Early 911 Accident w/ photos - advice needed

[daepp]

Well, it finally happened. After 4 years and several similar close calls, a grad student making a left turned pulled out in front of my wife and I as we were heading down a boulevard at about 40mph in our 1972 911. I literally stood on the brake (and clutch) and slowed substantially, but either the 37 year old braking technology wasn't up to the task or there just wasn't enough stopping distance, because we hit right on my left front fender/bumper.









The drivers door gaps are fine, but I have no idea what the damage is behind the bumper? The hood is wrinkled and the gaps are bad. Anyone know how that area would fair in this type of collision.

I must say that the car held up surprisingly well. While we were not injured, my wife does have a bruise near her collar bone from the seat belts (which were new PEParts belts). It is still drivable and I can see no damage to the area near the left front wheel.

The car still had good (not perfect) original paint. The engine is a rebuilt MFI "T" rebuilt by Supertec as an "S". Most of the interior is fresh from Autobahn Interiors.

I am about to call the insurance company but I have a few questions:

1) Will they try to total it based on the little damage you can see from the photos
2) Do I accept a partial repaint or do the owe me a complete respray?
3) Do I have a leg to stand on that the are on the hook for more painting as the car was an original survivor?

Any info would be appreciated.

[daepp]

This door gap looks fine to me - most of the damage seems to have stopped in front of the tire.


These gap are not so good...


Maybe I can finally get that "S" bumper.

Since it's no longer gonna be "all original", do I hesitate to make "while you're in there" body mods.

[scottb]

I see you're in SoCal. You should contact Kevin Metzler (KevinP73 here on the board). He'll give you the "straight stuff" on what it will take to make your baby right. Last I heard, I thought he was moving his shop, but his website still lists the old address in Van Nuys. www.autoinno.com.

Kevin's a great guy, and will take good care of you.

Good luck.

[Scott at Pelican Parts]

Originally Posted by scottb

I see you're in SoCal. You should contact Kevin Metzler (KevinP73 here on the board). He'll give you the "straight stuff" on what it will take to make your baby right. Last I heard, I thought he was moving his shop, but his website still lists the old address in Van Nuys. www.autoinnno.com.

Kevin's a great guy, and will take good care of you.

Good luck.

I'll second this bit of advice. I had a similar accident in my 1971 911 and Kevin did a perfect repair job.

There is a typo in the above link. His website address is: www.autoinno.com

[DSouth]

Do you have an agreed value insurance plan?

[daepp]

The only real blem on the car prior to the accident. I bought it with this rust spot from Chicago, and in So Cal "ve seen no change in almost 4 years.

[KevinP73]

That mldg has two little studs that protrude thru the panel to the inside of the quarter panel. These studs are exposed to the spray and road grime kicked up by the tires. In time rust forms on the back side of the panel and slowly makes it's way to the outer surface. What you see on top is only a small percentage of what is there. Scott at Pelican Parts has the same blemish on his car that needs to dealt with.

[JFairman]

Get as much money out of the person who caused the accident and then completely remove all the trim and glass and do a complete chassis restoration because there is rust in the car and now is a good time to fix all that and do a complete repaint rather than just repair and patch up the collision damage.
I'd say they owe you at least 12 grand and maybe more.

The front is possibly tweaked over to the passenger side a little from the cowl forward and pushed back a little on the driver side. Once the fender is off it will be easier to see and measure the front half of the tub and see how everything lines while taking measurements

How do the door gaps compare where they latch?

The 911 tub is amazingly strong.. especially with all the unibody seams tig welded and a full roll cage welded in.
You should have seen Kathy Rudes 935 after she rear ended a BMW M1 at Brainerd in a very big way back in the early '80's. She was pretty busted up, but survived.

She hit at the same place just a bit harder.

[daepp]

I was certainly impressed how well the old girl withstood the impact!

[s_morrison57]

Did you pistol whip the grad student? Doctors check up might be something to consider, back and neck pain can take a day or 3 to show up

[schamp]

You may already know this but- don't sign anything, and don't let the insurance company record you conversation. If any recording is to be done add this-- this recording is to be used only for record keeping of the insurance company and is not to be used in any court proceeding. When they low ball you tell them you will be happy to sue their client. If I were you, I would not let another day go by without having an attorney to take care of this. When the insurance company calls just tell them you will take their name and have your attorney call them. Good luck.

[daepp]

No violence, and no Doctor (yet).

AFAIK we're fine, but I did take a photo of my wife's bruise.

The grad student was very apologetic so it was hard to be too mad. Of course, if he denies any of this then all bets are off.

[schamp]

Did you get a police report?

[daepp]

No - they won't respond unless there are injuries.

[ZAMIRZ]

Originally Posted by JFairman

Get as much money out of the person who caused the accident and then completely remove all the trim and glass and do a complete chassis restoration because there is rust in the car and now is a good time to fix all that and do a complete repaint rather than just repair and patch up the collision damage.
I'd say they owe you at least 12 grand and maybe more.

I hope you're joking. If not, you're a total piece of *****.

[brads911sc]

Originally Posted by ZAMIRZ

I hope you're joking. If not, you're a total piece of *****.

+1

Whatever happened to integrity and honesty? Id certainly go after whats rightfully yours...

[JFairman]

Originally Posted by ZAMIRZ

I hope you're joking. If not, you're a total piece of *****.

Around here in southeast Florida it could easily cost in the area of 12 grand to replace the fender and other broken parts and straighten and fix this car correctly and repaint the damaged bodywork.
I doubt any insurance company will pay near that though.

I think it will be put on a frame rack and at least measured diagonally and longitudinally along the bottom from the suspension pickup points. It may need a small pull. The car could be tweaked a small amount.

I know it seems like a lot but high quality bodywork and paint on a car like this usually costs around twice what you might think it would at a high end body shop and thats just fixing the damage from the cowl and bulkhead forward and matching the paint.

Hopefully it costs less than 12 to fix..

[KevinP73]

Originally Posted by JFairman

Hopefully it costs less than 12 to fix..

Depending on the policy 12K would be a total loss.
Is insurance fraud a big thing there in Florida?

[Shaun @ Tru6]

Factory fender: $1200
Factory S front bumper w/o trim: $1400
Trim: $300
turn signal housing: $500
lens: $150
grill: $40 (repro)

$3700 in parts, adds up fast.

Glad to hear you are OK. Do you have 3 or 3.5 struts. what brakes?

[ZAMIRZ]

Originally Posted by JFairman

Around here in southeast Florida it could easily cost in the area of 12 grand to replace the fender and other broken parts and straighten and fix this car correctly and repaint the damaged bodywork.
I doubt any insurance company will pay near that though.

I think it will be put on a frame rack and at least measured diagonally and longitudinally along the bottom from the suspension pickup points. It may need a small pull. The car could be tweaked a small amount.

I know it seems like a lot but high quality bodywork and paint on a car like this usually costs around twice what you might think it would at a high end body shop and thats just fixing the damage from the cowl and bulkhead forward and matching the paint.

Hopefully it costs less than 12 to fix..

I deal with all kinds of local bodyshops on a weekly basis. I had an early 911 in to the best bodyshop in the valley in Los Angeles (Ferrari dealer authorized, has painted multiple concourse winning vintage european cars like Alfa Romeo Disco Volantes and Ferrari Daytonas). The whole left side of the car was destroyed when the car got side-swiped by a box truck. It got a new front fender, door and rear 1/4 panel (well, not new, but good conditioin used). At the owner's request, they repainted the entire car, except for the roof. All of this came out to LESS than $12K.

Maybe they have a different definition of insurance fraud down there in s. florida.