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I'll reserve comments about Geico though until after you resolve your claim.
The appraisal came through today. I'm meeting with him tomorrow morning to go over the details. The appraised value, with everything rolled in is right at $11,500. Does that sound fair from your experience? I found plenty of ads for GT premiums with more miles (96899) selling for $14-15k.
Originally Posted by TripleBlack14
The salvage deduction shouldn't be significant. Your car is 10 years old and the older a vehicle is, the less demand for the salvage and/or it's parts, and therefore the less the salvage is worth. That could work in your favor.
That came back at $1700. With the higher appraisal, that seems fair to me, but I have NO experience with this at all. I'm looking at about $2000 in parts to get it repaired, plus paint. I can do most of the labor (frame work not included of course), so I definitely should be able to get this back on the road and have a decent amount of cash left over. And it is a great excuse to buy that Millermatic 252 I've always wanted...
TOTAL LOSS VALUATION: The appraisal came through today. I'm meeting with him tomorrow morning to go over the details. The appraised value, with everything rolled in is right at $11,500. Does that sound fair from your experience? I found plenty of ads for GT premiums with more miles (96899) selling for $14-15k..........
SALVAGE That came back at $1700. With the higher appraisal, that seems fair to me, but I have NO experience with this at all. I'm looking at about $2000 in parts to get it repaired, plus paint. I can do most of the labor (frame work not included of course), so I definitely should be able to get this back on the road and have a decent amount of cash left over. And it is a great excuse to buy that Millermatic 252 I've always wanted...
Just to clarify...is the $11,500 offer before or after the $1700 salvage deduction?
I'm not familiar with your state's insurance laws, but in NJ customers have the right of recourse. Insurance companies here can use several state approved evaluation methods. But once a particular method is selected, then all total loss claims must be evaluated using the same method. They can't pick and choose....consistency must be maintained.
Customers here are entitled to a copy of the evaluation and have 30 days to challenge the offer. This is communicated to them in writing, so they can conditionally accept our offer and get paid towards the claim immediately. Recourse means that they would then have to prove that our offer was less than what their own research indicated by providing documentation on substantially similar cars that are actually for sale within their geographical area. My company was very fair and customer oriented, and we never "low-balled" and then negotiated upwards if challenged. Everything was done by the book and as I recall, our recourse adjustments were less than 10% of the total amount of claims submitted.
The point here is that you should be entitled to a copy of the evaluation that your company performed, just like you are entitled to the written salvage quote, and your company should advise you of your rights in a claim.
If the $11,500 you were offered includes the salvage deduction, then they valuated your car at $13,200. That offer seems like it's in the ballpark compared to what you saw advertised. Keep in mind that just because someone advertises $14-15K, it doesn't mean that this is what the car is worth...it's just an asking price, and a total loss valuation from an insurance company takes this into account.
However, if their starting point was $11,500 before deductions (salvge/deductible), then I would find out what to do in order to challenge that offer.
Good luck.
Last edited by TripleBlack14; 7/15/15 at 05:32 AM.
That was before deductions. I'm meeting with the adjuster in 45 minutes and I will go through the evaluation report with a fine tooth comb before I sign anything, as well as see the salvage bid in writing.
Thanks for the help! It has been greatly appreciated!
Back in 2006 I picked up a very clean 1992 Cavalier with 76,000 original miles that had been hit on the passenger side front corner that basically ripped off the front bumper, lights, grill, bent the hood up, shifted both front fenders sideways, bent the bumper mounting horns, and bent the core support.
I had mainly bought it for a parts car for another 92 Cavalier I had but the wrecked car still drove straight and basically looked looked new, and had new tires on it.
I ended up finding a local frame shop which looked at the car and told me that he could straighten the core support as well as the bumper supports and any other things that needed to be straightened for $225. I left the car with him and took him another passenger side fender so he could hang it to make sure everything was straight. He was able to save the driver's side fender.
I bought another front clip from the junk yard that was the same color as the car for $300 and installed all of that myself.
This car became my daily driver and now has 209,000 miles on it and I've been driving this thing for almost nine years.
My point is that your core support may be able to be fixed good enough for now so that you can continue to use it as a daily driver and if you shop around, it could be cheaper than you think.
My point is that your core support may be able to be fixed good enough for now so that you can continue to use it as a daily driver and if you shop around, it could be cheaper than you think.
The problem is the headlight bucket part of the core support took the brunt of the impact and slide on the guard rail (which are made of MUCH thicker steel than our cars!). The structural part of the core support is mostly fine (parallelagramed a bit, but I already removed about 70% of it with a cheap *** HF come-along before I broke the "8,000 lb" thing).
But that head light bucket was crushed, folded and stretched. I used a slide hammer, ballpeen hammer and other tools and was able to get to mostly in the right location, but SO much of the geometry of that thing has been totally screwed by what happened to it that it just isn't worth trying to fix it. But, I can take that off the new core support and attach it to mine fairly easy.
As much as I don't want to, I'm probably going to get a better (NOT HF!, but I had it from a previous "one time use" project, so freebie!) come-along and see if I can't get it back where it belongs. We have the measurements in the service manual, so I know where it needs to be. Eventually, I will take it to shop and let them put it on a frame machine and get it right, and possibly replace the core support completely if that is needed.
Well, the parts and the tools have arrived. My brother was in town this weekend, so we decided to hit it on Saturday. At this point, we have removed the original head light bucket, pulled the apron and other bits back MOSTLY to there original locations (not perfect I, but definitely good enough for daily driver status), welded in the new headlight bucket and got all the new parts reinstalled and the car buttoned up.
Headlight, fender and front fascia lined up once more.
If you look very closely, you can see that the passenger side light is slightly angled (rotated about the z-axis) relative to the driverside light. It's more noticeable with the hood open than with it closed.
From the front. Close, but not PERFECT.
And finally, a shot with it back on it's wheels. From this shot, you can see the little moon shape cut I had to make in the original hoot to clear the headlight. The corner had been folded under during the crash and the aluminum worked hardened a LOT. We were not able to straighten it out, so I had to cut it off instead. I'm still waiting on the replacement hood.
Ready for a test drive.
When The hood is in and test fit, I plan on pulling all the new parts (notice I have not reinstalled the side moldings yet...) and paint them D3 red. It won't be a perfect match, but it will match a LOT better than basic black does. Because I am painting panels off the car, I obviously will not attempt to blend the paint.
This paint job will last long enough. When I get a new car, this will no longer be my daily driver and at that point it will go into the shop to get on a frame machine to have it straightened and have a new core support and apron skirt (not sure if that is the correct name for that part, but it forms the front part of the strut tower) as well a iron out the fitment of the fender.
Then I want to get it painted a true candy apple red! I've always wanted this car painted that color, but couldn't justify it! But now...
Yep, body shops do this all the time, exactly how you said. Drill out the welds, position the new part (with any metal work to do on the recipient structure, of course) and weld the spots back in. And sometimes the recipient part has to be replaced as well instead of repair...
It's the preferred method for repair, replicate the factory as much as possible. In fact, some of the stuff is laid out in the repair manuals body shops use as an A-B-C step by step procedure. You might see if you can have a gander at those, and then you might see you'd need to use *adhesive* between the parts, as in some cases they both glue AND weld. Reason? Factory did it, liability if they don't, and the car kills/maims someone with a non-authorized-procedure repair.
It's part of why cars get totaled so easily these days... the extra stuff to do when repairing it. Like this. Although a core support probably doesn't have the glue in this case, but still. If you plan on pawning the car off on anyone, it might do to prevent a lawsuit... just in case.
Glad to see your keeping your old ride and going to fix it! I would do the same. From the sounds and looks of it so far it's going to be great! Best of luck on the re-creation!
Sad to see a good Stang get hurt! Glad you're ok though, keep your head up, my Stang got hit in the rear drivers quarter and door, most of the damag was fixed by my self
Not a whole lot from my end! It's been my daily driver since I got the front end back together. My plans on doing some work while out for my knee replacement surgery was shot. It takes a LONG TIME to recover from that!
I was then planning on doing more work (getting the dent in the fender pulled back out and getting ready to paint the panels) over Christmas as I had 2 weeks off. Unfortunately, it was cold as a witch's tit over Christmas so I didn't even THINK about spending time in the garage!
I can't remember if I posted it, but shortly after getting my first real pay check in a year, I bought four new tires and had them installed and the alignment done. I'm happy to say that they didn't have to adjust a single thing with the alignment as it was DEAD on to what we had set it to about a year before the accident. They still charged me full price on the alignment though...
That definitely confirms what my butt had been telling me: NOTHING structural had moved during the accident. Only the core support area was pushed around a bit. **** I love the S197!!!!
Early in the Fall, I plan on taking a week off and finishing the body work and getting everything painted. That will be AFTER I get my other knee replaced.
You know what is pretty strange? I STILL get comments on how nice my car is!!! That blows my mind!
7/14/15, 08:17 PM
