Rebuilding a Prius: A Not-So-Conventional Rebuild

My family had a 2008 Toyota Prius for over sixteen years but it got into a front-and-rear collision, and was declared totaled. Being a car enthusiast, I didn't think the first car I'd rebuild would be a Prius, the icon of hate in the automotive industry, but I saw an opportunity to finally put my love for cars into use. I've always been fascinated by how cars work, but this was my first time diving into something as complex as a full-scale rebuild. Prior to this, the most building (or rebuilding) I'd done was replacing the wheels on my Power Wheels. I didn't have professional tools or a workshop or anything, just a cluttered garage, a set of hand tools, and as much determination as someone with zero experience could have.

The Prius before the rebuild (back).

Starting with What Was Left

So the damage was pretty severe. Both the front and rear ends had been pushed in a little bit, the crash bars were flattened beyond use, and the trunk wouldn't close properly. But beneath all the bent metal, the car still had a story to tell. I started taking the car off part by part, realizing how much more damage there was than I initially thought. My first problem was that the front crash bar wouldn't come off.

As I didn't have ANY prior knowledge about taking parts off a car other than a few YouTube videos, I thought there were extra bolts somewhere I couldn't reach, so I walked down to a Toyota shop and asked them. They looked at me like I was stupid because there were only four bolts which were easily accessible to take the front crash bar off.

After taking all the parts off the car, I realized that some metal was pushed in, but because I didn't have much to pull out metal with, I just hammered the metal back into place so that it looked like normal. I sourced a pair of crash bars and brackets from a local junkyard and started to replace the damaged parts, so that the car would finally be "safe."

The trunk latch was another massive headache. The trunk wouldn't latch because the latch was moved on impact, so I had to hammer the latch into place, trying to perfectly match the trunk which took me much longer than I'd like to admit. Through trial-and-error, Toyota repair manuals, and online forums, I gradually pieced everything back together.

The Prius before the rebuild (front).

When the Hybrid Battery Gave Up

The Prius is a hybrid, so the hybrid battery needs to be charged through the gas engine, meaning that you have to actually drive the car every few weeks to every month. So I never actually started the car up after we moved it into the garage, so the hybrid battery finally gave out. My initial thoughts were the spark plugs were shot because the engine wouldn't start up, but I took the plugs out and they looked to be as good as new. I went down to my nearest O'Reilly's and they told me it was most likely the hybrid battery, and unless you crank the electric motor (when you start the car up the electric motor starts up first not the engine), you couldn't drive the car till the battery was replaced.

In the process of rebuilding this car, I replaced the 12V battery multiple times, but the hybrid battery had much more voltage so I didn't want to take it out on my own. At first, it felt like the end of the road. After all that hard work, the car still couldn't be fully revived. But I realized it was just another learning moment; you know, not everything turns out to work perfectly in the end, so I just decided to strip the car for parts and make a little money, and ended up selling the car itself for a grand total of $25. Funny enough, my parents bought the car for 25 grand back in 2008.

The Prius after the rebuild, pushed out of the garage.

What the Project Really Taught Me

It doesn't matter that the car couldn't actually drive in the end, at least it was more structurally sound than it was before the rebuild. Most importantly, though, I ended up with a better understanding of what engineering really is. Not just designing or analyzing, but working within constrains and all the other cliche adjectives that ChatGPT's giving me.

The Prius may not be back on the road, but the experience of trying to bring it back was worth every scraped knuckle and late night in the garage. Honestly, it helped me figure out what I wanted to do in the future. I realized how much I loved to work on cars and now I want get into the automotive industry to design engines that push the limits (that was my ending of my college essay 😭). But something I know for sure now is that every project, no matter how imperfect (or not even working), teaches us persistence, and the beauty of broken things whole again.

Also, here's the link to the full before and after on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BFMQXc9f1M8