v8guy

Well, I finally managed to track down the insurance information of the person that hit me. The adjuster came out today and looked at it and said that they were probably going to total the car, I'll find out tomorrow. The back bumper is pushed in and the one quarter got a little crunchied but the hatch still opens/closes fine and doesn't leak. I've been driving it the way it is for two months now and will probably continue to do so but I'm wondering how much it will cost to fix this and how much the ins company is going to give me for my car.

Kai

From that description, yeah, it's totalled. Sorry to hear.

v8guy

Thanks Bro. I'm kinda bummed about it but at least I can still drive it. 168k and it purrs like a kitten. I was hoping to get enought money to fix it but i guess probably not. Suxors!!!!

ED9man

I'd still keep it if you could even if it isn't going to be on the road.

Kai

If the alignment isn't buggered on it... keep on truck'in.

It will cost a small pile of cash to get the frame pulled back to normal, probably as much money as you could buy another straight bodied Si for.

ED9man

It probably won't be as strong either right?

Kai

Not so much that, but if something was tweaked, the car will never feel the same again. Nothing feels as solid as a factory straight body.

v8guy

Very true, but fortunately it seems as if the damage is purely cosmetic in this case. The car drives fine, no different than before the accident. I would like to get it fixed so it looks good again, but I guess it is probably not worth it.

There are body guys out there that can take a severely mangled car and make it really and truly right again, but they are few and far between. Most of the time if a car is structurally damaged, it will never be right again. I used to kinda know this one guy Paulie that was amazing. He is retired now after being a body guy for almost fifty years. He did top-dollar repair work, but he was the best. I saw a wrecked Grand National he was working on one time. The frame of the car was folded in and buckled like a crushed beer can. Paulie pulled it out so that it looked like the car had never been hit. I saw the car before and after with no sheet metal on the nose and it was just amazing, like if I hadn't seen the frame with my own eyes I would never have believed it. Too bad he retired like five years ago and the shop he used to be at changed hands at the same time. Not to knock regular body guys, but Paulie was like Michalangelo compared to a house painter. You never saw him working on a regular car, always something really valuable, a classic Vette, a GTO, a Hemicuda etc.

Kai

It shouldn't be too bad then, it may be as simple (well, I use the term simple in a relitive sense) as pulling the bumper support area back out and having a good sheetmetal guy do some lovin' to the rear quarter panel. The problem is, the cost starts adding up fast... it's up to you to decide if it's worth it.

v8guy

Yeah, I really need to pull off the bumper cover and see how everything looks under there. I know that is a big rust area. If everything looks cool hopefully I'll be able to get it fixed right.