Body and Paint Repair questions?

[89911]

My brother bought an 87 coupe a few months ago that we will be converting to track use over the winter. The car is in generally good shape but has had some resprays on certain sections but no major damage from a ppi. He was planning on repainting it in the spring after all the major work is completed. The car is grand prix white. About a month ago he went off road avoiding a deer (thats his story), and caught the whole length of the car with a guard rail and destroyed the left set of tires and wheels. (I just helped spend a week fully polishing these!). His insurance company (Erie) told him to get an estimate and turn it into them. Well, of course we went to the most expensive guy in our area. He came back with an estimate of over $10,000. Some of his prices were ridiculous ($995 per wheel, etc.) but my brother's not going to argue with it. A second estimate was a little below $9000, but this guy said he would work on this price to get the whole car done.

Bring in the adjuster. He begins to call around to used car and salvage yard locating used parts instead of new for the repairs. Is this allowable? Since my brother was planning of repainting this car anyway, he is essentially going to be getting it done for free. They are writing a check to him and the bank. Some of the damaged parts were already planned to be replaced with fiberglass (front and rear bumpers and valance). The bottom line is that he was in an accident and the insurance company should repair the car to the condition it was in before. What his plans later are his business.

[Oliver911]

I am 95% sure that this is unacceptable, but there are others that are more familiar with insurance claims than I, so correct me if I am wrong. If your brother is looking for an excellent shop that does p-car repairs there is a guy that used to be the bodyman for sewickley porsche that now runs his own small shop. He has a great familiarity with p-cars of our vintage and does impeccable work, let me know if you want his number. If you are also looking to strip the car to bare metal (media blast) before the repaint I can also recommend a place to get that done.