My 240Z has possibly been killed

[cygnusx1]

The insurance company would go after people if they found out you did this, if people put their cars up for sale at a higher price in the area than normal they would find him a higher price for his car.

I think they would go by car's sale prices if anything, not asking prices. Whatever the case, they will take the lower number, I assure you. The only time I had an official overestimate the value of my car was when I was to pay taxes on it. Insurance says $8k for total and DMV says $12k for taxation calculations. Go figure!

Edited January 6, 2011 by cygnusx1

[ajmcforester]

I think they would go by car's sale prices if anything, not asking prices. Whatever the case, they will take the lower number, I assure you. The only time I had an official overestimate the value of my car was when I was to pay taxes on it. Insurance says $8k for total and DMV says $12k for taxation calculations. Go figure!

THe DMV would be about right

[herbsteiner]

Wow, Inf... tough luck! I used to live right there near that intersection, in fact. We were at School House Rd. and Split Rail Pkwy.

Kevin Leblanc and Ed Kelly work at Austin Z Clinic and they're pretty serious Z restorers, and they're on Roxie Dr., real close to Anderson Mill. Not inexpensive, but serious.

[bpilati]

All I can say is that I feel for you. You've gotten lots of good advice here. I'd probably be crying if it was me.

[chaztg]

Thanks for the redirect Geezer...I'd be more than happy to help if asked. My "deplorable" manners and "self-interest" helped get my pal a more than acceptable total loss settlement for his mint '71 Z a few years back. He kept the car too, because the motor was perfectly fine. I think a lot of the advice already given in this thread is plenty helpful in dealing with this problem. Most insurance wants to fix cars, the main problem I run into is the body shops and what they want to charge for repairs...it's just a big cycle and we're all caught in the middle. Now what are we gonna do about all those battalions of lawyers? I'm going to Wal Mart to buy some glue traps.

[cmiulius]

That's just too bad. I bet it hurts so bad. Don't let them make your car a total loss. It is fixable. and it is worth it. good luck

[Inf]

Hey everyone,

Thanks again for the condolences.

The local body shop I took it to has a good reputation and I'd used them for a very minor repair several years ago, but they were not willing to work on it this time around (or even really look at it at all) because it was was an "older model." Apparently they didn't even write up an estimate or touch the car at all. Even the hood had not been opened, so there was no way they could have inspected the front frame sitting in their lot. They sure made a bundle on the towing and storage fees for "2 days" (really 25 hours). Let's just say they picked up nearly 4 digits from the insurance just to pick it up from the tow company and look at it.

My insurance agent said this shop is usually more into repairing newer BMWs, Porsches, etc and probably don't have the line of credit with any companies that sell replacement parts for a car as old as mine so it wouldn't be worth the hassle to them.

Anyway, my insurance agent wanted to move it to some other shop that they approved of to sit on the impound lot there, because the body shop I initially chose was charging a daily lot fee after declining to work on it.

Instead I opted to get control of the car myself for now, and I had them drop it off at my house. It's sitting in my garage now. It may have sustained a front impact, but the interior and everything else was in excellent condition, and I don't want her rotting under the sun and rain in a sketchy impound lot just waiting on paperwork to go back and forth for weeks or months.

I managed to open the hood and take a good look around. The engine seems fine, but the radiator did get pushed into the fan. It recoiled forward after the wreck, so the front of the fan clutch is no longer rubbing against the radiator, but it is scraping the fan shroud that was already a tight fit before the wreck (this was the awful scraping noise I heard after the wreck).

Surprisingly, the radiator still had coolant in it when I looked. I'm not sure what to think of this, because I saw a little green puddle after the crash where we pulled off the main road, and figured I'd lost all the rest of the coolant in the middle of the intersection.

Air conditioner condenser, front bumper, and grille are lost causes, so are all the front body panels.

The front radiator support has not buckled, as I at first assumed, but the passenger inner fender is compressed rearward by maybe 1" or so, which makes the entire front radiator support angle rearward on the drivers side. This compression can be seen looking in the driver's side wheel well, where the front end is buckled at the top near the front.

I have been told that it can be straightened out, but I don't really know how that works or how much that would cost.

Pretty sure the part of the wiring harness that goes across the radiator support is destroyed. The bumper was forced right back through where I think it was. Compared to the body damage this is trivial, of course.

I'm not sure if I'll even take pictures for now, it's just too hard to go down there and look at it. I parked her in there two days ago and haven't forced myself to go back down.

The insurance agent admitted he really had no idea how to start making an estimate for this, and would just call around to "places" and see what replacement body panels, etc, cost. I tried to tell him about where these panels are still available (BD, MSA, etc), but he was not interested in this information at all. This makes me worried that the local Nissan dealer will just come back and say everything is NLA, therefore, car must be totaled. We all know this is not true, all those panels can still be obtained with little trouble...

I looked online into finding an appraiser to do a postmortem, and establish a pre-crash value, and I found one place in Houston that does this all over Texas, but they seemed extremely shady. A lot of the stuff I read about them on the internet makes me question if my insurance company would even consider their judgment as admissible to the claim. I'd hate to pay these guys the $450 they charge just to have it make no difference at all.

At any rate, I was Googling some search terms trying to figure out what to do and actually found my own thread here on the first page of search results. This of course makes me keenly aware that the insurance adjusters could possibly be looking at this thread.

Edited January 8, 2011 by Inf

[geezer]

Andrew, don't become paranoid about who is reading your thread. You have done nothing wrong and are not trying to pull a scam on your insurance company, who is supposed to be on your side, looking after your interests.

I can understand your concern of leaving your car in an impound yard but by taking possession of it you have relieved your insurance company of the daily storage fees and possibly, effectively slowed the settlement process. Myself, I don't think I would have taken possession of it until it was assessed for damage and evaluated but I'm sure you were cleared by your insurance company to do so.

It very well may come down to a cash settlement if a body repair shop cannot be found willing to take on the job. Understandably, because of the cars age and difficulty of having all needed parts readily available it isn't a straight forward time & material job and will fall into a specialty repair catagory. Most high volume shops don't want floor/yard space taken up for extended periods while waiting for parts.

I would make it a priority to have the damage formally assessed and the car evaluated as soon as possible. Don't allow your insurance company to drag their feet. Are they providing a rental car? The costs associated with a rental is the only incentive they have to settle quickly and hopefully fairly.

I'm sure you could find an individual on your own to repair your car, but make sure any compensation agreed to is enough to bring your car back to its pre accident condition and also considers your inconvenience suffered throughout the ordeal.

[ajmcforester]

Have you talked to them about maybe bringing it to a restoration shop that you and the insurance can agree of for the work? They more than likly not go with it but it might not hurt to ask. It is going to take a while to clear this up otherwise.

[pwd]

Inf,

I strongly recommend you have someone from a restoration shop come and give you an estimate on your repair, as it sits. Most autobody shops today aren't interested in classic car work, since owners are too picky, and also since they make a killing doing insurance work on late model cars where door skins are peeled off and crimped, or glued on, and they just throw aftermarket fenders and plastic bumper covers on. Rarely do body men work metal these days like they once did, and few are around who know how. If you don't mind getting your car back out, I'd also recommend you take it to a top notch frame alignment shop and have them put it on their machine to see how bad it is. This might dictate your next decision. Doesn't cost much and the insurance adjuster would probably order that anyway. Don't worry about the parts acquisition. Most insurance and body guys know how to dig up salvage parts values for fenders, bumpers, etc. I think eBay has made that a lot easier for all of us.

[74L28Z]

Andrew, sorry to hear about your loss. When an insurance agent says they have no idea how to make an estimate for this, it makes me wonder how they even got their job... I know of someone near San Antonio who has a nice shop and does fantastic collision and restoration work that may be able to help you if you can't find anyone in the Austin area.

Here is his info:

Ranger Collision and Custom

3848 Hwy 16 South

Bandera, TX 78003

830-460-3848

Scott Morris

Very nice guy and doesn't take shortcuts in his work. Most shops out there will only work with late model cars and even then you have to wonder what goes on behind those doors. Good luck to you...

Lee

[cygnusx1]

You need to really stay on top of the insurance company. I have a feeling that this is going down the "total loss" path, so you need to figure out your options from there. Restoration shops are very expensive and will push you further into the "total loss" zone. It happened to me. Fortunately, I was close enough to the edge that we managed to strike a deal with the resto shop to get it fixed.

See what your options are if the car were to be totaled. Can you keep it? What would they give you for the damages? What would it cost to buy the car back from the insurance company after a total, if possible? Fix it? Replace it? Rental car? You need to do what makes financial sense to you without being robbed at the same time.