Hit and Run...

Dammit.  Hit and Run this evening, while parked in front of my house.  Repairable, but very irritating.  

Crap!!!

If that happened in my province where we have government insurance, they would write off the car and list it as irreparable

If you need a quarter cladding, I may have one. Shipping is expensive. Paintless dent removal can fix it, but the top rib on the quarter may not be repairable.

I had someone hit and run mine IN MY DAD'S DRIVEWAY.

damn that sucks!

I have an appt for insurance inspection on the 27th. I am keeping my fingers crossed. I have double the money in this car than NADA says it is worth.

if you have records of the work or parts you've purchased and installed take those otherwise they will probably insist on nada or KBB values.

or find postings of other Custom Cruisers in similar condition that are over KBB and NADA values and take those in and hope they will be willing to use those as market value rather then KBB or NADA

otherwise I just switched to American family insurance and they where willing to insure my 94 rmw for the appraised value of $7,000 (appraised as it is now without any work), while AAA had refused to do that for any reason and insisted that KBB and NADA where appropriate values.

"" the appraised value of $7,000""

Who appraised it for seven grand?

I bought declared value policies. $10000.

Insurance was on the fence about wanting to declare the car totaled. Their select body shop in the area wouldn't touch it, citing that between the need to remove the quarter windows, rubber trim strip, bumper, and interior quarter plastic, they were afraid of breaking something they wouldn't be able to replace. Thus, the damage estimate was kept slightly below the "total" line. I haven't agreed to take the check yet. I want to know if this incident (that I did not create) will raise my insurance rates.

Sadly, I believe I found the car that ran into mine. It belongs to someone who has harassed me in the past about owning a large car. The bad part was there was no paint transfer and definitely no video footage of the act, so there is no way to prove anything. Even the police officer at the local station agreed with the photos that it looked mighty suspect, given the past harassment this person has given to me.

the only thing I think of real true concern for breaking and not being able to replace would really be the quarter glass, the trim for the most part as long as they know what their doing is metal so could be bent back into shape and reused unless they where to really screw it up while removing it, and the interior lower panels, those just slide in place there's no clips holding them in, I pulled both sides out on my 94rmw to replace both rear speakers that a previous owner had blown out and it took me less then an hour to do the whole thing, panels out, speakers out, new speakers in, panels back in.


as to who appraised mine for 7 grand American appraisals in green bay wisconsin

I would look into a paintless dent removal service. They can do miracles. You should not have to remove the quarter glass to fix it. I suggested this in my first post. The dent above the wheel is between the wheelhouse, and fender, and is not accessible from the inside. It should cost you less than $1000 for PDR. You would probably have to paint it anyway, but that is the cheap part.

The other option is to use weld on studs, on the outside, to yank the panel out with a slide hammer. I have had a local tech school do that on mine about 10 years ago. This should not cost more than $1500, plus painting.

No matter what, you do not have to remove the quarter glass.

I have the quarter cladding if you need one.

Why on earth do they think they need to pull any glass? Find a body shop that has a clue and get their opinion.

I would pocket the check and get creative with a bottle jack.

94Woody wrote:

Why on earth do they think they need to pull any glass? Find a body shop that has a clue and get their opinion.

I would pocket the check and get creative with a bottle jack.

You can not get to the backside of the dent. The inner wheelhouse makes it double wall in must that area. It be pulled from the outside.

That's why I said to get creative. I have access to torches, plasma cutters, MIG, TIG etc. I wouldn't let a piddly wheelhouse stop me.

No need to go through all the welding stuff. A good PDR guy can do it without any high temp solutions. Try it you will like it.

LOL. I'm sure they could at quite the price.

Hiring someone to do what I can do myself isn't how life works for me.

Besides, I was talking what if anyways because my car is good. If it got dented like that what I would really do is pocket the check and keep driving my old dented station wagon.

I'm looking for a Paintless Dent Repair "artist" now. If not, I will give the repair a try myself. I've been looking at the ColaFria cold glue kit to use with a slide hammer. Very curious how this will work along with a hydraulic body kit to work the wheel well outward.

I have a glue based dent removal kit, and from what I have experienced, they are designed for small dents. The glue is not as strong as I would like. The "tools" tend to come off before the dent comes out. I used it on some slight dents on the side of my 92 OCC, and did not see much difference. I checked on the tool kit you are referring to, and for the price of the kit, and other tools you will need, that are not included, you can probably have the dent removed by someone. The basic glue kit started at almost $400. The real cost of the tools will probably exceed $1000 by the time you have what you need. You need a mirror panel with stand (usually yellow) and a nylon hammer (available at Harbor freight for about $10), There are also some pusher tools that you may need. 

A hydraulic kit my not be effective for moving the fender. At the area of your dent, there is a double wall that is partially glued together, and you can not get between the two with anything There is a little space between the inner and outer fender.

The worst case scenario is that a stud gun, and slide hammer would be necessary. For home use the stud gun and a repaint of the panel would cost less than the PDR kit. You do need a high level of metal working skill for the stud gun technique.

Fred,

Thanks for the advice. I'm still looking to find a PDR guy to see what they say first. Is your glue based dent removal kit based on using hot glue?

Warren

The one I used is a hot glue system. The glue releases before the metal straightens.