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2 door in the u.s.

Mkulp10

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Gilbertsville
#1
Okay so I know this has been talked about before, but no one suggested this option.

Okay so I used to own a focus st and thought about getting a fiesta. However I am just in love with the 2 door. So much that it kind of ruins the 4 door for me.

My question is what if you buy the back half of a fiesta coupe from europe, then cut the us fiesta in half at the spot weld. And then weld them together. I know they are the same length. I’m just not sure if spot welds line up or any other issues.

You would retain all important parts of the car drive wise and registeration wise. This is a method often used in the custom and repair world. I know there’s a company that buys cut up utes from Australia and welds them together here to sell them. And it’s also done with other cars.

Here’s a video that basically sums up this up.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=pG6mLhRM550

Can anyone think of potential problems?
 


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Rochester
#2
This is one of those situations where you have the skills and experience that you know the answer is to not do this, or you find out it will cost $40k and take a year of misery project managing this with some body shop and UK exporters and is not worth it.

I know a couple people who have done projects like this and they'll never do it again on something that cannot command a six figure value once done.

it's not worth it.
 


Jerickson88

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#3
I’d think the cost of the project and frustrations would almost make buying and importing the entire car easier, and buy a wrecked fiesta hatch for the VIN, and have it as a salvaged title.
 


Dpro

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#4
I’d think the cost of the project and frustrations would almost make buying and importing the entire car easier, and buy a wrecked fiesta hatch for the VIN, and have it as a salvaged title.
Highly illegal and totally confiscatable lol. Do not repeat do not do this.

This is fraud in the eyes of the federal government, which can land you in Federal court.. In the Nissan world cars like this have been consificated and crushed by Honeland Security. Yup its happened. Documented stories on the Interwebs..
 


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Location
Edmonton
#5
It would be easier to just weld the back two doors shut...

Or wait for grey market import, 15 years Canada(MKII Focus RS soooon!), or 25 years US(likely need an electric retrofit by then).


Sent from my iPhone using Glue and macaroni
 


Intuit

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South West Ohio
#6
Okay so I know this has been talked about before, but no one suggested this option.

Okay so I used to own a focus st and thought about getting a fiesta. However I am just in love with the 2 door. So much that it kind of ruins the 4 door for me.

My question is what if you buy the back half of a fiesta coupe from europe, then cut the us fiesta in half at the spot weld. And then weld them together. I know they are the same length. I’m just not sure if spot welds line up or any other issues.

You would retain all important parts of the car drive wise and registeration wise. This is a method often used in the custom and repair world. I know there’s a company that buys cut up utes from Australia and welds them together here to sell them. And it’s also done with other cars.

Here’s a video that basically sums up this up.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=pG6mLhRM550

Can anyone think of potential problems?
Something tells me that you're the same person that posted this back in January... [wiggle]
https://www.fiestastforum.com/threads/15937-A-solution-for-those-who-want-a-2-door-Fiesta-in-the-US
 


Jerickson88

Active member
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Rock Creek
#7
Highly illegal and totally confiscatable lol. Do not repeat do not do this.

This is fraud in the eyes of the federal government, which can land you in Federal court.. In the Nissan world cars like this have been consificated and crushed by Honeland Security. Yup its happened. Documented stories on the Interwebs..

Ahem.. Moto-Rex ring a bell? Poor bastards lol

Of course fraud is only in the eyes of the enforcement. Paying taxes is fraud in my opinion.. that’s a whole different story
 


Dpro

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#8
Ahem.. Moto-Rex ring a bell? Poor bastards lol

Of course fraud is only in the eyes of the enforcement. Paying taxes is fraud in my opinion.. that’s a whole different story
Motorex , actually knew those guys, the principal owner Hiro was less than truthful had a partying gambling problem. Several of his employees though were upstanding honest guys all of who bailed befroe the feds shut them down. Motorex actually did not do any vin swaps though.
What they did do is pull the wool over the eyes of the DOT. Basically they crash tested a R34 GTST Skyline testing a a GTR and R32 and R34 versions of the cars. Reason being was the cost of those cars at the time and buying them to destroy them. Lol
So all the cars being brought in they were telling the DOT were all the same model aka a Nissan R series Skyline.
They got away with it for a long time because customers were happy to get stateside legal Skyiine GTR’s and GTST’s. Hiro was also shipping American cars back to Japan to sell in Japan.
The problem arose when Hiro got a little out of control with his gambling and partying and stopped showing up at work everyday. Orders fell beind on delivery dates To speed things up crash bars that were supposed to be installed in doors stopped being installed to get orders out quicker.
Customers started complaining to the FED’s about back dated deliveries for paid for cars.
FED’s raided the shop in Gardena and started tearing into cars that were in the shops. First thing they found was crash safety bars not installed.
Next thing they figured out was there were R34’s and R32’s there that did not match the designstion of the R33 GTST. It was then that they realized Hiro had been bringing in and selling non crash tested models.
Boom shut down and ban on all but the R33 sales in the U.S.

Fast forward about 3 years and a company pops up in Orange county named Kaziuo who got the idea to take apart Nissan S15 Silivias and whatnot and bring them in in containers as parts. The main body and interior amd wiring were intact but the engines drivetrain, wheels and supsension were removed . The idea being is you would buy what you wanted to install here and go to the state DMV and register it as a kit car.
This was partly because California among other states hands out kit car vins every year at the beginning of the year to the first 1500 applicants.
Once again the FED’s figured it out and shut them down.
The real shady ones were places like G Speed who straight up brought in cars in containers and sold them to people who ran shops in the San Gabriel Valley and those guys would quite often do vin swaps off Legal vin 240sx’s.
Ya I saw all of this, lol. In between all this craziness were legit businesses but of course a SR20DET was never legal in U.S. market 240sx’s aka 180SX’s and Silvia’s.
Funny thing is SR’s stock did pass CA emissions tests, tailpipe wise. But theynhad no EGR and were never sold in a RWD configuration in the U.S. FWD yes B13 Sentra,Infiniti G20 etc...
 


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