hey guys ive been reading this board for a while now and finally became a member. the sad part about it is that my first post is bad news. this sunday i was returning home from work and was t'boned by a girl in a toyota corolla as i crossed over an intersection. both of us had the green light yet she didn't yield the right of way to me as she made a left turn. she hit my driver side door and sent me spinning into the curb facing the other direction. luckily no one was seriously injured. im including a pic of the car before and after. any ideas of damage costs,etc. please post thanks

 

im seriously sorry about that, but that's some serious Sh*T... you shouldn't have to pay for anything if it's her fault all of her insurance will pay for it, but if that happens lets take a look at estimates

used door 250.00
used fender 150.00
repair rear quarter panel (hell lot of work) and fix prolly near 300 *guessing*
ground effects 100-200?
paint whole half of car, better of doing the whole car while your at it, round 500-800

round 1,600 total *max* *guesstimate* considering the frames not bent

not being able to drive your camaro for a while -lifeless

 

here's another pic

 

that does NOT look good. However - if you find the right bodyshop - they'll be happy to help you out. Many consider a thirdgen to be truly done for when that kind of damage happens, but that really isn't the case. I've got a car at the shop right now that just spent 10 hours on the frame puller.

But before the insurance starts to mess with you - go find a book at your local bank called "CPI" . It stands for "Cars of Particular Interest". Since your car is a Z28 from 91 -92, it will have a higher resale value as a collector type car than bluebook will tell you. Use this value to argue with the insurance and don't let down on it.

Good luck and glad you're ok. Welcome to the boards!

 

hey guys, i really appreciate the replies, as well as the warm welcome. thank you. i am already loosing sleep over the insurance woes that await me. thanks for the estimates and the "cpi" information you provided i will look that up. -mike

 

You may also be able to take the insurance money if they total the car, but it back and fix the car. That's what I did!!!

 

I know this isn't what you wanna hear, but IF (and I say "if") the car is totaled, you can at least buy the car back from scrap for between 500 and 1000 and part it out. Hood, blisters,tailights,interior, motor, wheels.tranny....dang, there's tons'o'money hiding amongst that wreckage!!!!

...worst case of course....

 

wow...

sorry for you luck, is that the stock color?

 

hey kandied, the paint is not original, it was repainted a while back yet the color looks off. its suppose to be oem dark red metallic. (i also gotta say that your car is too sweeet, keep up the good work) -mike

 

ouch hurts to see that, i would try and get the most money u can and make sure u get to keep the car. accident times are always stressful even when it wasnt ur fault.

 

i was wondering since my stock color was originally dark metallic. looked a little darker. nice all the same.

 

IMO they're gonna total that car. Insurance won't want that bill.

This just happened to me today, and the body shop guy mentioned totalling my car too:

 

you dont want to fix that quater panel, just replace it.

 

even if the car is totalled... you can require from your insurence to pay the repairs... would it have been a 90 and lower Camaro I would have told you to get rid of it cause that kind of repair is not worth on a 3rd gen but yours is pretty rare so if you have a deep pocket enough to pay the insurence after you get it repaired (because it will cost you a whole lot more a year to insure it) I'd say go for it

 

thanks again for replying guys, (ebmiller88) im really sorry to hear about your car. it hurts to see another thirdgen fall to an accident. by the way, how did it happen, and were u injured?

 

Some guy decided to change lanes at a stop light and simply backed up into me...he didn't see me, and I think he was on the damn cell phone. He was driving a big F250 so apparently I had disappeared behind his tailgate. I'm fine. It just messed up everything in front of the fenders. Luckily he didn't get those. It's not a bad fix, but it very well may be totalled. I'll just buy it back and fix the front in that case.

I almost guarantee yours will be, but just buy it back, find another car indecent shape and a clear title, and transfer all your parts onto it.


Ed

 

ed, that is about the damage i had on my car a few years ago. i managed to dig up enough reciepts for aftermarket parts, that they did fix the car, to my liking. they descided they didn't want to give me 4k for the car, and 5k more in parts money

BTW, i had my own destruction this weekend too, not as bad as either of yours, but i am kinda bummed.

 

wow...sorry for all of you who had little accidents.....
WHAT COLOR BLUE IS THAT?!?!? IT IS LIKE EXACTLY WHAT MY FRIENDS BROTHERS WS6 TRANS AM IS, AND I LOVE IT!!!!!!

 

mine is the factory blue from 1990.

 

I'm really sorry to hear about your car man....the pictures of the damage makes me sick....I hate to see any Camaro (or third gen)..whether a Z28/RS/IROC/SC or whatever get banged up...or even worse. I had an 84 Z28 I had over 7 grand invested in...and a lady hit me in the rear. It's been over a year now and we are just about settled. From the accident, I'm disabled in my back 5%. Plus all of the medical bills and my 84 is now trashed..(thats how I have a 91 Z28 now) But....I went to visit my lawyer last week and I'm going to be getting anywhere between $50,000-$100,000. It's alot of money...but it's still a day I'll never forget. Anyhow, good luck with everything and keep us updated.

 

ebmiller, i would think that yours could not onlye be fixed, but upgraded to the bumper cover of your choice and hood of your choice for under $800. i don't think yours will be totalled...

 

Damn...must have been a bad weekend.

I also think it will be fixed, I'm just thinking of all my options. I will be upgrading to a Z28 "power bulge" hood along with a new bumper cover and lower spoiler. I will be happy.


Ed

 

Ed,

Sorry to hear about your accident! Glad to hear you're OK. that looks very similar to what happened to me a few years back. I don't remember the exact numbers but they told me my car was worth about 5000 and the damage was about 2500. ( I had some slight fender damage too). That was about 50% of the value and that was enough to total it. I think I ended up with a check for 4800, bought the car from salvage for 800, paid the 2500 to fix it and pocketed the rest. Of course, you have to remember that now the car is no longer worth the same amount, at least to the insurance, so to total it again would be all me payin' for it !

-Of course the insurance went WAY down, since it was worth less, and there was no need to have full coverage.

 

It's not fair when you put alot of sweat/time/heart/money into your ride and have it considered totalled by the insur co. Thats why it is always good to keep all reciepts. Too bad you can't put a price tag on the sweat/time/heart.

 

My agent is a friend of mine and told me that you could insure a pile of poop , assuming you were willing to pay the premium. OK, well that's not quite how she put it, but the point is that, yes, you do need to keep receipts, but you also have to make sure that you're covered for the amount in question. I put about $2000+ into my interior resto, and wanted to make sure it would be covered if anything happened. I called her and explained, and she said that assuming I could prove it ( I have receipts and photos) it would be covered. Now a 10,000 race motor and trans, with all sorts of race mods is different. You need to modify your coverage or all the receipts in the world won't work. She'll be the first to tell ya' that if they don't have to pay you, they won't. You have to make sure that you're covered for something. The good news is that you can call your agent and express your concerns and they'll help you. All you gotta do is ask. If you're not covered, they'll tell you how to get yourself covered. You may need to pay higher premium though.

This is a quick little tidbit of info she told me.

If you're looking to be collect over $10,000 in a certain claim, and you're cars bluebook value is less than $10,000, is a good idea to go over your coverage with your agent. Simply because with higher dollars at stake, there's no need to risk it and "assume" you're gonna be covered since you have receipts.

MOST of our cars are not worth over $10,000

If our car is worth less than $10,000 (that's most of us) then don't expect to recive any more than twice what its bluebook value is without special coverage. (Now you would of course still need to PROVE it's worth more than the bluebook to get anything over the actual value.)

Keep in mind every car, state, policy, etc. is different. THIS IS NOT A RULE TO GO BY, SIMPLY A ROUGH IDEA....

Depending on how much "other" insurance you have, you can also insure you car as "property" and tag it onto another car's insurance policy. You can tack additional coverage onto you're homeowners insurance if you have it. (sometimes). There's all sorts of tricks to the trade, you just have to know where to look.

 

Damn that sucks, I bet that car looked really good before your mis-hap. Someone said something about the collectors insurance. This is what happened to my friend. He had a 89 T/A with 49,xxx miles on it. Car was perfect. I had never seen a 3rd gen that nice. Well he pulled out in front of a Jeep one afternoon, right after he put new tires on it and washed it, and got hit pretty hard. It took out the front bumper, passenger side fender, light assembly, gfx, and passenger side door. To make the car look right they were going to have to blend it from nose to tail, basically repalnting it but a little cheaper. The insurance company wanted to total it out, the estimate was 4500. Since the car was so nice the body shop refused to total it. For some reason a few of the guys at the shop really liked the car. They fought and fought the insurance company. They ended up having a different appraiser come out who appraised it as a collectors because of the mileage and excellent shape of the interior. They appraised the car for 8000 and decided to fix it. It sat in the body shop for 3 months while they "looked" for a passenger side fender, but couldn't find one. Finally the shop ended up totaling it out because they couldn't get all the parts. He orinally paid $4500 for the car, they wrote him a $8000 check for the car My friend bought it back for 1200 then sold it to me for that. He then bought a 95Z 6speed car for 7000. I bought a GM front bumper, found a excellent door in the junk yard and ended up getting a repro fender(which my body man said lines up near perfect and considering how well these cars line up at the factory I am happy. Right now the car is being done. The whole thing was taken apart, windshield was taken out, t top gaskets, dog house, doors, I bought a fiberglass aero wing from ramairhoods.com. everything is being done right. After I replace the nasty *** faded green/white ACC carpet the car will look 100% new. I will have probably 5000-5500 in it after I am done. If the car wasn't so nice I wouldn't have done it but its gorgous. Best of luck to you and you camaro. Gotta love the 91-92 cars:hail:

 

I just went to Edmunds.com and appraised my car with the factory options and this is what I came up with:

High end: $3883
Low end: $2717

http://www.edmunds.com/used/1991/che...n.1.Chevrolet*

I think the estimate will be in the $2500 range so I'll expect a total. We'll see....

Ed

 

I'm guessing that a bodyshop would probably charge $3,000-$4,000 to fix that. Might as well go ahead and total it out....

Sorry for your misfortune....

 

Does it still drive? An accident that bad probably would throw something out of allignment... but your wheels look very straight... if it's fine mechanically it might be able to be saved!

 

Mine drives just fine. The engine wasn't touched and neither were the fenders. I take it in for the estimate tomorrow. We'll see then. The guy only backed into me at less than 5 MPH.

Did you know a GM standard flat hood costs more than a Z28 hood? Good to know but it's those power bulges that are the expensive parts....


Ed

 

I heard back from the body shop and he told me the insurance rep totaled the car...BS!! Looks like I have to start digging up receipts and stuff to try to get them to not total the car. I hate the fact that a "perfectly good car" will have a salvage title.


Ed

 

yes... our cars are easily totalled.. I think down there you can't put a totalled cr back on the street, right? that sucks... if not, you can have them repair it anyway

 

to the one who has that blue z that got hit in the nose, if the insuance company is in the process of totaling it then tell them not to continue the claim. just drop the claim, keep the car and fix it yourself. That hapened to me with my 91z28 I hit the front of an excavator trax and ripped the front cover, broke 1 foglight, broke the grill and bent the metal impact bumper and they told me the car would cost too much to fix and it would be totaled. I dropped the claim and now have all the parts to fix it perfect again. insuance will never know anything hapened.if the insance comopany gives you hell about it then drop the whole policy that day. id rather loose thge policy andhave to find anyother insance company,then loose a clean title to a 91z28. get it fixed while its off the road

 

Whats this about buying back from the insurance company? Whe I got rear-ended they totaled my car, gave me a check for $3800 ( I paid $2150), and I got to keep the car. They never gave it a salvage title or anything either. This was the 3rd time this car was totaled as well, so I don't get the after its totaled once its worthless??

2 months later I had a head on with a telephone poll which literally came about 4in from the stearing box. Wasn't a very lucky car I guess.

 

When my car was totaled, they wrote me a check (the guy who hit me's insurance) and I got to keep my car... with a clean title.


I have no idea how all that works, but oh well. I was happy!

 

.

 

That explains it

 

OMG!! sorry to hear about your accident SemTex

hope your ok!

 

.

 

Just got off the phone with the insurance...Yep, it's totalled, they're only giving me $3000... "that's what comparable cars in the area are going for...", but she said I can send in receipts to see if they'll give me any more for my additional parts. Furthermore, to buy it back, they will look into the "local going rate for that car in that condition" and that's what I'll have to pay to buy it back.

I may just let it go and pull off all the good stuff. I dunno.... And it WILL get a salvage title...NC state law.


Ed...PISSED!!!!!!!!!!!!!

PS: Josh, my car "blue booked" on Edmunds for $2717-3883 (dealer). I will be pulling every receipt I can find to submit to her to try and raise the value. They seem to be sticking with the value they came up with..I hate insurance...

 

Thats a load of bull, I have half the parts needed to fix that thing sitting in my basement. I got 3800 out of my 91RS that was already beat up, showing damage from several other accidents, interior was ripped up, engine & tranny problems (guess they wouldn't know about that), pealing paint. And they want to give you 3k for yours which is a hell of alot nicer than mine was, and take the car from you. I think you could get more out of that This was gieko too.

 

I'm not the least bit happy about it. I'm dealing with Nationwide and I hear they're a PITA to deal with.

Ed

 

Sorry dude, I heard Geiko was one of the worst actually. I know my insurance comapny is really good with that stuff, well thats as far as insurance companies go if I put in a claim they won't BS me as much as alot of other ones would, but then again it is more expensive than alot of other companies.

 

Update on my issue:

Turns out the body shop called it in as a total loss to the NC DOT so now it's "legally totalled" and I really can't do anything about it. After sending copies of reciepts of new/performance parts on the car, they upped the value to $3300 with a buy back price of $450, so I will clear $2850 and have a salvage title. This really pisses me off to no end.. Why did the shop have to call it in already?

SO, what's the concensus? Do I keep it and fix it, part it, or what?


Ed

 

i think you should fill it full of gas, put a brink on the go pedal, and aim it at the shop that called it in

 

Depends on your states laws. You can usually fix it, then have an inspection done, if it passes you can put it back on the road. However, you can always find out that your car did have a salvage title at one point. I'm not sure where the inspections are done, if its just a shop or a big state things (probably depends on your state). And yes, the shop that did that does deserve to be burnt to the ground.
When I finished off my car my father gave the shop my title (i Idn't know about it), and when I came down to pull whatever was worth somthing off the car, the guy goes "sorry I already sold it to a yard". That really pissed me off. I totaled my car, then had the wreck stolen from me

 

Well hopefully I can save it from being totalled. If not, I guess I can do that 6 speed conversion I've been pondering. I wonder what kind of mileage a 305 TBI with a 6 speed and a 2.73 will get...Hmmm


Ed

 

I bet you can save it from being salvage material (hopefully). Last year my Girlfriend's dad had an accident the wheel came off the camper trailer and put it threw the floor, bent the frame, and about ripped the side off. The insurance company gave him 3k for it and he bought it back for 100 then they let him reinsure it with them once he fixed it up.

If not you could always make it into a Pro Street Camaro.

Still a crappy ordeal.

 

that looks just like my friends honda, same spot and everything he has it in the shop now getting fixed. it can be fixed.

 

IMHO, I would buy it back, buy a good used one and with the parts you have make it beautiful. Sell what you can't use. Check out Ebay and find a rust free, damage free example. If your drive train was good, you won't even have to get one that runs well. I bought my third gen IROC from here in New Mexico. Totally rust-free, loaded with Spohn and Global West parts, a Tremec 5 speed, Inland Empire aluminum driveshaft, new Moroso Brute Strength equiped rear with Moser axles, all the reciepts and no motor for $1500...delivered!!! Deals are out there. Just be patient.