I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but that damage will total the car. That's about as extensive of damage as you can get. The door is destroyed, as is the fender. There is no doubt in my mind that the inner structure of the pillar is twisted to hell. A huge repair. Add in incidentals, trim, clips window mechanism, door panels, then prime to match, all at shop rate.... it's a disaster.
This is a 1956 Mercury Monterey 4 door sport sedan. It was built in Los Angeles Dec 1955. Lauderdale blue and white (Forgot the official white color name). This is the predecessor of the mercury phaeton. I think Phaeton parts may work but would need to double check that. They look similar but not exactly the same. 57joeFoMoPar- I am worried about that also. I think... I could be wrong, but if they do decide it is a total and try screwing me. I can at least take the $ and get the car back. I know I have done that in the past where I get some cash and the car with a salvage title... I really don't want to do that but if it means lose my dads car I would rather keep it and take the $ and try and fix it myself. I have faked my way up to this point on building/restoring it in my garage. The car is getting towed to my house to sit in my garage until I find a shop to repair it. I am supposed to get a call from their insurance tomorrow to set that up and I would really like to find out if I am able to take it apart at all to see how extensive the damage is to the A pillar post and stuff.
I hear you man. Because you have the ability to do a lot of work yourself, I think you'll be able to save the car if that's what ultimately ends up happening. I too have bought cars back from the insurance company that they totaled, then fixed them for less and continued driving them. Here, if your could source a good door, hinges and fender, you could find a shop to simply pull the pillar back into place, or to reset the pillar after you weld and patch it in so the door will shut. That will be significantly less money because you've already done the tear down, and all they need to do is align the pillar and door, and give it back to you with no paint work. I did that on an O/T Mustang I had years ago. I drove through the side of a dummy with an impala that mistook his green light for a green arrow and turned left in front of me. I lead with the front corner, and it kicked the whole front of the car over to the side. I found a whole clip off a parts car on Craigslist for $300, and trailered the car with no front sheetmetal on it to a good shop with the simple instruction to pull and align everything so that I could hang new parts. Cost me about $800 but they did a great job. I don't see why you couldn't do the same thing here. Once you get the door to hang, swing and shut as it should, where it should, the rest is downhill from there.
No doubt someone was not paying attention to what needed attention. It is what it is but I am 100% confident this can be fixed. Find a fender, a door , trim whatever. Remove all damages pieces, take some really accurate measurements of opposite side door pillar and I mean every possible measurement. Find someone somewhere with same car and have them take measurements as well pull, tap , whack till it it matches other side, put replacement door on to check fit , take off and on till satisfied, do same with fender . Pillars are tough as hell to work with but then again you do some serious hammering ( if needed) and not destroy the piece. I had a 2010 prius that was broadsided pillar was pushed in about 6 inches , I pulled it out with my tractor and chain , by the time I was done both drivers side doors ( 4door car) would close and lock . the pillar looked like shit but I was more concerned with function than looks but with some careful and patient work , I think this can be fixed with little evidence.
worked on cars plenty. I have never opened the door to see where I am going. never. I'd bet I have never driven a car with the door open at all. not one foot. goofy thing to do
I had an idiot friend who worked next door. he would get in his car, and drive through the parking lot with the door open and his foot out the door like 20 feet over to my place..... what a moron, wonder if he is working at a body shop now.
You shouldn't touch it until an adjuster has been over it, noting unseen pillar damage. Sent from my SM-G973U using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
Couple of different shops I worked at had drive on , elevated alignment racks , in order to stay on the rack & stop the car directly centered on the rotators , BY YOURSELF , it was common practice to drive with the door open so you could see where you're going & precisely where to stop ,..unsafe , perhaps , but common practice none the less ....
Obviously the car has sentimental value to you, therefore the only answer is getting it back together.."making you whole" again. How/why the body shop damage occured is a mute point, how to get beyond that is the challenge. Buying back from insurance company, and combing the country for replacement pieces, or whole parts car may take some time, but hopefully you will find the pieces eventually..patience is your friend. Good luck.
The biggest problem you have is finding a body man, they are all called body Tech. IE they replace panels or cave and pave people because the ins.co. Will not pay for proper repairs. They set limits on repairs. 6 to 8 hrs to repair any panel. 8 hrs for frame time and the list goes on. The appraisers and most estimators(insurance negotiators) have never worked on a car and don’t have a clue on how to repair one. Find a real body man, he will have the skill set to repair it. I apprenticed for a older body man who worked thru the Great Depression and WWII and could fix just about anything, I learned from him well. Also ask your Insurance Adjuster what’s the max. He can you for repair and keep the car versus totaling it them having to buy it back from the insurance co. for a inflated price. Anthony is giveing you good advice.
I know I'm several days late with this. If you have not signed on the dotted line I advise this... Get you an advocate. If you have full insurance with agreed value like Haggerty or similar contact them. Even if you have just liability with a common carrier, contact them. Get some information. Seek guidance here. Make sure you tell them this is not collision damage. Again, this is not collision damage. This is a different circumstance. Thus it falls under a different type of insurance. Worst come to worst, contact your homeowners insurance. Not for a claim but for advice. Hopefully someone in the know can give you correct advice. As said this is not a collision, this is something else. Hopefully they can advise what steps you need to take concerning legal representation. Just prepare for the shop to lie on you. (IE...It did not happen here. If it did prove it.) Be prepared for that. Keep any and all texts and photos. Write down any verbal statements while it's still fresh in your mind. Forum advice is just that. It's opinions from Legal Beagles. Talk to somebody in the know.
IMHO, this damage is repairable. The old body manuals and auto repair books from the 30's-60s show damage like this being repaired. It's heavy work with door jigs (that probably will have to be made...these heavy jigs are used to twist the doors back into alignment), solid pull points in the shop floor, chains, jacks to square the cab, slide hammers and port-O-powers. It's a heavy old school repair not unlike frame...frame shop repair. I don't know the man personally other than his Youtube channel but you may want to contact Pete at Southwest Rod and Custom. He seems to be an advocate for the home builder.http://www.swrnc.com/info.asp Maybe he can give you a recommendation or some guidance here.
I agree with F1.... this could be repaired. Won't be either easy or fast. The fender can be straightened if off the car, and probably the best bet for the door is to deconstruct it, i.e. remove the door skin to get at the door internals to fix the window frame and get the inner structure back where it needs to be. Maybe cannibalize another door which may not need to be identical. Fit it to the car without the skin, then fix and reattach the skin. The pillar post will be the hardest, but with the fender/door off you'll have access to work it. I'd just replace the door hinges, AFAIK Ford used the same hinges across their lines '55-56. Body work is horribly expensive these days, I got rear-ended about a year ago in my late-model. Knocked the plastic bumper off, pushed the panel between the taillights in less than 2" (which moved one quarter about 1/4") and boogered the exhaust system behind the axle. Didn't touch the taillights or trunklid. Bill was over $11K....
I will also add: paying an appraiser might not be a bad idea in this circumstance. And talking to specialty restoration, hot rod fab shops instead of crash repair shops. Hopefully you get it all worked out.
Pete is one of a kind! I have met him a couple of times in person, and his personality is quite a bit different in person than the angry, mad, pissed off, maniacal freak he plays in his videos.
a good shop should be able to straighten that without too much trouble. at least the trim didnt kink, that would have caused alot more work to straighten or replace that
I remember being in a Walmart parking lot and seeing a '55 Chevy parked nearby. Some lady in a minivan shoved a cart out of the space toward the '55. Fortunately, the owner was in the car and stopped the cart before it collided with his car. He started yelling at her, and her response was, "So what? It's just an old car!". When I came out of the store a few minutes later, the '55 was gone, but the shopping cart was now through the minivan windshield.
So let's say the car is totaled, and the body shop's insurance company says it worth $5k. the owner has insurance right? most likely antique car insurance with a agreed value type policy, his agreed value would be more like the true value, well more than that 5K. Will his police cover the rest? Will the fact that he has a policy with an agreed value over that 5k argue the point that that car is worth more than 5k? What is the value of the car in question? Even without the sentimental value it has to be worth quite a bit, there is a thread about dealing with insurance companies and the way some people have received a low offer on the value of their car, I think they then argue that you can't replace it for that and produce some ads for similar cars to get the offer raised. Anyway, it is not "totaled" yet so let's just hope for the best, it will get repaired.
you are not at the mercy of an insurance company. DO not be intimidated or feel threatened by them. Collision shops are not trained to do the repairs needed for that car. That accident for a new car would require a new fender, door, hinges, and possibly the A post. Most of that can be repaired. This is how I was taught. I was taught to use port-a -powers and friction jacks. Reverse the damage, hammer/dolly, shrink this is how doors like that are straightened (I would prefer a clamp over the plate) Locate a real metal shop/guy and get and estimate. Just working on old cars does not make them metal guys. I cant tell all the damage from the pics you posted, I would definitely fix the fender, the door would depend on availability. I have fixed doors that required the skin to be removed, the frame and hinge area straightened and fit to the car, then reinstalled the original skin (after a lot of straightening) Pulling/stretching a door with hydraulic equipment used to be normal. there was a rime when you repaired what you could and replaced only what you had to
@anthony myrick is right on the money, do not be intimidated. Thirty years ago we were rear ended by a guy when I pulled over and stopped for an emergency vehicle. My wife had to have reconstructive shoulder surgery and it was when she was doing her physical therapy that the adjuster came to our house with Allstate’s offer. It was an offer low enough to almost be an insult. I calmly told him that it was clear to all that their insured was at fault and until that point I had not contacted a lawyer. I suggested he return to his office and not come back until he had an offer that was commensurate with my wife’s pain and suffering. He did as I said and the second offer was very fair and we accepted. Anthony is right on the money. Always remember that in a clear cut case of who is at fault the ball is in your court and most importantly you have control of the ball.
Hey, Anthony; This is probably going to get me some grief, but would it possibly be worth it to you & OP, to use the '56 Merc as a school demo on how to do things the old way, correctly? & hopefully, do a series of videos to use as teaching aids, esp for those not able to attend your classes? Hint, = me, among others. (I know the real tools aren't available to me & others, but some shops have them, so at least folks would/could "show n tell" prospective repairmen.). I would think it'd be fair to offer a good payment to you, for the work(since it's not hack-n-whack + cave-n-pave) , & some to the school, for the fix,(not sure how that works there), & I'd guess OP would still be involved in finding usable needed parts? Marcus...
I wouldn’t hesitate a second. I think the only issue is geography. And I have limited students due to the virus but that wouldn’t be a roadblock. I will add that the “new way” is not incorrect. It just that things such as the type of steel used and manufacturer repair procedures have changed. The old repair manuals demonstrate major structural and cosmetic repair procedures not possible on new cars.
Maybe you should look at the photos closely. That is a Mercury. Look at the 2nd photo.it shows the dash
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