Not a good day yesterday

[Jeff Norwell]

Grundy seems to be taking care of things. I talked to the rep handling the claim and he has passed my contact info on to two adjusters. One is for the building damage and the other is for my car. The building appraiser called tonight and will be there tomorrow. It may be a few days before I hear from the auto damage appraiser. Apparently he's out of town.
I did bring the car to two body shops, as well as talking to my friend about him doing it. Kinda caught between a rock and a hard spot on my friend. He's an excellent body man and painter, but he's headed out of town next week for a month or so. I feel obligated to bring him the work because he's been my mentor for the past 8 years or so, but I have a feeling it'll be at least few months before it gets done at his shop....and there goes the summer. One of the two  shop I went to  does upper end cars and painting for shops like Pinkies in Denver. They recently did work on a car that had a 12 page spread in rodders journal. Once everything is cleared with Grundy, he said no more than 3 weeks.
It's looking like I need to have a serious sit-down with my friend. If he really needs the work, I'll wait on him.

Jeff...if you're reading this,the other shop is Mark Warrick's shop. (I got a tour of his dad's private shop today and got to sit in that gorgeous 51 Merc Bill bought from Bob Owens. I love that car.) I found out Bill went to school with Bob's dad in Wellington. The world keeps getting smaller.
forgot...both shops told me it would be easier to repaint the sheetmetal on the door than to replace the skin, so I won't need to take Outlaw up on his offer. Thanks again Rick!!

Small world indeed Rich....I can only say that Mark Warrick's shop is THEE BEST...... very very good.... no,.. GREAT Work...if your pal wants to pass on the job,..Warrick's is the place to go.
Yes.....Bob's old 51....what a beautiful Merc....I have driven many a mile in that 51,.... with the Worlds tallest Midget(Bob Owens) ha ha ha.... Your in good hands Rich!
Mark's Dad and Mister Bob Owens Senior are some of the FINEST gentleman I have had the pleasure of knowing.
I really miss the Panhandle and want to go back very very soon!

[RICH MUISE]

Looks like it will be Mark's shop. I went over and had a heart to heart with my friend. He's in process of trying to go another direction in his life/career and there's some unknowns coming up in the next month or so. I think it was actually leaving him a little more fluid in what he'll be able to in the coming weeks not having mine to have to come back and get done.

[86stanglx]

That sucks! You are very fortunate that nobody was injured.
Bob

[RICH MUISE]

Thanks, Bob. And welcome to the forumn!

[Ecode70D]

Rich
   What's the latest word on your car?   Is it in a shop getting repaired?  Are you planning on getting it done so that you will be able to drive it this summer?
    I hate to say this but we aren't getting any younger and it's not good to even miss part of the summer  driving our cars.  Around here summers are short and we only have about 3 months of OK driving time.  The rest of the time we spend dodging snow storms.  Jay

[RICH MUISE]

Never saw this til this morning.  Nothing is happening yet on my car. I have a big decision to make now. I love the way Grundy is handling this, btw, just some unusal short delays.
First, I found out last thursday my estimate from the appraiser was delayed a few days because his young daughter had some unexpected surgery done. It was one of those planned but didn't know when it would happen things> The hospital called and said drop everything and bring her in now ...so I'm guessing maybe a donor type deal. Hope everything is still going well with that and under the circumstances I woulnd't have minded if the delay was much longer than it was.
Unfortunatly, the delay got the appraisal to the home office during the week that the guy handling it was out of the office. I found that out Friday when I called to check the status. I did talk to his supervisor and he pulled it and finished up early that afternoon. They emailed me a copy of the appraisal, and a check is on it's way to me. They are also sending a copy of the appraisal to the shop I was talking to, but he told me I wasn't limited to that shop, I could bring it anywhere I chose.
That's where my problem comes in. The appraisal was almost double what I was guessing. You all know I don't have alot of money, and initially I had thought since the insurance was paying for it, I'd bring it to a shop and let them handle it even though I could do it myself. I was guessing in the neighborhood of 6 grand for the work, but the appraisal came in at almost 11 !!. As soon as I hung up the phone I looked at my wife and said "sheeeeet! things just changed."
I'm having a really hard time deciding to turn that much money over for something I can do myself.
I'll decide this week. I also talked to another shop that many of the local rodders recommended as being "the Guru". His name is Barry Forrester. Has a big shop with no sign on it because he doesn't need one. Biggest problem with him, he said he'd like to do it, but it would be Aug or Sept. before he could get it in, and he works on 4 or 5 projects at a time, so I can see "body shop jail" all over this one. His other projects are just that..project cars not collision work. He's really busy. He spent maybe 20-30 minutes looking at the car and when he was done looking I got a very sincere "this is really very well done..you did a nice job on it". Considering the source, it's probably the highest compliment I've got on the car from someone who's seen in person.

[Jeff Norwell]

Rich... did you get a quote from Souncy ?.Marks joint?

[hiball3985]

WOW!!! 11 grand for the damage, I'm really out of touch. I'm in the retired low income group too. I think I would be tempted to do as many  of the repairs myself and pocket some of the money. But who needs another project  . Geez I only have 12 grand in my whole car..

[RICH MUISE]

My daily drivers I have always guessed high on body damage when it's happened. I was in shock when he told me what they were sending. Before that my biggest problem having a shop do the work was I'd no longer be able to say I did everything myself, and that's been a REAL big source of pride for me. Now it was joined by the money thing. Yeah, I had planned on doing some of the "work" on it myself..disassembly, assembly, finding parts, etc., now It may go further. I've got Roger Vasholtz in Kansas checking his doors to see if he has a rust free/dent free one. He's within driving distance (350 miles) if he's got one. He thinks he's got 1/2 dozen "virgin" doors with oem paint, but is going to take a close look at them and call me back.
The door has the worst damage, so if I can find one easily brought up to snuff, that'll help alot.
Some of the reason for the high estimate is alot more has to be repainted than on another car because of my rolled pan. The Grundy appraiser brought that up first. He was looking and said "there's no place to stop on this car...no seams, no molding breaks. He though the'd at least have to bring the paint around to the door on the passenger side.

Jeff. I did not get a dollar etimate from Mark. We were waiting for the Grundy appraisal, and were pretty much looking at it as a normal insurance thing where they work it out with the insurance company. I was going to do the assembly/disassembly and buy the parts in exchange for them doing some additional work to repair the right fender  damage I did on it last fall.

[hiball3985]

You can still claim you did everything yourself and feel good about it because you did.  I wouldn't let the repair detract from that.. I'm sure at this point the car can be fixed easier then the pride.

[Frankenstein57]

Just seems high to me, I don't have 11K in my whole car, Mark