Good idea. I will contact him.
Haven't seen him on the Forum for a while as I think he was selling his 123s
Hopefully we will connect. Would be great to meet him and get his advice.

Thanks,
Jeff

__________________
1984 300SD 300,000 miles--two tank WVO setup
2.88 diff & 500SEL anti-squat rear end

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

__________________
1984 300SD 300,000 miles--two tank WVO setup
2.88 diff & 500SEL anti-squat rear end

Speaking of the hood, it should be aluminum. If you end up with a replacement make sure they don't stick you with a steel one off a gasser.

Wish I had some of these tips a few years ago.

My all time favorite car to own and drive was the 95-99 Olds Aurora. I believe I owned about five Aurora models before I purchased my current 95 E300D. I'd drive them for about 100,000 miles and sell them after I found another low mileage one.

Last one I flew to Salt lake City and drove it home to north Texas. A few weeks later a teenage girl ran a stop sign and T-boned the passenger side totaling the car. Lawyers told me it would be futile to fight the insurance company involved and I should accept the low offered amount ( based on other similar cars value ). No gain in value due to recent money spent or pristine condition ( new Michelins, brakes, suspension, etc... ) said that was just normal maintenance.

Hi All,
Had to unbolt hood latch on driver's side to get it open. Gearwrench barely fit in there.
As for a replacement hood and fender, there is one the same year, model and color of my car in the JY now.
It's been in the yard only two weeks, looks like it might be OK. It's 50 miles away, so can't check it out in person yet.
Didn't know that diesel and gasser hoods were different. Thanks for that info.

Here are some photos from under the hood. The part of the inner fender that
holds the spring and shock look pretty good. Everything forward of that is crunched.

Is this fixable?

Thanks,
Jeff

Attached Thumbnails

       

__________________
1984 300SD 300,000 miles--two tank WVO setup
2.88 diff & 500SEL anti-squat rear end

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.

If the formed steel/shock tower is twisted, the crumple zone has been impinged.

The damage doesnt look bad to me, but bonded structural areas are nigh impossible to repair correctly.

Id haul over to the jy and see if everything is intact and get a swap going...

A new hood anf fender, headlught etc, and itll likely look fine again, but may not retain the crash protection from new.
Your call.

__________________
John HAUL AWAY, OR CRUSHED CARS!!! HELP ME keep the cars out of the crusher! A/C Thread
"as I ride with my a/c on... I have fond memories of sweaty oily saturdays and spewing R12 into the air. THANKS for all you do!

My drivers:
1987 190D 2.5Turbo
1987 560SL convertible
1987 190D 2.5-5SPEED!!!

1987 300TD
2005 Dodge Sprinter 2500 158"WB
1994GMC 2500 6.5Turbo truck... I had to put the ladder somewhere!

Went to the JY today with my son and a friend of his and we got the hood
and both fenders. Same model and color as my car and built the same year one month apart!
What are the chances of that? It had only been in the yard a week.
The metal is in great shape. It will need to be painted as it is a slightly different shade of color.

It's getting towed tomorrow to a highly recommended indy body shop.
He's got 40 yrs experience and it's just him and his daughter running the shop.
Super nice guy to deal with. I will keep everyone posted as things move along.

Jeff

__________________
1984 300SD 300,000 miles--two tank WVO setup
2.88 diff & 500SEL anti-squat rear end

I would recommend going back with a battery powered sawzall and cut out above radiator cross piece. You will want to look closely at the damaged one on the car and cut the one at the jy out past where any damage may be. A good body shop will remove the bent one and weld the replacement in. I had this done on an E300 years ago.

__________________
Jim

Jim,
Thanks for the input. The car will be going to the body shop today.
The guy already talked about cutting out a front fender apron from the JY.
I'll go over with him what he needs from the JY after he gets the car in his shop.
If he's willing to go in himself we'll just charge it all to the ins company.
Either way I'll be getting my time and money back from them

Is the SDL radiator support the same as for the SD?
No SD cars in the Junkyards near me at the moment.
Are the gasser cars different?

Jeff

__________________
1984 300SD 300,000 miles--two tank WVO setup
2.88 diff & 500SEL anti-squat rear end

I would think interchangeable.

__________________
Jim

I do not know for sure, bit i doubt they are the same.

__________________
John HAUL AWAY, OR CRUSHED CARS!!! HELP ME keep the cars out of the crusher! A/C Thread
"as I ride with my a/c on... I have fond memories of sweaty oily saturdays and spewing R12 into the air. THANKS for all you do!

My drivers:
1987 190D 2.5Turbo
1987 560SL convertible
1987 190D 2.5-5SPEED!!!

1987 300TD
2005 Dodge Sprinter 2500 158"WB
1994GMC 2500 6.5Turbo truck... I had to put the ladder somewhere!

What kind of deal you got from the insurance company? This is very important.

1) They admitted liability?

2) the insurance company promised to repair it and don't total it?

3) insurance adjuster evaluated it and came to a $$ number? How long the adjuster estimated days to repair? If they did, just take the money and do what you wanted. All settled.

4) if you find extra damage when you strip down the car, tell the adjuster and get more $$.

I had similar experience and I claimed car rental per day for the duration of 'estimated days to repair'. Basically I got $9+k from the insurance company and it costed me less than $1k to repair it myself.

Your experience may differ but the bottom line is to make sure you are happy with the $$ settlement before you do anything to the car.

__________________
Not MBZ nor A/C trained professional but a die-hard DIY and green engineer. Use the info at your own peril. Picked up 2 Infractions because of disagreements. NOW reversed.

W124 Keyless remote, PM for details. http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/mercedes-used-parts-sale-wanted/334620-fs-w124-chasis-keyless-remote-%2450-shipped.html

1 X 2006 CDI
1 x 87 300SDL
1 x 87 300D
1 x 87 300TDT wagon
1 x 83 300D
1 x 84 190D ( 5 sp ) - All R134 converted + keyless entry.

Ah Kay,
Did you get a salvage title?
No negotiations with State Farm yet

100% other driver's fault. Hit while parked in front of the house at high noon.
Police came to the scene and did a report. Other driver's vehicle has commerical ins.

Jeff

__________________
1984 300SD 300,000 miles--two tank WVO setup
2.88 diff & 500SEL anti-squat rear end

Clean title.

Insurance promised to fix the car by their appointed repair shop. I said no. Paid me for what the repair shop quoted plus car rental ( shop quoted 28 days ). So we were all squared. I found some hidden damage and sent them picture plus the part number and costs. Insurance company paid extra but no extra labor.

You have stripped the car so I don't know what they might do. Good luck.

__________________
Not MBZ nor A/C trained professional but a die-hard DIY and green engineer. Use the info at your own peril. Picked up 2 Infractions because of disagreements. NOW reversed.

W124 Keyless remote, PM for details. http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/mercedes-used-parts-sale-wanted/334620-fs-w124-chasis-keyless-remote-%2450-shipped.html

1 X 2006 CDI
1 x 87 300SDL
1 x 87 300D
1 x 87 300TDT wagon
1 x 83 300D
1 x 84 190D ( 5 sp ) - All R134 converted + keyless entry.