So my dad and I bought this 1981 FI Spider at an auction and later discovered that the car had been in a fairly serious accident but rebuilt anyways and made to look somewhat new again. We've worked out most of the kinks and now the car is running with brand new suspension. I'm wondering though if it's worth putting much more money into the car. The suspension was mostly a fun project for me to do so I could learn about the car and make it into a daily driver, but I'd be keen to do some work to the engine and other performance mods. The only thing is the body is definitely not straight, most of the panels are misaligned due to the car not having been properly straightened before it was rebuilt. Is it worth putting more money into a car with a bent frame or would it make more sense to swap the parts over to a decent body? We might not undertake that project ourselves but it'd be good to know if that's the inevitable with this car. The interior is in pretty great shape and the brakes are a really nice set by Tarox, probably worth more than the car, and the wheels are really nice as well. The car was sort of made to just look really showy by the guy who had it rebuilt after it was pretty much a salvage title. It'd be a great car to have a fast engine in but I'm just concerned whether or not the body would be safe for that kind of thing. Any thoughts or ideas would be great! Thanks!

get your flashlight and crawl under the car and look at the chassis for crinkled metal and poorly repaired joints. Do the same for under the hood and the trunk. If things look satisfactory with quality repairs, take the car to a frame shop and see if they can "straighten it". have you had it in for caster and camber check. If the unibody is tweaked, then caster and camber may be hard to dial in. How are your door gaps. Does the car track straight. Also look at the body repairs from the back side. If you see indications of lots of body filler without much hammering, a new body may be what you need. The big issue is whether you can find a straight body that doesn't have a ton of rust.
My car was hit at one time and the work to fix it was quality. I can't get caster and camber to spec, so picked a compromise. I guess the question is how good do you expect the be. With me, i was looking for a clean driver and could care less about resale or a bondo free body.

HI,
It depends on how much you like the car or willing to spend on it. Perhaps have a panel/ or smash repairer have a look at it and they will tell you how it is. Panels can be aligned unless the gaps are way out or the actual repairs are of low quality with lots of panel bog. Use a light magnet on the panels at obvious spots (wheel arch's, quarter panels, etc) and if it doesn't stick then there may have used a lot of panel big to repair.

Also as per the other comment, check for creases in the panels from underneath the car. Look under the carpets for repairs in the boot, remove the spare and look underneath, check in the foot rest areas also.

Then you'll know for sure if its OK or not to restore further.

heres some pics of the car. It looks like the front left part of the frame got hit hard and so that's probably why there's an inch of shims behind the arm for the caster. It's also looks pretty rusted so I'm not sure how structurally sound it is. The top part of the firewall also has some body filler on it so there might have been some repairs there too. Most of the fenders have some bondo on them but I'll have to take the magnet to the rest of the body. One side of the car also sits higher than the other so I'm pretty sure the unibody is tweaked. Here's some pics of the front left frame where it's bent.
http://postimg.org/image/7g45www0n/
http://postimg.org/image/5mwnuulg7/#codes
http://postimg.org/image/6gdv17guv/#codes
Oh also just noticed that the sway bar bushing isn't in the clamp. Whoops.

You might get it to ride straight just by fixing the sway bar mounts including the rot and getting the bushings clamped in place. It looks like someone recently removed it to possibly inspect the rot above it and gave up slapping it back together without putting the other half of the sway bar clamp back

there is nothing in the pictures you sent would scare me. The corrosion around the sway bar mount is odd for an 81, but fixable with a bunch of welding and reinforcement. The 1" of shims to bring the caster and camber in does scare me. Is this on just one side.

Yeah it's just on the one side here's pics of both sides
http://postimg.org/image/tnbasi2gj/
http://postimg.org/image/i8etnvq43/
It's probably closer to half an inch but it's still a lot of shims.

inspect the connection points between the chassis and the cross brace that runs under the radiator. check the condition of that cross brace as well. this is the same brace where all the rust on the sway bar mount is. How well does your hood fit. are the gaps even.

The amount of shims looks less than what was on mine when new.

Mine had much more than that however tightening the cross member to the specs listed on Mirafiori eliminated most of them. The cross member and control arm torques according to Eli on Mirafiori should be checked at every oil change so its time to start checking and to get that sway bar clamp fixed with the missing part replaced.

Oh okay I wasn't sure if it was a whole bunch of shims or not I just know we had trouble dialing in the caster. I think there's some decent gaps around the hood. I'll post some pics up of the hood and some of the other gaps when I get a chance.

No photos yet phone was dead, but I took a look at the hood. The left side of the car same side that has the bent and rusted frame has most of the issue with panel gap. The hood on that side sits higher than the fender on that side and there's about a half inch of gap. The front of the door also has a decent gap between it and the fender on that side as well. So that's the the side that was hit I imagine. I'll try and take some photos when I'm with the car next.