I went to the hardware store last week and noticed a nice new dent running down the side of my off topic later model pickup, whoever creased both doors on the crew cab and didn't feel the need to leave a message, just hit and run. I bumped a car years ago and it left a small 3 inch scratch but I did the honest thing and waited until the gentleman got back to his car, I explained what had happened and with him standing on the drivers side and me on the passenger side of his Buick, he just started laughing and said don't worry about it, I then said you haven't seen it it's scratched to the metal and he said come over here. I walked around to the drivers side and the back door and rear quarter panel was caved in, he told me that small scratch ain't nothing. At least I was up front with him about it. HRP
Thank you to everyone who responded. I seriously considered this one for a while so thank you Anthony. UPDATE: Well as you all could have guessed and as many of you said the insurance company said it was a total loss. I said "too bad, fix it". I produced $15,000+ in just receipts of parts no labor or any of that and they still said total. Having a short temper I handed things over to my wife who has many years in the law field (Not a lawyer) and she got with her boss. Finally got insurance company to agree to pay to fix without any sort of Salvage or any of that on the title. It was very hard finding a shop that would do insurance work on a mid 50's car. I found 2 that would. I really wanted to use one shop because it looked like he knew what he was doing and had plenty of 40's and 50's cars there already. Problem there was I took the car in and he looked it over and wrote stuff down. Said he would have an estimate in a few days. I called 5 or 6 times and he never had the estimate done and never ended up calling me back. I assume he did not want the job. So I was left with 1 shop. I did most of the leg work on parts... I found a replacement door and fender. I was told the parts would be blown apart, sand blasted and Primed inside and out. They would repair any rust or dents and then install. What they did was blast, Prime and smear bondo over the rust. They broke my head light, Installed the bucket upside down, The fender is loose and they lost some of the fender hardware and put self tapping screws through the bottom of the fender. They burned a hole in my brand new carpet kit and left half of the bolts loose. So needless to say I am not happy with the work done. I am happy to have my car back in 1 piece with a functional door. So now onto fixing their screw ups since when I called it out to them they were less then perceptive and are not going to fix any of it. Since the estimate was written so poorly my wife's lawyer friend says basically we can annoy them but not really much written down on what they were supposed to do.
Your story is crazy. At least it is back in your garage and it appears drivable so that's a good thing. How was there still rust on the parts to bondo over if they blasted them?
Sorry. When I said rust I meant rust holes. The rust was blasted away but the holes left from the rust eating the metal away is what they just filled with bondo.
So, not sure what your plans for it are now. If you still want a shop that specializes on classic cars, and is approved by multiple insurance companies to do repair work, it's a bit of a drive for you but see Mark at Mahoods in Anaheim, CA.
This is one of the saddest, and craziest tales I've read in a long time! Going from a minor bit of damge, to a total, and then getting screwed further by another repair shop. Just reminds me why I do my repairs myself. I've always found I can buy the tools, do the repair, and still be money ahead, plus own the tools afterwards. Sure sorry to read this.
This story flat out sucks! Sure glad you got the car back in your garage. But damn! Again, if you need any help with that thing (once I get the exhaust pipes bent that I've been waiting on for two weeks, and get my truck back on the road) let me know! I'll bring the libations. I hope you like your beer hoppy.
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