Frame Integrity issues - a death sentence for a Transit bus?

[JLiu15]

Hey guys, sorry if this is not the right place to post this. So recently, one of First Transit's ElDorado Axess BRTs (a 2014 model originally assigned to the College of Staten Island) failed inspection, and one of the reasons listed in the inspection report is Frame Integrity. I believe it's slated to transfer to Rutgers University operations, and given we are already having a bus shortage at Rutgers, this would just make things worse. This bus was freshly repainted white recently, so that would mean so much paint was wasted if this bus is indeed done for before seeing any actual service. I feel like First Transit wasn't expecting this either, as otherwise they probably wouldn't have spent the money and efforts on repainting and rehabbing it. It was sitting in storage for a year and a half (along with the other CSI ElDorados) as they didn't run any buses while their campus was closed, so a host of issues could've developed during that time.

So my question is, if frame integrity issues come up during inspection, is it pretty much a given that the bus is done for? I know that frame damage in vehicles is still repairable, but given how expensive it is, I doubt First Transit would spend the money towards fixing it. Anyone know of buses that were successfully fixed after frame damage?

[SevenEleven]

It depends on how bad the frame is. Frame integrity usually is. Right when Castleton started retiring the CTs, they checked the frames on all 19 buses and if it was deemed the frame was no good, it was retired.