc so see plenty!

I love my 940, but I though that in a smash its going to hurt quite a bit and love my s60 and will do pretty well in that, but if I had kids both would go and would be buying as new as I could afford, even if its a dull eurobox gutless pile of crap

[classicswede]

No what I said is right, we are comparing the 940 to more modern cars here not cars of its era.

Back in its day the 940 was a tough beast and at low speed I have seen they destroy mk3 Escorts, Metro's and lots of other cars on the road at the time. I have even seen one rip the engine and axle off a 7.5 ton Iveco!

What I have seen a lot of with fairly modern cars is the doors bursting open and air bags not deploying when they should! I have never seen a 240 or 940 door burst open in a crash

5th gear showed how small cars / short bonnet cars these days have super strong passenger compartments but the lack of crumple zone means you are very likely to die from internal injuries. I have seen a number of 140/240/740/940's that have hit solid objects at speeds over 100mph and the drivers have nothing more than minor injuries. With that said I have come across a couple of cases were the driver has died at much lower speeds

Modern small cars are very impressive but as I already said they rely on hitting something that will absorb the blow to slow down the rate of deceleration to reduce the internal injuries to the occupants. It is also critical for them that the air bags deploy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mnI-LiKCtuE

[classicswede]

What I always say is you can make the cars as safe as you like but the biggest safety investment you can make is training the driver.
Being able to observe what is going on ahead and react before you get there, positioning the car in the right place. Knowing how to react to a slide or the brakes locking up etc.

Avoiding the accident is always the best way and it takes 2 drivers making a mistake for one to happen! (that excludes parked cars usually)

[Chris1Roll]

That polaroid was taken in about 2002.
The P2 V70XC that is my wife's car had only been on the road for less than a year (and with all its options cost the best part of £40k - who the hell had that kind of money in 2001?) and the XC90 my dad now has hadn't even been built - the XC90 itself had only just been released.
Most cars on the road then were from the 90's, and as the police said, after blowing a low whistle "if that was a Peugeot you'd be dead..."

Sure, I'd rather be in the V70XC than the 744 if I had to crash it (Sorry baby, I had to crash that Volvo).
And I'd probably rather be in the XC90 than the V70XC and thus on up through the models to the most modern stuff.

But in their time, they were the safest choice.

Most recently I'm more concerned about the fact I can't easily just go out and buy another one if some idiot rear ends me while peering at their new car's stupid bloody touchscreen.

[Forrest]

Looks like sometime soon I’m going to have to tackle the problem Luke started this thread with. I was curious whether the front pressurised buffers were an exact fit on opposite sides at the rear. Any other tips? Is the aluminium likely to be shot as well? Looks like it could end up being a fairly big job. Car is a 1997 CD estate. Thanks.

[griston64]

Originally Posted by Forrest

Looks like sometime soon I’m going to have to tackle the problem Luke started this thread with. I was curious whether the front pressurised buffers were an exact fit on opposite sides at the rear. Any other tips? Is the aluminium likely to be shot as well? Looks like it could end up being a fairly big job. Car is a 1997 CD estate. Thanks.

There is a good chance the aluminium will be shot. You can make a repair panels and get new bolts. I sanded down the buffer thingys and repainted them

The front ones are different. It's an easy enough job though

[360beast]

Originally Posted by Forrest

Looks like sometime soon I’m going to have to tackle the problem Luke started this thread with. I was curious whether the front pressurised buffers were an exact fit on opposite sides at the rear. Any other tips? Is the aluminium likely to be shot as well? Looks like it could end up being a fairly big job. Car is a 1997 CD estate. Thanks.

Yours looks to be in far better condition than mine, I had great big cracks in mine which is why I had to cut so much out. Unfortunately it meant I had to get my mate to weld in a big panel which he didn't get the shape quite right so I had to adjust the shape of the shock absorber mounting plate to get it to fit. I used plastic washers with painted bolts, painted the shock absorbers after removing the rust and a layer of damp coarse between the bar and shock absorbers to prevent them corroding again. This meant the bumper doesn't go on as far as it should but for some reason it wasn't on properly before so it doesn't bother me.

Hopefully I'm right and yours isn't as bad so when you take the shock absorbers off you can get away with a small patch repair to the reinforcement bar.

[griston64]

Here are a few pics of my repair if it helps. One side was worse than the other so the bumper was moving about on one side












I bought the repair kit from Skandix which saved a lot of faffing about