Could use a little support...

[dkn1997]

American Collectors (my company) called today in response to my online claim over the weekend.  They are sending an appraiser (they didn't call him an adjuster...wierd)  to my house this week.  I made it clear that I plan on getting estimates from different shops.  It's pretty much wait to see what say kind of deal.  Then borrow a trailer and tow it around and get some more estimates.   It was a very casual conversation, let's hope the claws don't have to come out.  My big concern is that by just looking, they may not be able to estimate all of the damage.  My view is you don't know what you have got till you start peeling the layers away, know what I mean?  1hot68 told me that they will allow for some incidental damage not noted on original estimate..I just wonder how much....I'm thinking about stuff like underestimating time on a frame machine, finding a cut wiring harness for the headlights (price a forward lamp harness lately?  must be made of platinum for what they want)

Thanks to all of you who have offered your support and help.

[dkn1997]

Change of plans.  I found a local shop that came highly recommended.  I am having the car towed there today and then the adjuster can look at it there. I was told not to have them come to my house and to let them do the estimate with the bodyshop present so that they don't "leave out" anything

[rav440]

sounds like a good idea .  hope all works out for you

[Hemidog]

Good luck! Hopefully you'll have the beast terrorizing the streets next summer!   

[Just 6T9 CHGR]

Change of plans.  I found a local shop that came highly recommended.  I am having the car towed there today and then the adjuster can look at it there. I was told not to have them come to my house and to let them do the estimate with the bodyshop present so that they don't "leave out" anything

Sounds like a plan...let us know how the ins co treats you

[dkn1997]

I just got back from dropping it off.  The owner recommended that I get the best fitting parts possible.  The main ones being drivers fender and hood.  So my question is, with all of the confusion swirling around charger sheet metal, What's actually available for shipping as of this moment?  not in a month, or when they tool it, but in stock ready to go? 

I need a hood, drivers fender, front valance.

I'm also in the market for a complete grill.  Mine's not totally destroyed, but the one side is mangled.  In your guys opinion, would it be better to try and find a restored one or to send mine to be repaired?

Also, when I asked if I could have the car back by spring, he smiled and said way way before that. He said it all hinges on parts availability.  So I hope to avoid body shop jail, which i think is more common on the rust repair/restoration side of things, not collision. 

[71ChallengeHer]

I just saw this, I could have cried. I'm glad everyone is ok. Good luck on the repairs. 

[1BAD68]

I would pull the grill and find some donor parts to restore your original. It would be a good project while you wait for the repairs to get done on your car.
There's a ton of info on restoring grills on this site.
I feel bad for your car it was beautiful but on the bright side at least you weren't T-boned, that would be really bad.

[Mike DC]

"Paint jail" is really a resto issue more than anything else.  Pulling frames and doing finish work on (rust free) panels usually doesn't take the shop very long.

[dkn1997]

Still waiting to hear from cbd, but amd has the sheetmetal i need in stock and ready to ship, so as long as the insurance co cooperates, then it should fixed within a couple of months and ready for spring.  I want to try to restore my grill myself, but was sort of thinking of getting a decent one that's not crashed and having mine as a spare, no pressure if I screw it up then.

[Rolling_Thunder]

find a restored grill - insurance is going to flip the bill for it most likely as it was destroyed in the crash - then fix your original as a spare...   

[bill440rt]

if you have to buy it back you get a salvage title , which is not good for resales in the future 

That's not usually the case. Most commonly the insured has first option to retain ownership of the car, they just subtract the salvage value from the insurance check and the title never changes hands.

Oh, man.... Just saw this now. So sorry to see this.

Like Chris & yourself, I too also have American Collectors. I had to file a claim with them on my '70 R/T years ago, it was in a trailering accident on it's first outing. Although it was relatively minor damage compared to yours, it was literally ALL over the car, underneath, etc. I had to completely re-restore the car all over again.

I will say, A.C. was EXCELLENT! Most insurance companies nowadays, even "regular" ones, realize what a collector car is over just another junker. A.C. sent out an independent appraiser to assess the damage. He was very knowledgeable. (BTW, I work as an appraiser/reinspector for a VERY large national insurance company, so I know a good one when I see one). He came back again when the car was torn down. This is very common, any additional damage that is related to the loss will simply be added to the estimate on a supplement. Happens all the time.
In my case, my car was declared a total loss. A.C. not only gave me my full "agreed" value (we're talking tens of thousands), but more on top of it because I was a long-time policyholder in good standing. I kept the car, no questions asked, & no salvage title was issued. Replacement parts prices were a non-issue, they knew MOPAR stuff was made of unobtainium, prices were what they were. I was even paid for parts I had in my existing stash that I was going to use on the car, I just had to put a "value" on them to A.C. Nearly everything that went back on the car was NOS, and they paid for it all.
Granted, nowadays NOS parts are even more hard to find, but luckily for us repro stuff is now available and from what I've seen it's pretty good.

Best of luck fixing your car!! Please post pics when it's done! 

[Steve P.]

Man o man.. Another old car and old man collision. Down here in BLUE HAIRS_VILLE I see this all the time. Glad you and yours were not hurt..

A few years back a guy was on interstate 75 on his way to Big Daddy's show when someone staring at his car and not watching the road ended up off the road and then back on but nailed this beautiful Sport Fury while trying to gain control. another show goer stopped and called a buddy that was already at the show. That guy came to the rescue with his truck and trailer and brought him to the show. I don't remember the whole story, but I remember Don Garlits asking people to donate what they could to this guy to repair his car. On Sunday as the show was winding down someone announced that they scrapped up over 6 thousand dollars for this guy.  I remember thinking how great mopar people are..

I hope you do well with the insurance companies and your Charger comes back better than ever.. 

[dkn1997]

Adjuster is going to body shop on monday,  I spent a few hours pouring over the web and catalogs and sent the body guy a fairly complete list of parts, prices, sources, etc...No luck on finding a complete grill so far.  I do have my eye on a drivers side section including headlight door, a bit rough, but not smashed like mine...

I have some decisions to make too.  I assume that the insurance will give me money to put the car back the way it was....but i may want to change same things...like I have a becool direct fit radiator in there, but I may go with a stock replacement, or something that will keep the car cool. that be cool is junk. very small, the hose fittings are pinched to fit onto those tiny side tanks. plus it was anything but direct fit.  the brackets they give you make an already tight fan to rad clearance issue and turn it into an absolute tragedy.  I ended up drilling a couple of holes in my core support to get it to fit.  maybe this could be my opportunity to change the one side of the core support to utilize a 26" rad.....      also, the body shop took a quick look at it and it looks like the fender pushed the drivers door into the rear quarter, chipping the paint.  looks like the whole nose, drivers door, and drivers quarter will need to be repainted.  so the only panels on the car with my existing paint will be the trunklid, pass quarter, pass door. 

[firefighter3931]

No luck on finding a complete grill so far. 

Kevin, check with Jason @ Gunslinger....he had a very nice 69 grill assembly at Moparfest. Detail work was fantastic. 

I'm pretty sure he has several grills in stock either restored or ready to be restored. 

Good luck with the adjuster/appraiser.



Ron

[drifter69]

Sorry for your loss man! But it sure looks like this forum has alot of cool people. Good luck.

[dkn1997]

No luck on finding a complete grill so far. 

Kevin, check with Jason @ Gunslinger....he had a very nice 69 grill assembly at Moparfest. Detail work was fantastic. 

I'm pretty sure he has several grills in stock either restored or ready to be restored. 

Good luck with the adjuster/appraiser.



Ron

email sent!!  thanks Ron!! 
and thanks to all of you guys.  I have had so many offers for parts, advice, etc... it really restores my faith in humanity...at least the charger driving segment of humanity. 

Special thanks to Mike (nycmille)  Curtis (Bull) and Cody (69bronze)  they went way above an beyond

[dkn1997]

It looks like Jason might be able to help me on a grill, so that's a big load off of my mind...Seems like a very nice guy from the email.

[firefighter3931]

It looks like Jason might be able to help me on a grill, so that's a big load off of my mind...Seems like a very nice guy from the email.

Excellent !   

Jason is a good guy and great to deal with. I purchased my grill chrome from him and the fit was perfect....top shelf ! 



Ron

[dkn1997]

I got a quote for the grill.  it's reasonable, but just more than I had anticipated.  He's willing to work with me on shipping if I pick it up and credit for my old one as a core...but it blows the budget wide open....we are up to over 6K in just parts alone, including shipping.  with so much of the car having to be repainted, im afraid this will turn into a 12-14K repair. ouch!!!  I guess I won' launch into full panic mode till after monday when the adjuster comes out..  so far, I have spoken to 2 people at american collectors and the attitude has been pretty much "your'e screwed" because of the 9500.00 value on the policy. it's as if they have no concept or have never heard of pursuing the at fault party's insurance?  I got a copy of the police report that plainly states that I was traveling straight and he turned in front of me.  I did just get it saturday and maybe they are waiting to see if I am being truthful about the other guys culpability before they even speak to me about pursuing his insurance....

I'm not feeling too good right now.

[The70RT]

I don't know why your insurance is even involved yet. Just a notification that you had an is all they need to know. What is the other guys insurance saying? Is it their adjuster or yours?

[Mike DC]

   

I'm sorry, but not surprised, about the $9500 problem.

Unfortunately it's pretty hard to argue with this logic.  It was an agreed on value and now you're trying to re-neg that number upwards when it's time for somebody to pay up.  You can try to get your insurance company to fight his company for more, but your insurance company is probably saying to themselves, "We got him what he agreed on without a big fight.  We really don't owe him any more than this, but it will take a whole lot more fighting to get any more."




But I think you could try to fight directly with his insurance company for more money.  Perhaps you can make some headway arguing that whatever deal you had with YOUR insurance company is irrelevant, because YOUR company isn't really liable for any percentage of this wreck's cost. 

(Like, just on principle, suppose you had liability coverage only - then you should still be entitled to a bunch of money for this wreck, wouldn't you?  It clearly wasn't your fault so you should get reimbursed for your loss.  In this scenario, the amount of coverage that YOU had is irrelevant to what you're owed from the other side.)

[SFRT]

I am paranoid, and that is why my crummy charger has an agreed value of 70K.

[dkn1997]

   

I'm sorry, but not surprised, about the $9500 problem.

Unfortunately it's pretty hard to argue with this logic.  It was an agreed on value and now you're trying to re-neg that number upwards when it's time for somebody to pay up.  You can try to get your insurance company to fight his company for more, but your insurance company is probably saying to themselves, "We got him what he agreed on without a big fight.  We really don't owe him any more than this, but it will take a whole lot more fighting to get any more."




But I think you could try to fight directly with his insurance company for more money.  Perhaps you can make some headway arguing that whatever deal you had with YOUR insurance company is irrelevant, because YOUR company isn't really liable for any percentage of this wreck's cost. 

(Like, just on principle, suppose you had liability coverage only - then you should still be entitled to a bunch of money for this wreck, wouldn't you?  It clearly wasn't your fault so you should get reimbursed for your loss.  In this scenario, the amount of coverage that YOU had is irrelevant to what you're owed from the other side.)

I'm not renegging in anything.  If I have to pony up, I will.  I'd just prefer not to. If they don't want to go after the other guys insurance, fine.  total it out and give me my 9500.  I will find a way to fix it for that much. may not be perfect, but I will be on the road again.  I won't fight american collectors for more than my agreed value, I would fight with the other guy's insurance.  My thinking is that insurance companies don't want to pay if they don't have too. so no matter what my settlement is, American collectors should be trying not to pay any of it if they don't have too.  In this scenario, my agreed value has no meaning since his insurance is liable to fix my car.  I got rearended years ago and only had liability on that particular car.  The other guy's insurance paid no questions asked. I think it would be silly for american collectors to just write me a check when there is the possibility of getting the other guys to do it.  It's strange that they haven't mentioned it yet, knowing that this was not my fault.

(Like, just on principle, suppose you had liability coverage only - then you should still be entitled to a bunch of money for this wreck, wouldn't you?  It clearly wasn't your fault so you should get reimbursed for your loss.  In this scenario, the amount of coverage that YOU had is irrelevant to what you're owed from the other side.)

This is what I'm talking about.

[dkn1997]

I don't know why your insurance is even involved yet. Just a notification that you had an is all they need to know. What is the other guys insurance saying? Is it their adjuster or yours?

It's my companies adjuster.  Once they look at the car, then I will see about the other guys insurance.  At this point, I don't even know what the body shop will be charging for labor and paint, so I am not jumping the gun yet.