Sad Day Redux, Redux
 

Ok,
We have determined that Geico sucks in ways that can not be imagined. I got fed up awhile ago and got over being pissed. Started looking at cars for comparison/replacement/entertainment purposes. I originally wanted a mid year replacement, seems that every one I found was sold :20 minutes after posting on CL or eBay sellers decided that they were made of unobtanium and priced accordingly.
After looking at different alternate years I decided that 993s were indeed made of Unobtanium and as such commanded more treasure than my meager bank account possessed. So no mid year, no 993, that leaves the Carrera 84-89 range. It seems that the G50 trans is indeed, made of that very same Unobtainium that the 993 is constructed of. That left the 915 version of the Carerra, which seems to be constructed of mere mortal metals and priced slightly below the stratosphere.
Upon perusing CL with a ADD fueled passion I was unable to crack the 20K number in the California market successfully , I did find one car that was used to haul horse droppings on the Baja 1000, another that was loaned to Johnny Knoxville for a Jackass episode, who buys one of these cars and trashes them? One had a $5000 stereo advertized, and looked like a demolition derby loser.
I managed to find a CL seller who had a car that needed mostly, love and minor fixing to bring it back up to snuff.
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1351872345.jpg
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1351872375.jpg

The car wasn't a steal, it was fairly priced, it just need attention.
Now I can get back to finding a really large and sharp corncob for Geico. My bank account is trashed, but I am car smiling once again. Magnus is really at fault here, I watched his video and was inspired, life is too short to compromise. And for that I thank him!
eric

P.S. Mileage is at 69K

On a following note, I have had A/C in 1/2 my cars and am indifferent, it seems that the Pcar A/C is at best average, and usually worse. If I were to delete how much weight will be saved for a complete stripping of everything A/C related hoses, ect. The details, seats need recovering, turn signal switch has the usual demons, sunroof needs repair work and re headlining, pimp radio needs removing and plenty of other details. The good news is the crunched '75 has a few donor parts waiting to move over, the shifter, Seine gate and Stomski coupler are anxiously waiting along with a plethora of other stuff, oh well hundreds of hours just waiting to be redone in part....

On the fun list:
I am gonna break out the digital scales, lower to Euro height, corner balance and bust some knuckles....

Congratulations! Looks very nice. If this isn't your daily driver, take a look at classic car (agreed value) insurance. It was a better deal for me, but it does come with some stipulations (like the car needs to be stored in an enclosed garage and is "supposed" to only be used for pleasure driving).

Thanks,
This is indeed gonna be the daily driver! I live 1 mile off of Hwy 9 in north Santa Cruz County, I drive Hwy 9 to Hwy 35(Skyline) to Hwy 92 to Hwy 280 to go to work, a drive that has to be experienced, who else smiles and digs the drive to work?
After the crunching, I quickly purchased a 95 Honda Passport on CL, its main virtue being the $1500 price tag, it was actually a fair buy since it was not a bad car for a 4WD, but a far cry from a Pcar ride to work.
Back in the saddle!
eric

I know your drive well - I grew up in Los Gatos and drove Hwy 9 often in my lowered 1976 Mercury Capri.

I seriously need to drive up to the area just to experience that drive again some 30 years later in my 1979 911 SC. 8-) 8-)

Looks nice and has the sought after blue plate...cool!

NICE! I'v a claim that is soon to be processed with GEICO (in December)...will see how they do on this one.

BEST!

Doyle

Enjoy in good health, always a sad situation when you have to fight the insurance company so I bought a stated value policy with State Farm. I am 41 great credit with multi line discount for two homes and two cars, I pay $238 every six months for $70k stated value.

Lived in Los Altos and took my '73 Ford Capri back and forth to Santa Cruz all through high school. Back before it was called Silicon Valley and just "the bay area".



http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1351898819.jpg


(ok, hijack over)

Good luck!
If the claim is anything but straight forward, retain council immediately.
Just got word about 20 minutes ago, apparently $8500.00 medical and lost wages isn't enough to get the Mitchell Law Firm excited, Geico said no coverage and they are rolling over.
I guess I am gonna go full honeybadger on the owner, gonna hire an attorney by the hour to prepare docs and I will build the case.
I am sure now that the gloves are off, the crunched car will go to the most expensive Porsche dealer in the Bay Area for an estimate, Carols in Santa Clara will do a further tear down for every last nut, bolt and washer at OEM pricing, I already have 6 months of CL listings saved as screen shots, and since I have another car the pressure is off, in fact I am comfortable leaving this one in the hands of a jury. If they say I deserve $0.00 I will accept that and part the car out and lick my wounds. I forgot how much fun I had building a case back in the old LE days, I am actually starting to feel the rush now that I have a direction and mission defined.
AAA insurance already is leery of me, thanks to 2 seperate smack downs in the last decade.
Game is ON!

Great writeup -
I really-really hate insurance companies too, they pretty much all suck. Not funny story, GEICO wouldn't insure me when I bought my first car, and the weird thing was that I was a government employee.

I wish you the best with the new car, and remember, honeybadger doesn't give a sheit.

Ok,
Just spent the day with the "new" PCar, decided to dive into some of the gremlins and gripes.
When I test drive it I noticed the steering bushing was toast, ordered a new ML masterpiece.
The turn signal switch was jammed with a piece of cardboard to keep the low beams low. The P/O indulged his kid and allowed a new pioneer stereo with iPod plug and about 35 different display colors and combos, the worst part is, I couldnt turn it off, if the gas tank wasn't on the othersideI would have shut it off with a .40S&W. Took it out and replaced it with the original Blaupunkt Monterey cassette, didn't plug anything in though, just filled the hole!
Took the steering wheel off and popped out the star washer, took the c-clip off and installed the new ML bushing, 5 minutes tops, I decided that the unplugging of the T/S switch was too much work, I decided to work on it in place. I got an old pair of electronic relay pliers and started jiggling and exercising the switch, it became patently evident which contact did not have enough clearance and was causing the high beam fiasco, quick rebend of the offending arm and it works like a charm. I also installed my fire extinguisher in front of the pax seat on that nifty stainless Brey Krause bracket and trick quick release, i guess i will take the Purple-K extingisher into the shop and replace it with an ABC version. Will transfer the Pelican headlight relay tomorrow. Took the beast out for a spin to check the headlights and steering wheel bushing as well as my Rocky Mountain Sheepskin seat covers. I must saythe beast feels much better, an I think I will transfer the old ironwood roadrunner dash mascot now!
Hola, it's great to be back in the saddle again! Anyone want to buy a 1995 Honda Passport?

Well,
Today was another day spent massaging the new ride. Transferred the headlight relay, was quicker for the second install. Removed my aluminum rear seat delete ( http://forums.pelicanparts.com/porsche-911-technical-forum/581708-rear-seat-delete.html )and reinstalled into El Chup, starting to feel like the old car now, did some vacuuming and general tidy work to finish off the day. Removed and packed the Jerry Woods dizzy from the Crunchmobile. Kinda sad, oh well.
Keep on keepin' on....
Eric

P.S. The ironwood roadrunner made the move also.

Today was another exercise, DMV, smogging, pulling and packing parts, recouping a little folding money for the bank account and make room in an already packed shop. Driving impressions, the Carrera is heavier, more powerful, and as such is different. I imagine that the same stuff on the 911S will have to be done to tighten up the handling. Lower strut brg, tie rod ends I think lowering the monster truck lift will be a start or installing BFG Bajas.
Anybody know if the turbo tie rod ends will tighten up the front end, I will replace most of the stuff that I replaced on the 911S.
An amazing amount of work to be redone.....when I get back from this next trip.

Ok,
Been driving El Chup like it was borrowed from the hated stepfather, the Sumitomo tires are hockey puck inspired. Where the 75 was rapier sharp, the 84 is more claymorish. I think it may benefit from a little neg camber and less toe in, wee will see, suspension tuning in my future. I also installed my Welty short shift/seine shifter into El Chup, much improved shifting, Stomski is next.
Been 'fixing" the PO's kids folly as of late, to install the HID light bulbs into the driving lights he decided that the horns were in the way and snapped the horns off with a pair of pliers, and since the OEM foglamps weren't deep enough for the new HID bulbs he just cocked the bulbs in the housings. I am constantly amazed at the lengths that people will go to to achieve a "look", the kid had also installed a fabspeed muffler bypass tube, the car sounded like 1/2 of a P51 Mustang. Luckily the PO noted that I thought that the bypass was dumber than batting practice in a glass house and replaced the bypass with the OEM muffler.
I removed the good horns from the crunchmobile and installed them on El Chup, as well as the oil cooler air scoop.
The joys of doing things over!
eric

Well,
Took El Chup out for a GTA lap, finally got to "almost stolen speed", pavement was wet, traction was sketchy, all in all perfect.
The combo of wet traction, and Sumitomo Hockey puck specials meant that the steering with the right foot practice was at a semi reasonable speed, although the Sumi's really are crummy, when they let go they really let go, perfect drifting tires! I will see if I can burn these off in less then 5K, if not will put on fancy shoes.
The car has the original optioned 6's and 7's any idea how much more width I can get out of this set up? Just ordered some 22/28 Sanders from Steve at that place in OR, gonna get Chuck at ER to revalve a spare set of shocks and struts to match, toss some polybronze, monoballs and turbo tie rods into the mix.
BTW I got almost every last bit and chunk of the A/C system out and on the ground. Seam sealed all the holes and made some aluminum block off plates to fill the holes, more seam seal, cherrymax rivets to finish up the removal/eradication. I forgot how much fun the Pexto PX-24 finger brake is to use.
Funny thing is I almost cut the brake lines thinking that they were part of the A/C, whew, close call.
eric

Here is a snapper of the titanium shift knob I turned on the lathe:
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1353563911.jpg

The shifter has a Seine shift gate and Stomski shift coupler, this combo really is the bomb! It was great in the '75 and is just as great in the '84!
While I was rummaging around in the back I found the line from the front of the airboot elbow and over to the thingy that is in the vacuum line cracked almost 1/2 way around, vacuum leak pulled the line and offending rubber coupling and found the line to be around 3/8" and the hose fitting 1/2" plenty of 3/8" hose and lots of 1/2" chunks, but no combo transitions, crap! The hard line is copper so I broke out my Parker tubing beading set and proceeded to put a bead into the end of the tube, now the hose fits snug and the vacuum leak is fixed! Plenty of gremlins left to chase into the dark!
eric

Here is a shot of my tubing bead kit, it really is unobtanium, the case is Bakelite, probably from the 50-60s:
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1353565169.jpg

Here is what it does:


http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1353565229.jpg

I guess I am kind of a tool geek, tools from a different era are my favorite, it seems no one repairs anything anymore just remove and replace.

eric

Dropped the Bilstein core off at Elephant today, Chuck is gonna rebuild and revalve them to match the 22/28s Sanders T-Bars. The front end will go together with some monoballs and polybronze.
Fun and games
eric

Spent the afternoon under the car looking at stuff. Found the right CV had rotational play, not just in and out axial, but rotation. Was looser the a 2 dollar hooker. Had a stash of Pelican supplied CVs that I was gonna put on the 75, but was waiting for until warmer weather when it got crunched. Pulled the drive shaft and got greasy! Went to reinstall and was frustrated until I remembered Grady's advice about cutting the heads off of some old axle bolts, slotting them to facilitate removal, and using them as guides, to get the axle started. Whffft, the axles leapt into place and were secured with zero drama, thanks Grady! As soon as the weather and other projects slow I will replace the other side as well. The left rear caliper is dragging a bit, next project!
eric

Final tally!
I originally bought the '75 for 10K.
After taking the owner of the van that hit me to, Small Claims Court, I think I did OK considering.
The original accident estimate was for 16+K to repair the '75. Even though the car was driven by an unlicensed driver, in California, the owner of the vehicle is liable for anything that that car does damage wise. I presented the Property Damage side of my case and was immediately awarded $10,000 plus court costs for the damages.
As the time limit for the personal injury side of the accident was rolling up, I decided to chase the Personal Injury side in Small Claims as well. After the accident I took 2 weeks of FMLA time off to get some treatment and relax my back. After calculating my lost wages to include everything from actual pay, to 401(k)loss, to lost vacation and sick time accrual I walked away with another $8,000.
In many states in civil court there can be 2 components to an accident, the property damages and personal injury, and in California they can be separate actions. The time limits for property damages is 1 year and personal injury is 2 years. Insurance companies will do anything to not pay any money out, I told the Geico adjuster that if he wanted to push this into court it would cost them 20K, he laughed at me and said good luck, well Robbie, 18K is pretty close and while I had to wait for it, the owner was livid at being sued 2 times and having 2 judgements against him.
So in the final analysis Small Claims can be a useful tool to regain losses, and the courts are not sympathetic to insurance companies when it is evident that they are dealing in less than good faith. In my property damages the judge did a very unusual thing, he decided the case while we were in the court room, and made it very clear that he was not impressed with the defendant/insurance company, and in the personal injury/lost wages case he made the decision and mailed it in less than 1 week, when the court was advertising 4-8 weeks for decisions.
As it happened, for my troubles, I traded the '75 for an '84 and took 2 weeks off to rest/relax. I did sell the crunched '75 for $5,500 and sold off a bunch of specific CIS parts and tools all for more than I paid for them. I got a newer car with a sunroof that I didn't really want, but enjoy anyway!
Just glad that this chapter of the saga is closed.

Thanks for the update! Glad it ended up well.

Good for you for sticking with your principles.

Dealing with insurance companies raises the hairs on my neck! What a complete racket when it comes to taking care of a claim.

I have had the unfortunate chance to deal with 2 total loss claims on non P vehicles. It took months of patients and gathering documentation. Giant time suck!
I was happy with the settlements in both cases, but what a time waster...

I feel your pain.

Happy motoring now!

Cooper

No worries, I have been slapping insurance companies silly for the last 15 years, 2 BMW 2002 sedan rear enders and a Suzuki Sidekick as well. Every one was done by an idiot either on the phone or driving with their head up their butt('75). And with every car except the '75 I was stopped and had multiple witnesses. AAA cringes every time one of their blue haired drivers hit me, the last one they mailed the check without me doing anything except me telling the adjuster to call my favorite(not) adjuster in the Capitola office. I had set her up for a Felony "Filing False Info With The DMV" case with a little help from an investigator who hated insurance companies worse than vampires hate garlic wooden stakes.
Calif "Total Loss Vehicle" was amended for my loophole, sorry guys!