Quote:
Originally Posted by Rooster300SD
For those of you following this thread this is the update.
The car is still sitting in front of our house. Our neighbor at work is an
insurance agent (not ours) and he specializes in classic cars. He advised
us to not have it towed to the body shops our insurance recommended as
they will just total the car. He is trying to figure a way to get this car fixed
through insurance without it getting totaled. He is looking for a body shop to send us to.
We have collision insurance and the vehicle that hit the car has commercial insurance.
For years we had Geico and they valued the car at 13K.
We changed to State Farm recently and there is not a stated value on that policy.
I got the hood open and will send some pix later to the forum to see what you all think.
I have completely rebuilt both the front an rear suspension among many other things.
Just trying to keep this car from the crusher.
Thanks, Jeff
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After having been through this kind of incident in my own life, I took it upon myself to learn a few items of importance about body/collision repair shops. I divide body/collision repair shops into three categories:
1. 80% are "quick-fix/get paid now by the insurance company" style shops. They make their money doing volume. quantity over quality.
Minimal investment in body repair tools/repair machines. Owner may not be actively involved in the business. Workers have 5 years or less experience in body/collision repair. Viewed from 20 feet or more the car might look OK to the average onlooker.
2. 15% are "not-as-quick-fix/willing to take a little more time" with your body/collision repair shops. They don't do as much volume. They won't go the extra mile to get it 100% correct.
Mid-level investment in body repair tools/repair machines. Owner may or may not be involved in the business. Workers have 7.5 years or less experience in body/collision repair. 90% of car owners would be happy with the level of workmanship. Viewed from 10 feet or more, the car passes inspection.
3. 5% are "take their time to fix it correctly" repair/collision shops. These shops are very difficult to find. I had to go to very large cities, i.e. Los Angeles, Chicago, Dallas, etc to find body shops of this caliber. I had to ask a lot of questions, personally visit the shop, ask for references, etc. This level of knowledge and expertise comes at a much higher price, of course.
This level of shop has invested heavily in body repair tools/repair machines. Owner of the shop is actively involved in the body repair business. Every worker has a minimum of 10 years experience. They perform concours grade/show room quality collision/body work. Completed cars could easily be featured on the front cover of The Star magazine or any other car magazine for that matter.
I have a friend who has a Porsche that suffered an accident. After much discussion, we came to the conclusion that it was going to cost more than the Porsche was worth to fix it properly. To this day he is unhappy with the repairs the body shop performed on his beloved Porsche.