TAC Central => Lobby => Topic started by: TATurbo on May 24, 2023, 09:48:10 PM
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This happened today...
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52923198467_de0d22f74f_z.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2oCDe66)Untitled (https://flic.kr/p/2oCDe66) by Tom Sherer (https://www.flickr.com/photos/152255092@N02/), on Flickr
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52923060797_59f160f2e2_z.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2oCCwat)Untitled (https://flic.kr/p/2oCCwat) by Tom Sherer (https://www.flickr.com/photos/152255092@N02/), on Flickr
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52924030480_e092e84f58_z.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2oCHuq9)Untitled (https://flic.kr/p/2oCHuq9) by Tom Sherer (https://www.flickr.com/photos/152255092@N02/), on Flickr
Ugh.
I was driving on a residential 30MPH, 2 lane road. A newer Jeep Wrangler Rubicon came up on my tail obviously in a rush. I decided get out of the guy's way...Any left would keep me going in the general direction we were headed. Coming to a + intersection, a Porsche was waiting to make a left onto the road I was traveling. The Porsche was sticking out past his stop sign a ways, so I hit my left turn signal early...In case the guy wanted to turn out before I made my left on to the road he was on. The Porsche stayed put. As I passed him, and turned the wheel to make a left onto that road...BAM! Out of the corner of my eye I see a Jeep bouncing off my driver's side door.
The Jeep driver, crossed over the double-yellow, into the opposing traffic lane and rammed my door as he tried to pass me.
My door was hit pretty hard, but the Jeep Rubicon 'Recon' edition steel bumper is very high and it didn't catch the rocker or get into the door jamb. It appears as though the damage is limited to the door. With some collateral damage from the door hitting the front fender at the front and pulling on the striker at the rear.
Positives...
Nobody was injured. The Jeep driver was apologetic and expressed no doubt about fault. The Porsche driver was watching closely as the events unfolded. He expressed agreement as to fault, and hung around to provide his information in case any questions come up. Finally, the accident occurred in a very affluent neighborhood. Regardless of insurance, I'm not concerned about the responsible party's ability to accept financial responsibility for getting my TTA repaired properly.
I'll be taking it to a shop at lunch-time tomorrow. Fingers crossed...The professionals will assess the damage similar to my initial impression. And, they can turn it around quickly.
In the mean time, I get to exercise the Dukes of Hazard ingress/egress skills I learned driving my Dad's 77 back in high school.
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aaack. :(
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My sentiments for you, that sucks! Glad to hear no one was hurt. Hopefully everything will get fixed and back to good as new again.
Jim
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That really stinks but it does appear to be the best scenario with the limited damage area/panels. Good luck my friend!
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Oh ouch...hopefully just the door, which is bad enough. The Mrs looks stunned too, hope everyone ok.
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OMG Tom, what can I say :shock: Glad you guys are ok physically. I would be sick inside just a bit though, I am sure you are. I hope you can get it fixed asap.
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Oh Noo, why does this happen to a perfect car?
Most important no injuries. Also good if damage is limited to that giant driver's side door. You can be thankful no air bags or seat belt tensioners to replace. Great that you have the Porsche drivers' statement on the Jeep being at fault. Your insurance company will push hard to have the Jeep's Insurance cover all costs.
Since the Jeep is at fault you should be able to get whatever is necessary for a proper repair. I am sure you have high standards, when you go for estimate's be sure to express that to the adjusters that this is not just a mode of transportation. They should have no doubts after looking at the rest of your car. In the Illinois area there are high end restoration shops that do great work, I don't know if this is an option by you. The downside is they will definitely take longer to get the job done and frequently have a backlog of work.
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Glad you're OK, I'm sure they'll have you fixed up and back on the road soon!
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Looks like it took the hit in the best way possible. I dont see any wrinkles in the quarter or roof. I imagine the striker in the door jamb got tweaked, but everything else looks like it was spared.
You never wanna get hit in the driver door, but in this case it might have been three best spot. I'm glad you're ok.
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So glad you're okay! That's definitely what's most important.
As for the damage, it looks isolated entirely to the door... which they reproduce as a whole shell. That's to your advantage, as it's a bolt-on part unlike the quarter panel.
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Glad you’re ok and so sorry this happened to you. I hope you also filed a crash report with law enforcement.
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Hokey smokes Tom, glad you're OK. Keep us updated on the repairs. All will be well with that beauty soon.
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Glad you’re ok, this is one of my biggest fears.
Tom H
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I'm so sorry that happened to y'all. That is the main reason we sold our nice, low-mileage and rare birds. It got to where I didn't want to drive them for fear of someone trying to get a better look and riding my rear bumper, or the aggressive drivers that want to race. Although bad enough, it doesn't appear to have severe damage to the body/uniframe. That's a good thing!
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Thx for the kind words and encouragement, everyone. This car is very special to me, but it’s not rare or special otherwise. We’ll just fix it. I was not oblivious to the fact that, with as much as we’ve been enjoyed this car over the past 3 summers, something like this was a possibility.
I agree… the impact area seems to be the best case of bad situation. We’ll know for sure once we get the door off.
I took it to a couple of shops, including a remote session with the shop that originally did our body and paint work, Classic Auto Painting in TN. They all came in between 8 and 10G to replace the door, w/all internals, repair the B-pillar and front fender, then repaint 2/3rds of the car (front left fender back around to the right door and the roof). They all also said that could change as they dig in. I was sorta surprised all 3 estimates were so close, and all of ‘em said it needed to painted around the rear and over the roof.
The plan is to start taking stuff off the car this week, then trailer it to Nashville this weekend for a thrash to get it done in time for the GM Nationals in Carlisle Next month.
Fingers crossed everything goes smoothly.
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Hopefully that body shop will not hold you up in paint jail and drag things out. I hope they treat you like family, LOL.
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Just curious, how is the insurance companies handling this?
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Oh man... that made my heart sink Tom... I'm so sorry to hear the bad news. Glad there weren't any injuries, but man that sure sucks... Hope for a quick stint in the body shop.
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That sux. Glad no one was hurt. The knee-jerk response of most insurers would be to total it. I hope you don’t have that struggle to go through.
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An update regarding the insurance process and progress on the car...
As I alluded to earlier, a couple of planning sessions with "my" body & Paint guy (Chris @ Classic Auto Painting, Mt. Juliet TN) devised a plan involving some late nights and weekends, some sweat equity from Julie and I, a specific celestial alignment, and some luck. If everything went perfectly we could be in and out in a couple of weeks.
Unfortunately, things did not go perfectly...
The Insurance company's initial photo estimate came in at $1500.00 to R&R and paint the door. Fortunately, the insurance company (Progressive) immediately recognized that this was a custom/specialty vehicle and the initial estimate was not gonna cut it.
I learned that an insurance company cannot tell you what shop repairs your car. They may recommend shops they have relationships with, but they cannot refuse a shop or demand that the car be taken to a specific shop for repairs.
I informed Progressive that I had a small window of time to get the car repaired at my preferred shop. And, that I would be taking the car to the shop in Nashville, TN immediately. I was not waiting for them. I had plenty of photo evidence, literally thousands of pics of the car if there were any questions about the condition of the vehicle before their client hit me. Progressive said they would arrange to have someone go look at the car at the shop in TN.
Friday we put the TA on a trailer and headed towards Firebird Central's shop near Lexington KY to pick up a new door before they closed for the weekend @ 2 PM on Saturday afternoon. Our poor R/T Durango was not happy pulling the TA up and down the WV mountains. But it looked cool...
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52992808660_0abf374ea4_z.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2oJMZLQ)Untitled (https://flic.kr/p/2oJMZLQ) by Tom Sherer (https://www.flickr.com/photos/152255092@N02/), on Flickr
And, it dutifully got us to Firebird Central at 1:30 Saturday. FB Central had the door waiting for me right up front in the retail shop. (A really nice facility, I might add. Thanks, FB Central!) We were at Chris' place by dinner time Saturday.
On Sunday we got the car into the shop and got the door opened to assess the damage inside. Pretty much everything in there was crushed and/or bent. No surprise. By Sunday night, most of those parts were on their way to Classic Auto Painting.
Monday morning the insurance guy was at the shop first thing. He looked over the car, took some pics, and explained the next step was to get an assessed value on the car as a custom or specialty vehicle. Once the value was set, another guy would visit to finalize the labor and itemize parts.
At this point, I was starting to worry a little. I was happy they recognized this was not 'just' a 1981 Trans-Am, but would they come in way low? Would they pay for the extra labor involved in reproducing the custom bodywork on the car?
I learned that the value assessment is critical because that determines how much the insurance company will pay before trying to 'total' a car. It varies from state to state, but I was told that in TN, on a car 10 years or older, insurance will pay up to 100% of the assessed value to repair a vehicle. In some states that number can be 51% of the assessed value.
But, Progressive did say Chris could start tearing things down(Just don't start any actual repairs until the value was assessed and they started the final estimate process. So, work progressed on breaking down and prepping the car in order to hit the ground running when the assessment came in.
Waiting for the insurance company to value the car, while Classic Auto took stock of all the damage was a terrible couple of days. Damage was further spread than we had hoped. In addition to a dip in the B-pillar @ the top of the door area, the striker area was pulled and cracked, the front fender was bent, and there was a wobble in the roof.
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52988240823_d82ec74646_z.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2oJozV2)Untitled (https://flic.kr/p/2oJozV2) by Tom Sherer (https://www.flickr.com/photos/152255092@N02/), on Flickr
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52992960758_5e4432b5f1_z.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2oJNLZd)Untitled (https://flic.kr/p/2oJNLZd) by Tom Sherer (https://www.flickr.com/photos/152255092@N02/), on Flickr
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52992638324_ee3edc1cdd_z.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2oJM891)Untitled (https://flic.kr/p/2oJM891) by Tom Sherer (https://www.flickr.com/photos/152255092@N02/), on Flickr
The assessment came back Wednesday...
I was happy to hear that the $ value was right where I estimated it should be. I had the car valued at $25000 on my policy, and that's the number Progressive came back with. This was good news. Knowing the estimate was coming in around 12K, I could finally not worry about the insurance company trying to lowball the car's value or suggest the car be totaled. (Which I had already informed them would not be acceptable.) All we needed now was the second guy to come out to complete a 'Supplement' to the initial $1500 estimate. But, that supplement needed to be a big one.
I'll cut to the chase here...The second guy came out. He agreed to the labor estimate, then worked with the shop and myself to come up with a full itemized parts list. I suspect that getting the car categorized as a 'Custom' or 'Specialty' vehicle might've helped this process. This 'regular' insurance company's parts computers do not necessarily have all the required parts info for classic cars. And, the adjusters do not necessarily have experience with classic/custom cars. Because of all of the restoration records I had, I was able to contribute information, justification, and pricing on a bunch of stuff that might've otherwise been missed. Ultimately, they ended up with a dollar amount on this 'supplement' that was in line with all of the estimates. More good news I suppose.
Although the $ came in where it needed to be, none of the other stars aligned. The insurance process had things behind already. And things did not improve once Classic Auto Painting started to dig in. The proverbial 'Can of Worms' has been opened.
When we left the car at the end of week one work was progressing...
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52990556585_c9b5661291_z.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2oJAsiX)Untitled (https://flic.kr/p/2oJAsiX) by Tom Sherer (https://www.flickr.com/photos/152255092@N02/), on Flickr
Needless to say...Our plan to get 'er done in a couple of weeks has been dashed.
That's it for now. Thanks again for the kind words and encouragement. It does help...I've spent a lot of time in a foul mood over the past few weeks. Trying to look at the bright side: We planned on getting some area's touched up in a couple of seasons anyway. This has just moved that timeline forward a couple of years.
Take care.
-Tom
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Tom,
I feel for you, this is always going to be a tough process. The insurance companies just want to be done and for the smallest dollar amount possible. Your car will be beautiful again, unfortunately it will take longer then you want it to.
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Tom, I know the car is in good hands, and in the long run everything will work out. Assume you are dealing with the company of the person that hit you. Sounds like that worked out for the most part which is a good thing!!
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Glad that the insurance company came through and that the shop is progressing on the car. I had a feeling that the damage wasn't isolated to just the door, but didn't want to say anything. Keep us posted Tom!
Has your brother or yourself driven the car after the door was back on the car? If not, you may want to have them drive it to be sure that it doesn't pull or feel tweaked. Unless you've already had it on a frame machine, there's a chance that the shell is tweaked too. Make sure that the insurance company is aware of that because it may be wise to have it on a frame machine before the bodywork is finalized.
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Ya, I agree. I hope everything is ok.
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Yeah, the dip in the roof was scary to see.
Immediately after the accident, I checked the fit of the T-Tops. They both sat down right where they normally rest. (I'm intimately familiar with the little irregularities of how those T-Tops fit before the accident.) The fit of the passenger side door seems fine too. I drove the car about 60 miles between the accident and when it went up on the trailer. I didn't notice anything unusual. My brother followed me 10 miles from his house to the shop and didn't notice any 'crab walking' or anything funky going down the road. With the work done on the car so far, the new driver side door fits good and seems to operate nicely at this early phase.
All of these are good signs.
At the top of our list of things to do on our visit down there this weekend is to take some measurements. I'm pretty sure I have specs and notes from when we reinstalled the front sub-frame a few years back. IIRC there are holes in the rear frame rails that are used to measure/square the front sub-frame.
Fingers crossed!
Julie and I had already remarked about the fact that we suspect things would've been even worse had we not had sub-frame connectors welded in.
My new goal is to have the TA back home in time for a local show on my birthday near the end of July.
I'll keep you posted.
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Well, I'm glad to see you're still chipper about it. What a bummer!
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Thar is from pressure. I hope he can pull on the striker or somewhere there to relieve it.
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All in all sounds like it will be a successful "fix", that is good, as well as the insurance company coming through on the dollar amount.
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How's it progressing, Tom?