Whata Crappy Day **Wrecked My Truck** PICS

[Mil-Spec]

Yesterday just plain sucked. Well "The Chief" took a hit. I was driving to work through an intersection and a Kid turning left through it decided at the Very last second to squirt the throttle. The kid pulls infront of me and I try and swerve to the right out of the way but his front end connected with me at my driver's fender and keeps on going to the rear wheel well. So O glanced off his front end, but the truck runs and drives just like it did.

Still waiting to here back from his insurance. They say they are going to send an adjuster out. I'm just afraid they are gonna want to total the truck out rather than get it fixed. 33 years old and this is my first real accident so I'm still learning what the process is. So we'll see how things go.

Here are the pics.













The door shuts fine it's just ajar in the pictures

[Mil-Spec]

[diponyou]

it dont look that bad to me.
two new doors and a fender.
and the rocker looked pretty rusted up anyways so now itll get fixed

[BGRAFX]

Man sorry to hear that, you haven't had the suburban very long hopefully you can just replace the fenders and doors and do a little body work to get her fixed back to almost new again.

[CoderedZ]

Originally Posted by diponyou

it dont look that bad to me.
two new doors and a fender.
and the rocker looked pretty rusted up anyways so now itll get fixed

quarter needs some work as well.

I'm mil-spec's brother Christian

[p_rubottom]

She'll buff out
Sorry to see the damage, at least you get to spend quality time reparing her!

[FLEET72]

Man, that sucks. Found you a couple of doors and a rocker.

[N2TRUX]

Sorry to see it banged up.

I suggest you try to get a couple of estimates on your own. That will give you knowledge of what is entailed and leverage to work with the adjuster.

[68Timber]

Hate to see that, hope you can get it fixed. That's a sweet truck.

[Pyrotechnic]

Basically a truck like this will not have a blue book value. They will tell you it's totaled and offer a very small settlement first off.

You have to tell them that it's a classic, it has no blue book value, but rather it has a market value as a collectible/antique. Also, any and all receipts you have for upgrades or maintenance, you should make copies of and tell them that they must factor those investments into the value of the vehicle as well.

From there they will do a market search or an appraisal to determine what it was worth before it was damaged and hopefully after that you can at least get enough money back to break even on the repair costs.

[old Rusty C10]

if you go t hrough his insurance they cannot take the truck.. if they total it they give you book value for it which should be about $1200 in your area.thats prolly a little low estimate. Once you get that you can buy the parts and hang em yourself and have lots of money left over to get it painted or put the money into mods .

[68Timber]

Originally Posted by Pyrotechnic

Basically a truck like this will not have a blue book value. They will tell you it's totaled and offer a very small settlement first off.

You have to tell them that it's a classic, it has no blue book value, but rather it has a market value as a collectible/antique. Also, any and all receipts you have for upgrades or maintenance, you should make copies of and tell them that they must factor those investments into the value of the vehicle as well.

From there they will do a market search or an appraisal to determine what it was worth before it was damaged and hopefully after that you can at least get enough money back to break even on the repair costs.

It might help to play up the vintage fire station truck thing. I'd try to talk them out of totalling it even if you plan to buy it back, that will give it a salvage title that may hurt you more on down the road.

[78 Chevyrado]

Make sure the insurance doesnt try to make you goto one of their quick in n out shops. with an older vehicle I'd never go to any chain shop of any kind. Find a privately owned reputable shop that also deals with insurance.

Probably the worst ordeal will be repairing the rockers. mine got wrecked pretty similar to yours, but mines a pickup. I'd think the rockers and the quarter panel will be the worst. I got my truck done with all repair work included and a great paint job for around $3500, but that included painting the front clip off the truck and apart and inside the cab and bed. They did all other unrelated body work, and put extra clear on for buffing to a mirror shine. So if you just got a basic repair job done on just that part, I'd guess at $600-$700 for labor. i think on mine ONLY the body repair parts and labor minus paint was like $900. i spent the rest on extras basically.

Here's a pic of mine for comparison. mine was worse than it looked... lol but they fixed it up right for me.



Good luck man! even if your insurance shouls want to total it, see how much they'll give you and let you keep it. thats what i did on mine. I was supposed to get $3500 but for me to keep it (which i did) I only got $2900. It's better than nothing, but it's an option.

Good luck!

[gchemist]

Don't accept any settlement unless you have enough to fix it. If they try to low ball you, call your insurance company. Let them deal with it. You have rights to obtain proper damage settlement. You also have rights for loss of use and depreciation!!! Tack those on!!

[Raised On Chevy!]

To bad your so far away, I have two mint doors for that thing even the right color, and may I add sorry for your loss!

[Oldschool82]

Sorry about your wreck, hope you were not shook up to much your self. I think you do have one thing on your side, that it was his fault and he and his insurance are liable for the damages he caused, so to me that puts the ball a little further into your court, hopefully. I would do as these other guys have mentioned too and play up the classic issue, street value and throw in as many receipts as you can round up. Good luck, hope it all works out for you.

[dan76]

Your post read as if you weren't hurt...... You're much safer driving the burb than an econo-box. If you'd been in a newer truck, you'd have to consider the injury produced by the airbag plus replacement cost if it had fired. I've seen several "new" car totaled due to airbag initiations.

[Hoods69BadBowTie]

Wow damn man that sucks bummer deal! Like stated above get any receipts you have for the truck and get copies of them! Don't let them low ball you either. I would defiantly get a few estimates of your own so you can have a ball park figure. Best of luck with everything bud!

[RuralRoute C-30]

At least you are ok, sorry to hear about the circumstance. Good luck on dealing with the insurance company as chances are they are going to see it as just an "old truck". Agree with all here. Don't let them take the truck if they total it. Plenty of parts out there to fix it back to new.

[Mil-Spec]

Yeah I'm OK. Thanks for everyon'e well-wishes.

I missed a call from the other guy's insurance company this afternoon, wanting my side of the story. So I'll give em a call in the morn'n. I'm sure before they called me they call the other guy first. I am a little irritated that the guy at my Ins Co., who sounded disinterested in my situation, told me that because the accident was completely the other guys fault my Ins Co. had ZERO involvement in this situation. This guy wasn't my actaul agent so I'm gonna call back and talk to my agent.

Yeah I really hate the idea of totalling out the truck. My head has been spinning playing out all the possible ways this could play out. I really appreciate everyone's points of view. As for sheet metal at a minimum I'm gonna need: Fender, inner fender, both doors, Lower patch for the quarter, bother rockers and the floor board drop-offs.

Exactly how do they determine the value of the vehicle? I looked a NADA's webiste for classic vehicles and for my Suburban, Low to Average Retail is anywhere between $2500 to $5500. Is this scale or one similar to it not what the Ins Co. will base their estimate off of? Or do they use something with lower figures?

[Gregs71]

Since blue book doesn't go that old, I would press the issue to use NADA, and high NADA at that because of its "heritage" as a previous emergency vehicle. You could even argue that it has had exceptional maintenance (since we knowIf
emergency vehicles are meticulously cared for i.e. oil changes/maintenance) thus increasing its value. I would not allow a salvage title, it will only hurt any future value of the truck.

I would think if you can argue that the truck is worth $1 more than total repairs then they should fix it without giving you a salvage title.

[SSC's76]

Originally Posted by Mil-Spec

Yeah I'm OK. Thanks for everyon'e well-wishes.

I missed a call from the other guy's insurance company this afternoon, wanting my side of the story. So I'll give em a call in the morn'n. I'm sure before they called me they call the other guy first. I am a little irritated that the guy at my Ins Co., who sounded disinterested in my situation, told me that because the accident was completely the other guys fault my Ins Co. had ZERO involvement in this situation. This guy wasn't my actaul agent so I'm gonna call back and talk to my agent.

Yeah I really hate the idea of totalling out the truck. My head has been spinning playing out all the possible ways this could play out. I really appreciate everyone's points of view. As for sheet metal at a minimum I'm gonna need: Fender, inner fender, both doors, Lower patch for the quarter, bother rockers and the floor board drop-offs.

Exactly how do they determine the value of the vehicle? I looked a NADA's webiste for classic vehicles and for my Suburban, Low to Average Retail is anywhere between $2500 to $5500. Is this scale or one similar to it not what the Ins Co. will base their estimate off of? Or do they use something with lower figures?

What they do they get a list of trucks for sale similiar year and base thier estimate off of that. Been there myself. Look on auto trader that is where they are going to get the replacement value from at least they did for mine. I got 3500 out of them a few years back for my 76 and pop'd the 300 to buy it back. If you have any receipts for major recent repairs might dig them up they will add value for a new engine transmission and so on.

[Mil-Spec]

UPDATE

Well I've been dealing with Ins Co. all week. Last weekend I got all worked up because they said they were going to determine MY portion of fault for the accident because my headlights weren't on (they have to be at the time of the accident). Thankfully after seeing pictures of my truck they realized there was no way the other driver didn't see my truck and agreed to cover 100%.

Now the kicker is that lady from their Total Loss Dept. called to give me proposed settlement. Get this they want to give me $1290 for the accident.

$1290?? For Totalling? Umm yeah that's not gonna happen.

[Pyrotechnic]

Originally Posted by Mil-Spec

Now the kicker is that lady from their Total Loss Dept. called to give me proposed settlement. Get this they want to give me $1290 for the accident.

$1290?? For Totalling? Umm yeah that's not gonna happen.

Yep. Standard operating procedure is a low ball offer to begin with just to see if they can screw you over and get out cheap, but I'm sure you told them where they could stick that check.

[old Rusty C10]

you need to prepare your case to them now... find out what its going to cost to repair AND to replace your truck if totalled. Your truck is a fire package truck therefore its worth more as it has heavier parts on it.
Dont forget to put color matching on the estimate and blending in the paint to match the existing panels.
You should also demand coverage for rental vehicle LIKE what you drive for the entire time the truck is down too.
Threaten them with the insurance board of your state and better business bureau and then tell them you will sue them and their insured for the amount you feel its worth.. also you can also claim that your back hurts a tad since this accident and if they settle quick you prolly wont persue an injury claim.. settle for what YOU feel is right not what they offer you.