Guest iskone Posted July 16, 2005 Share Posted July 16, 2005 Today I was turning left into a parking lot and traffic was stopped to let me in but some guy in a El Camino was driving down the turning lane and hit my 240. The passenger fender is pushed into the car, hood was folded, fender pushed back onto the door, air damn is crumbled. I can't open the hood to tell if the inner fender is bent or the frame. I'm thinking my car isn't worth jack now. I've got full coverage but I think it's his fault anyway. I'll sue this guy if I have too. I told my insurance company(Progressive) my car was worth $10,000. I don't know how the insurance adjuster is gonna value my car. High NADA value is $14,000 but my car is not stock, although lots of exspensive non-stock parts. Also I'm in the middle of doing my interior and the car is down to the sheet metal on the inside, I do have all new stuff for it but it's in my kitchen. I do however have pictures of the car with the interior in tact. Bright side I have 1 great witness who saw everything and happens to be an insurance agent (turns out he was even my home owners ins broker) another good witness and an ok one. Apperently the guy was driving in the turning lane for a while. I hope this works out for me. I am very very worried I'm gonna get screwed. Here are the pics I took at the scene with my phone, it hurts so bad!! In a best worst case I might get my insurance on the car minus my deductable that would be $9,000 and I would have a totaled 240. So if it goes that way(wich I be damn happy about) I guess I'd just gut the car and find either a new shell or strat building a tube frame for the front with a full cage and fiberglass body. If things do go this way I'm selling the motor for a V8 swap. Thoughts?? Isk Drowning in agony Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Battle Pope Posted July 16, 2005 Share Posted July 16, 2005 uh... the auto-censor broke your img links... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest iskone Posted July 16, 2005 Share Posted July 16, 2005 fixed it. Well you understand. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Battle Pope Posted July 16, 2005 Share Posted July 16, 2005 Do I! :cringe: That looks like it hurt. Hard to say the extent of the damage though. It definitely looks rather bad. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
v8dats Posted July 16, 2005 Share Posted July 16, 2005 sorry to hear about it. z's dont take impacts too well for some reason Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest zfan Posted July 16, 2005 Share Posted July 16, 2005 Very sorry to hear of this, Man that sucks! I hope the Insurance Co. takes good care of you. Mike Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VRJoe Posted July 16, 2005 Share Posted July 16, 2005 Sorry to see that. Sounds like you've got some good witnesses, that's a BIG plus. - Joe Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest iskone Posted July 16, 2005 Share Posted July 16, 2005 Yeah, I'm hoping the insurance adjuster doesn't reem me. I don't have recipts for everythingn that went into the car but if they do offer me squat I'll get prices for comparble parts. I have some trick stuff in my Z the most exspensive being my Gerolomy E88 distributor setup with all the custom maching that went into it and on and on seeing how nothing on my Z is stock I'm worried. Hmmm.... Would you guys think that a stiffened frame is gonna give the adjuster a reason to lessen my cars value? It's $100 to have an independent apraiser who specializes in hot rods to look at my car I may just do that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Battle Pope Posted July 16, 2005 Share Posted July 16, 2005 100 bucks that could save you from forfeiting thousands to an uneducated insurance adjuster. Get the appraisal. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JMortensen Posted July 16, 2005 Share Posted July 16, 2005 You can usually buy back the salvage for 10% of what they give you. So if they do give you $10K you can buy back the car for $1000. Somehow I don't think you're going to get $10K for it. Insurance companies are real dicks when it comes to this. You need to have a stated agreed value before hand. I had an appraisal done on my car and that was sent to the underwriters when they wrote my policy. I hope I'm wrong, but I think you're going to fight all the way to get $10K. As far as fixing the car I think it's possible, but not going to be easy. Might be easiest just to replace the frame rail then cut the area from the rad support forward off of another car and weld it onto yours. You're going to have to really inspect the damage to know for sure. Definitely buy back the salvage though. Even if you decide that the car is toast, that car has enough cool stuff on it to sell to vultures like me to make it worth it... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest iskone Posted July 16, 2005 Share Posted July 16, 2005 I think it's gonna be a pain to get the adjuster to give it a value of 10k as well. A middle of the road Z is 8k and high value is 14k so who knows. I'm gonna get the appraisal. You better belive I'm giving that car to a junk yard. I know I have a ton of stuff in that motor that is choice. Would it be a bad idea to bend the hood back so I can open it and look at the damage. Oh from the outside the radiator core support is not bent. BTW. It still starts right up and sounds like a beast Isk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pop N Wood Posted July 16, 2005 Share Posted July 16, 2005 From the picture the damage doesn't look fatal. Looks expensive, but not fatal. It looks like it hit well in front of the tire. The front corner is mostly fluff, the "frame rails" are well tucked up between the wheels. If the suspension components are not broken, cracked or tweaked then I would bet if you just pry the sheet metal away from the tire you could drive it. But, like I said, that is only from looking at those two pictures. Most def bend some of the sheet metal out of the way so you can open the hood for a closer look. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest iskone Posted July 16, 2005 Share Posted July 16, 2005 Well I can't get the hood to open since it got folded and the hinge has got all bent and looks like it won't open up anyway. I'm going to try to get to the hinge bolts and disconnect the hinge. My lower radiator support is not bent from what I can tell but the side of it is destroyed. Hard to describe but the area between the radiator itslef in the inner fendr is taco'd This has been on my mind non stop I'm trying to think how much it would cost to replace all of the front end w/ fiberglass parts and new steeel for the frame. Then figure out if the insurance companies are gonna cough up enough cash. I'm thinking $1700 for the FG w/ shipping (fenders, hood, air damn, bumper) $1500 for the paint $100-200 for the steel and another $500 for stuff I'm not thinking of, like my grill and lights. DIY of course for a body shop to do the work I have no idea. Why FG? Why not? I'm sure it would be cheaper if I got all steel parts though by at least a grand. Isk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VRJoe Posted July 16, 2005 Share Posted July 16, 2005 Get the Hot Rod appraiser and add the $100 to the claim. Don't straighten anything until the appraisal is done. Once the appraisal is finished you can pop the hood if he didn't. It sounds fixable, so get prices for all the parts and labor from a good body shop (or 2 or 3) and use that with the appraisal report. With enough documentation the insurance company will cave. Get lots of photos, get witness statements, get estimates, bury them in documentation. - Joe Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
datsunlover Posted July 17, 2005 Share Posted July 17, 2005 Damn... sorry dude. I'm gona go get my z apraised this week.. all these 'z wreck' posts are starting to freak me out! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Turbo Meister Posted July 17, 2005 Share Posted July 17, 2005 Sorry to hear of your misfortune. Don't expect too much from the insurance Co. because they are not in the habit of making people happy. I had my Z professionally appraised as a Pro-Street Show Car and provided all receipts for documentation. The appraiser included 30 photos and a complete list of all aftermarket and high performance parts in the portfolio. State farm promised that if it were ever totalled on the street(not at the racetrack) I would receive full agreed upon appraised value. Good luck, I hope everything works out for you. Hanns Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RB26powered74zcar Posted July 17, 2005 Share Posted July 17, 2005 Sorry to hear of your misfortune. Don't expect too much from the insurance Co. because they are not in the habit of making people happy. I had my Z professionally appraised as a Pro-Street Show Car and provided all receipts for documentation. The appraiser included 30 photos and a complete list of all aftermarket and high performance parts in the portfolio. State farm promised that if it were ever totalled on the street(not at the racetrack) I would receive full agreed upon appraised value. Good luck' date=' I hope everything works out for you. Hanns[/quote'] Well thats great. I have State Farm also, and tried one time to get my Z insured for a "stated value". They acted like they never heard of that before.... They said they would sell me full coverage, but if I ever had a claim for it being a total loss, they would just pay the going value of a 74Z. What kind of restrictions is your car under? Can you drive it unlimited miles? How expensive is the coverage you have? Hope you don't mind the questions, its just I feel the need all of a sudden to try and cover my a$$ incase of the same thing thats been happining to fellow members, happens to ME.... thanks for any info you can provide joel Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fastzcars Posted July 17, 2005 Share Posted July 17, 2005 As far as insurance goes, I'll get you guys an update on monday whenthe adjuster calls. My Hagerty insurance was $365 a year agreed value at $20,000. Believe me I would rather have my car fixed for half that than to take the full amount, just so I don't have to rebuild it myself and spend another 5 years to build it back up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JMortensen Posted July 17, 2005 Share Posted July 17, 2005 My State Farm insurance had no mileage restriction and was not terribly expensive, I think it was about the same as my wife's Nissan Sentra. Since I haven't been driving it at all, I looked into classic car insurance and decided that was a better deal. Still the same coverage but now I have 3000 miles annually to drive the car, and the cost was ~$130 per year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Workinprogress Posted July 17, 2005 Share Posted July 17, 2005 Isk, Sorry to hear about your misfortune, I may have some spare fenders and the like sitting around if you're interested. Now that I have two projects in the garage, spare parts are a-plenty. PM me if you're up for it. Good luck either way. Grant Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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