This is the first time I crashed a car and I'm kind of at a loss what to do with it. Do I part it out? Send it to a junkyard? Tow it out to the desert and seal it up so I can come back in 5 years to fix it? Put together a viking funeral and send it out to sea? I'm too nervous to get a quote so if anyone has had a similar experience please let me know ball park what I'm looking at. Help me out with any ideas here or email me voss_nicholas@yahoo.com I'll try to answer any questions that you guys may have too. Pictures should be attached. Everything was stock. '89 Camaro RS 5.0L 305. Basically, I went underneath a van going a relatively slow speed on the freeway my guess is around 15-20 mph at the fastest. Though I lost a ton of fluid (mostly power steering I think), I drove it off to the shoulder so the engine still ran. Not too sure if there's any damage to it yet. Pretty sure there's no frame damage. Let me know what you think. Thanks IMG_0806.jpg IMG_0805.jpg IMG_0804.jpg Oh, and I apologize I had to show such a tragedy; I just don't know what to do.

doesn't look that bad, looks straight nothing a trip to the local junk yard can't fix, bumper, spoiler, hood, i'd say fix it but if your considering that yourefer to it as "totaled" you might have already made up your mind as to what you want to do with the car

Doesn't look too bad? The whole front end is gone, rad frame is all bent up, pretty sure the frame will be twisted too. It's junk now.

start removing everything that is bolted on and see where you stand. the chances aren't great that it's purely cosmetic, it's at least possible

Is it my imagination, or did the drivers fender make it through undamaged?

Radiator wall doesn't LOOK too bad, but hard to really tell from the pics.

Insurance would, most likely, consider it a total, only because they will look at the cost of repair vs the book value. But how much is the car worth to YOU? It is YOUR car & YOUR decision, not theirs.

pull stuff off to see how bad the damage is

dang...dont tell me you hit an aerostar.. was it auto or stick

What was the van on top of for you to go under

Word! Ayo, looks like this van isn't organic... lol!

Honestly like the others stated... You have to ask yourself a few hard questions about the car.. Are your emotions and desire aligned? Because you have a lot of work ahead. Period. You would need to pull EVERYTHANG kid to know "exactly" whut's wrong with it... Then you can make the best decision with your assaulted vehicle..

Good Luck!
Adrian

LOL!

Now seriously I agree everything is going to have to come off. Bumper, bumper reinforcement, whats left of the lights and bar, radiator, condenser core, and passenger fender (how the driver's one survived who knows). That's just to see if the frame is bent. Although there might be damage to the front passenger side of the unibody. Question is how much is she worth to you. If you want to go thought the process of pulling her apart to fix her I say go for it, if not take the total loss money and find a new one. I have had to do this once. Its sort of an easy process, but my mind was in groove to repair her. It all boils down to what you would like to do. There is a lot of info on what to do and how to take the pieces off on here just search and ask us. BTW how are you? Hope you are not to banged up?

You guys keep talking about a Frame? There is no such thing on these cars. They are a Unibody car where the frame is corrugated sheet metal which is part of the body. The only way to fix this correctly is to cut the front of the car off at the windshield and align and weld a new or used front clip back on. Financially on this car it does not make sense to do so. However, if you are attached to the car and money is not the issue it will run about $2000.00 to $2500.00 to repair correctly. Another thing to consider is that the insurance company totaled it and is on record with Carfax and probably now a salvage title. This makes the car not worth to much even if repaired correctly. Good Luck!

Thomas
House of Camaro

It was a big commercial van, looked like it was raised up a few inches. The bottom of the bumper struck right where the hood starts, which was the first point of impact.

It was a 5 speed manual transmission. Ran like a champion too. The four users of the car, which though they were all within the family, did not treat the tranny well at all. Despite this I never had any problems with the tranny until just recently and usually it only started acting up when it started to heat up.

The driver's side fender was pretty much unscathed. I think it was pushed back a bit though, but maybe like 1/16 of an inch.

My heart, as all of you would probably be in the same mindset, is most definitely with fixing up my car. The biggest problem is I'm currently out of a job and still going to school so I have no source of significant income. Not to mention all I had was basic coverage on the car so I did not receive anything from the insurance company. On the bright side of this, nobody from the insurance company came to inspect the car hence I wouldn't have to worry about getting a salvage title. Another major problem is that even if I can get the front end fixed I still have other necessary repairs coming up: fuel pump, fuel filter, tranny, clutch, etc.

I was planning on starting to pull it apart last week, but I just haven't had any motivation to do it. It's tough to look at her let alone talk about her if you know what I mean.

Heh heh, I've seen what happens to those cars. Trust me, you wont find anything but some monster truck tire prints and a burned spot on the ground where you left your car.




I say take it apart and look closely at the frame and steering, maybe you can save it. If you can't afford to fix it, part it and use the money to buy another one. Either way, move on. It's just a car. (ooh, did I just say that?)

hey if you do part it out let us know im looking for a 5 speed no offense btw srry for the loss I know how you feel

It'll buff out.

What the hell happened? You rear ended a van? Your explanation is vague.

Looks cooked. I'd scrap it and use the money toward another third gen, preferably with a 350 powerplant.

I say part it out if you dont have the skills to fix it but if you do fix it up and sell it.

Tony.

bahahaha! that is horrible.
i'd junk it. get another one. theyre
not too expensive in socal. you could get
a nicer one for the same price, if not less
than what its gonna take to fix it.

You forgot to tell him to use the dry ice trick first. Then buff it out.

Lon

HEY! I've seen that before!!




Mine was also a low speed accident. Kinda,... we were going 50ish, but had almost stopped when I hit the back of a Silverado. He was stopping for a dog as it was crossing the highway. His ABS saved the dog's life, but I was unable to stop as quickly. This was back in 1998. I was 17 at the time. My car was totaled even though it didn’t even touch the engine. That was an awesome car; 2.8 V6 180k miles. I beat the piss out of that car and it just kept taking it. Now I’m on my 3rd, 3rd-gen. It’s superior to that car in every way but i still miss it.

Economically it would most likely be less expensive to get another car. But I wouldn’t blame you for wanting to repair that one.

Heres a few more.

You will get more for the car by parting it out, than trying to sell it complete. You might even get more for the good parts on it than you would get for a pristine example. If either you or the van you hit reports the accident, it will show up on a Carfax report whether the car is repaired or not. I would reccommend that you get another one, sell whatever parts you don't want to keep form your wrecked one, and move on. Second generation f-bodies are just now starting to become collector's items. Third gens, except for a few limited production, rare models, are just used cars. I think we are at least 20 years away from the point where any nonrare Third gen is a collector car with significant collector value.

the smart advice in this thread was given to you. it is far better financially to part it out, and take the remains to the salvage yard. as it sits i'd guess a few hundred $. parted out maybe a thousand? if you take the time to sell as many parts as you can here and on craigslist and ebay for example. especially being willing to ship.
a high milage 5.0 with trans needing rebuilt is like a 1000$ or less car from the looks of the pictures. E.g interior needing help, paint needing redone, no high $ rims etc.
Or you could put 5000$ into repairs an paint and have something that maybe still doesn't track right or doors close properly, with a car value of about 1500$.

i got this fixed for a grand with paint and was lucky to get all the parts i needed for 150 bottom is before top are after

Alright, I'm finally sucking it up and doing this; I'm going to part it out. Let me know if you want anything. I've already talked to someone about the driver's side fender, but everything else is open game. Best way to contact me is through e-mail which has already been put up on this thread.

What a shame.....That car is SO FAR from qualifying as truly totaled. Just a little sheetmetal (and urethane) damage.

yeah, it'll buff right out

Viking funeral and post it on Youtube for my own personal entertainment.

I'd pull everything off the car that's in good shape or of value then scrap the body. It's a hard thing to do but it's your best bet. If you have no money then parting it out can net you some income. Sell the parts you can and get what you can out of it. If you don't already own the welding equipment, have a donor car's front clip and the necessary skills to transplant it to the old car, it's toast. If you had the money you could pay a body shop to do it but the sad truth is, such repairs are costly and ill-advised. For what it costs to repair the damage, you'd be able to buy a new car.