Repairable Body Damage?

[Jehannum]

I finally settled with State Farm, to the tune of a touch under $10k. I keep the car, no salvage title is issued, as long as I signed the property damage release form (releasing them from all further liability).

 

To that end, I've

1) pulled the motor and transmission

2) taken the car down to my body shop of choice (Loid's Rides)

 

The motor is out of the car because it needs a new head gasket (old one was weeping coolant down the side of the block), possibly a valve job, and definitely a new coat of Datsun blue. Pulling the L24 was a lot easier than pulling the VG30DETT out of my 300ZX (that took about 12 hours, vs. the L24's 2 hours). It's relatively young, at 119k miles, and compression was looking good all around the last time I checked (about 2500 miles ago). I've also got a 6 to 1 header to install, and an exhaust to fabricate.

 

I thought about doing some sort of swap, but I'm just too attached to the car as it was before the accident. Lousy half-shaft geometry and all, I loved that roly-poly bastard. Besides, I'll have enough power in my rebuilt VG30 with big turbos to satisfy that itch.

 

$10k is way more than enough to complete the repairs and, I hope, to repaint the whole car.

 

I've decided to go with the MSA type 1 urethane front valance, instead of finding NOS or used replacements for my knackered components up front, with the MSA carbon fiber bumper.

 

I'm going to go with either a shaved rear or the MSA carbon fiber rear bumper, whichever is less expensive. Either option is acceptable to me from an aesthetic perspective. The rear panel below the black finisher is getting replaced with the lower MSA replacement panel, and panel below the lift gate is also being replaced with the upper MSA replacement panel.

 

I've got a line locally on a set of fenders from ahead of the doors to the end of the headlight bucket for much cheaper than the replacements from MSA, but they're off of a '73 out of Washington, which means 1) some cancer and 2) metal headlight buckets. Whether those go on depends on whether it's more cost effective to repair them vs. buying the replacements from MSA (along with the fiberglass headlight bucket replacements).

[Daeron]

Wow, man, just read through this thread. Seems (at THIS point) like things worked out almost GREAT... good to see! I originally looked at the photos of the damage and was thinking sarcastically "Oh, no, that's useless, you should send it to me and let me cut it up and use bits of it to replace the rusty parts on my car...." and hopefully scam you into letting ME fix it

 

 

All I will say is this: suspension and brake upgrades to an S30, pay off more dividends in the "fun" category than engine upgrades on a Z32. Some springs, some real brakes, and some real shocks will make the car come ALIVE because suddenly you can A: carry 50 mph insanely deep into the corner and B: shed that insanely fast and late, amazing everyone else who has already slown down and thought you were about to eat the wall, in addition to what you are already used to in you Z-car, C: speed off remarkably quick for only 120 horsepower. No replacement for displacement? try weight loss!!

[MJLamberson]

wow! from the looks of it the repairs are simple replacments, and with the amount of money you got out of it you can do so much more!