We bought a 55 plate Corsa which when we first looked at it, was parked with the passenger side wheels up on the kerb. Drove it and it seemed fine so bought it.
I drove it home with my son and missus in the car behind and he noticed one of the wheels was cranked in at the bottom
Turned out to be a Cat C (guy didn't let me see the front page of the V5 and we didn't HPI it) that looks like it had been kerbed.
Anyway, cut a long story short, we got a rear beam from a breakers for £100 and fitted it in an afternoon and it's been right as rain since. Both boys have learnt to drive it in, it's been technically written off 3 more times (only once officially) and we've still got it 5 years later.
Don't think there's any moral to that tale, just to point out that you might not be able to polish the turd, but you might be able to give it a light buffing and still get a half decent motor out of it that might do you for a year or two