Accident & Some Questions
03-04-2008, 10:45 PM
#21
The moral of this story is: if you have a lot of aftermarket stuff or live in a high-crime area, get a low deductible on comprehensive coverage. Changing my comprehensive deductible from $1000 to $100 costs me $5/month. Also, keep receipts of the stuff you would want replaced in a crash or burglary.
03-05-2008, 12:08 AM
#22
Inaugural TOTM
Thread Starter
That sucks dude! With the cost of repairs these days, thats probably $6k in damage. My aunt backed into my truck a year ago and it was $1000 to fix a cracked fender molding, bent stainless splash gard and a very small dent between the door and fender. I am glad you are ok and at least you took another chevy off the road. Here is a site that has new oem parts if the insurance company or body shop give you any trouble on finding parts. www.newtakeoff.com
You may also want to talk to your own insurance guy and ask them what the damage disclosure law is. Here in IA, we used to have to claim it if it was $5k or more and they changed the discloure to being more than 1/2 the value of the vehicle. Did your airbag deploy? Thats almost 2k alone.
You may also want to talk to your own insurance guy and ask them what the damage disclosure law is. Here in IA, we used to have to claim it if it was $5k or more and they changed the discloure to being more than 1/2 the value of the vehicle. Did your airbag deploy? Thats almost 2k alone.
Airbags did not deploy, if I wouldn't have tried moving to the right though I would have caught the guy with my front end and would have had the airbags deploy I'm sure.
03-05-2008, 12:10 AM
#23
Inaugural TOTM
Thread Starter
The moral of this story is: if you have a lot of aftermarket stuff or live in a high-crime area, get a low deductible on comprehensive coverage. Changing my comprehensive deductible from $1000 to $100 costs me $5/month. Also, keep receipts of the stuff you would want replaced in a crash or burglary.
03-05-2008, 02:03 AM
#24
Yeah quick estimate I thought close to 10k. Never heard of the damage disclosure law, what is it? If it means I have to disclose the damage to a potential buyer I'm not worried about that because I never plan to sell the truck anyways.
Airbags did not deploy, if I wouldn't have tried moving to the right though I would have caught the guy with my front end and would have had the airbags deploy I'm sure.
Airbags did not deploy, if I wouldn't have tried moving to the right though I would have caught the guy with my front end and would have had the airbags deploy I'm sure.
03-05-2008, 02:16 AM
#25
After reviewing your original questions, I'm thinking that you will be reimbursed by insurance for the aftermarket and the shop won't have anything to do with it. I could be wrong.
As far as picking a shop goes...I'd look for one that does high quality customization work like painting really fancy hot rods and restoring valuable, but beat up cars like old mustangs, etc. I have a two big shops where I live, and a bunch of little ones. One of the big ones has a funny car team, lots of business, but doesn't have a reputation of anything fancy at all. The other one is known to be expensive, but they build and paint Nascar race cars and restore extremely nice old cars that look awesome. The paint gets multiple coats and sandings. You want to look for one with a good reputation that doesn't just pump out fixed wrecks. I expect that you'll have to put some hard work into it if you are really concerned about the repair job. Plus, the quality of the place is a selling point if you are asked by a future buyer about what happened. It would be nice to say it was fixed by people who paint Ferraris or something. It will be on carfax for sure because the insurance company will put it there. That's why sometimes high collision deductibles and fixing small wrecks(not like yours) yourself can pay off if the vehicle isn't too expensive to replace parts on, like Fords that have 5 million brothers and sisters. Paying for a $800 fender bender will save way more than $800 when you try to sell it, not to mention the savings in insurance premiums.
As far as picking a shop goes...I'd look for one that does high quality customization work like painting really fancy hot rods and restoring valuable, but beat up cars like old mustangs, etc. I have a two big shops where I live, and a bunch of little ones. One of the big ones has a funny car team, lots of business, but doesn't have a reputation of anything fancy at all. The other one is known to be expensive, but they build and paint Nascar race cars and restore extremely nice old cars that look awesome. The paint gets multiple coats and sandings. You want to look for one with a good reputation that doesn't just pump out fixed wrecks. I expect that you'll have to put some hard work into it if you are really concerned about the repair job. Plus, the quality of the place is a selling point if you are asked by a future buyer about what happened. It would be nice to say it was fixed by people who paint Ferraris or something. It will be on carfax for sure because the insurance company will put it there. That's why sometimes high collision deductibles and fixing small wrecks(not like yours) yourself can pay off if the vehicle isn't too expensive to replace parts on, like Fords that have 5 million brothers and sisters. Paying for a $800 fender bender will save way more than $800 when you try to sell it, not to mention the savings in insurance premiums.
03-05-2008, 11:34 PM
#26
Inaugural TOTM
Thread Starter
Initial estimate came in from the adjuster today, only $4238, alot less than I thought it would be. I think though that is basically for the stock parts and not for aftermarket suspension and other parts. I need to produce receipts for that and they will cover it all. I can't find my receipt for the lift though and emailed the shop who did the work in hopes they can fax me another one tomorrow. The one thing I know I won't be able to produce is a receipt for the bull bar so gonna have to live with the dent in it. Oh well it will always be a reminder.
Spoke to the shop and they have already started ordering and receiving some of the parts today and the guy is going to start tearing the truck down tomorrow. Hopefully that's a sign that I'm going to get it back real soon.
Spoke to the shop and they have already started ordering and receiving some of the parts today and the guy is going to start tearing the truck down tomorrow. Hopefully that's a sign that I'm going to get it back real soon.
03-05-2008, 11:49 PM
#27
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wow sorry to hear about your truck. Lets just hope your shop does a better job than the one that's working on my Bonneville. They told me 4 days to repair and repaint the bumper and strip the hood and repaint it too. This Saturday will be 4 weeks there!!!!! I went there twice to pick it up but found problems both times 
I want my car back
I want my car back
03-06-2008, 12:17 AM
#28
like they said, get oem parts, check the gaps between fenders and hood, fenders and front door, and make sure all of the paint matches... i dont know how "aged" (dont know the right word) your paint is, but if the new paint is too obvious, they need to paint the rest of the truck.
03-06-2008, 01:13 AM
#29
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WXMCPO....good thing I just joined this site...I dont know if you looked at my intro but I just happen to be a body guy by trade...haha.
First thing Is contact your insurance if you have not already. They will send an adjuster to survey your damage. Unfortunatly unless you pay your insurance company for an OEM replacement only option which many insurance companies offer nowadays you are pretty much out of luck with brand new OEM parts for your truck unless you offer to offset the cost with your own money. This means you basically have two options which you can speak to your body guy about when you do pick a body shop. (Usually the largest body shops that do a high volume of business are that big for a reason...it is because they do great work not including maaco of course). The insurance will replace your parts with aftermarket or junkyard parts. Contrary to popular beleif aftermarket parts such as fenders on highly produced vehicles (like your truck) are not all that bad. However, the best thing to do if you can get your body guy to do it will be to search an area junk yard for used parts. Due to the age of your truck and how many f-150s there are out there you will hve no problem at all finding used parts for your truck. Best part about this is they will all be Ford parts and once they are painted to match your truck they will be good as new. One other suggestion I have is do not settle for an aftermarket front bumper if at all possible. They are junk, the chroming is poor and they are often a lighter gauge metal.
One final thing...I know you love to wax your truck (I read your posts on the detailing section). Do not under any circumstances wax that fender or any other freshly painted parts on the truck for at least a month. The wax will seal the surface of your new paint which will actually continue to cure for a couple weeks and you can end up with a surface that will scratch extremely easily over the rest of the life of your vehicle.
Hope this helps...good luck!
First thing Is contact your insurance if you have not already. They will send an adjuster to survey your damage. Unfortunatly unless you pay your insurance company for an OEM replacement only option which many insurance companies offer nowadays you are pretty much out of luck with brand new OEM parts for your truck unless you offer to offset the cost with your own money. This means you basically have two options which you can speak to your body guy about when you do pick a body shop. (Usually the largest body shops that do a high volume of business are that big for a reason...it is because they do great work not including maaco of course). The insurance will replace your parts with aftermarket or junkyard parts. Contrary to popular beleif aftermarket parts such as fenders on highly produced vehicles (like your truck) are not all that bad. However, the best thing to do if you can get your body guy to do it will be to search an area junk yard for used parts. Due to the age of your truck and how many f-150s there are out there you will hve no problem at all finding used parts for your truck. Best part about this is they will all be Ford parts and once they are painted to match your truck they will be good as new. One other suggestion I have is do not settle for an aftermarket front bumper if at all possible. They are junk, the chroming is poor and they are often a lighter gauge metal.
One final thing...I know you love to wax your truck (I read your posts on the detailing section). Do not under any circumstances wax that fender or any other freshly painted parts on the truck for at least a month. The wax will seal the surface of your new paint which will actually continue to cure for a couple weeks and you can end up with a surface that will scratch extremely easily over the rest of the life of your vehicle.
Hope this helps...good luck!
03-06-2008, 02:35 AM
#30
Inaugural TOTM
Thread Starter
Actually the adjuster came in today and surveyed the damage to the truck, not as bad as I originally expected. The shop has also already started ordering parts and got some in. I actually saw the receipt for everything that was delivered today and it all came from the local Ford dealership, so so far no aftermarket or junkyard parts.
I called my State Farm agent earlier this evening and told her to please contact the adjuster again and inform her that her estimate was for OEM suspension parts and there's no way I can have OEM suspension parts put back on the truck. If they do that it doesn't get my truck back on the road because the aftermarket wheel won't even fit on the truck. The agent put a note in my file that stated that all suspension parts have to be replaced with the same parts that were on the truck pre-accident and Fabtect lift parts only. That's my biggest concern, whether the fender is brand new or a junkyard replacement doesn't bother me as much as long as it matches and doesn't look like a junkyard part.
I called my State Farm agent earlier this evening and told her to please contact the adjuster again and inform her that her estimate was for OEM suspension parts and there's no way I can have OEM suspension parts put back on the truck. If they do that it doesn't get my truck back on the road because the aftermarket wheel won't even fit on the truck. The agent put a note in my file that stated that all suspension parts have to be replaced with the same parts that were on the truck pre-accident and Fabtect lift parts only. That's my biggest concern, whether the fender is brand new or a junkyard replacement doesn't bother me as much as long as it matches and doesn't look like a junkyard part.