Wrecked Satty - and the project just keeps getting better!

Robert-sl2 · 08-16-2003, 02:15 AM

Last night around 7 PM I was heading home from working 13 hours. The route I was taking home takes me over a dam that is about 100 ft tall, 1 lane each way about a mile and a half long.

As I got on top of the dam, I came up on a pickup truck going 35, where as the speed limit there is 55. I checked for oncoming traffic and the only oncoming traffic I could see was at the other end of the dam, plenty of time to pass. So I go ahead and pass the truck and as I am about 3/4 of the way back into the right lane, the car ahead of me slammed on his brakes to the point of smoking his tires and stopping dead in his tracks! There was absolutely no reason for him to stop, no traffic animals ANYTHING!

I got hard on the brakes, but since my wheel was turned to the right because I was getting back in the right lane, I was pulled into the right guardrail, bounced off to the left guardrail, back to the right one then finally stopped. The dude in front of me who caused this stuck his head out his window, looked back at me, then sped off! I drove to the end of the dam and pulled into a gas station to call the police and my dad. When we went back with the police, there were no skid marks, bends in the guard rails, paint transfer.. NOTHING! It looked like nothing happened!

If the dude in front of me had not stopped, or if he had even braked normally, everything would have been fine, but he stopped dead in his tracks from 55 or 60 MPH!

The damage is mostly cosmetic from what I can tell so far, thankfully. The hood has a wrinkle near the top and the corner near the passenger headlight it bent under and missing paint. The passenger headlight is cracked. The passenger side of the bumper is pushed in (will probably pop out) and has a crease in it, and the driver side is scratched to hell and has a hole the size of a quarter ripped in it in front of the headlight (from a bolt on the guardrail I guess). BOth fenders are cracked in several places and will need to be replaced probably. The driver side tire has a sliver cut out of the side wall. Right rear rim and front driver rims are messed up. The alignment is way off and I found that the engine mount on the passenger side on top of the engine is split. It still runs fine though.

Nobody was injured. I had a passenger who is fine. no other cars were damaged. Nobody stopped to help either. So now I am looking for parts and trying to figure out how I want to go about this with insurance and such.

If you have a parts car or any of these parts that you want to get rid of cheap, please let me know! I will post a list of what I need in the For Sale section. I am working on getting prices from Joey, but I figured I would throw this out and see what everyone has on parts cars and what not. BTW, this is a 97 SL2. Thanks

I will have pics in the next few days.

Spiral · 08-16-2003, 03:20 AM

Wow man, Im glad you and your passenger are okay and your damage isnt of any large extent. Its because of situation like that I make sure I dont pass anyone that has soemone in front of them, its sad but Ive come to face the fact that people are *******s... =/

mkbuker · 08-16-2003, 05:29 AM

Dude that sucks. If you need any help putting it back together let me know. This happen around Hoffman dam?

Robert-sl2 · 08-16-2003, 11:26 AM

Matt. This happened on the Englewood dam which is SR40. I will probably take you up on that offer for help. I am looking at doing some of the work myself like the engine mount, headlight and whatnot. Then letting insurance pay for the alignment, paint job etc.

BrenSaSC2 · 08-16-2003, 01:18 PM

I will absolutely NEVER understand people that pull **** like that-you weren't even passing them? God..there are some evil SOB's..just the picture that formed in my mind is some evil gremlin character peeking out of his window after stopping, looking back with an evil grin and peeling off to his own leisure-Sorry-just the thought that formed in my mind after your description. I am so glad to hear you and your passenger are ok-let us know how the car progresses and good luck with the insurance if you decide to go that route.

Robert-sl2 · 08-16-2003, 10:50 PM

Correct, I was not passing him, just merging in behind him.

I have never dealt with filing an insurance claim. I have a few questions maybe you can help me with.

1. If my insurance goes up if I file a claim, does it go up based on how much they have to pay, or does it just go up a certain ammount per incident?

2. If it goes up based on the ammount they have to pay, I would like to keep this minimal. I was thinking about doing as much of the work myself as possible. As in the motor mount, headlight, and hanging the body panels. Just have the insurance pay for the paint, tire, alignment and parts.

Will insurance companies let you do this, or is it an all or nothing deal? Or does it just depend on the company? If the insurance Co. wont let me do this, I was thinking about asking whichever shop I have do the work, if they'll let me come in and do some of the work that I am capable of? DOes this sound reasonable?

Thanks for your help once again.
Robert

Robert-sl2 · 08-22-2003, 07:40 AM

Today I got 3 estimates for repairs. The first one I am discarding, it was 4657. The guy just looked at my car then the estimate had all sorts of stuff listed on it that he did not even look at such as suspension parts and such. From there I went to Saturn, they want 2602, and the final shop I went to quoted me 2714. It looks like if I get the parts from Joey, it will knock $400-$600 off that price, and if I hang some of the body panels and such myself, that will bring it down even more.

Does anyone have any opinions of the work dome @ Saturn body shops? Is it usually pretty good? and if you have dealt with them before, do they normally work with you on using your own parts and such? For ex. Would they have a problem with my getting the parts from Joey, having the shop paint them, then my putting the panels on?

As for insurance, it looks like I will have them cover the first $2000, plus my $500 deductible. and I will cover anything over that. if the ins. co. pays out more than $2000 + 500 deductible, my rates will increase $800 for 3 years.

So thatâs the progress I have made. I have pics but my slow Internet connection is being finicky about uploading them. Hopefully they'll be up soon.

Robert

sc2_ct · 08-22-2003, 05:07 PM

Do you have any pictures? You might be better off just getting the panels from Joey and having them painted at the shop and hanging the panels yourself. I replaced most of the front of my sister's car (bumper, fender, inner fender, headlight) and had them painted off the car and hung them myself for $500. It only took a day or so to re-form the bent mounting points and such. The only part that I had the body shop actually do was fixing a corner of the hood for an additional $150.

A good tip if you decide to go this route is to bring the panels OFF the car to a small local shop, and ask how much it will be, and then ask how much it will be if you pay cash.

I redid almost the whole front end for about $650 including all the parts and labor, and the damage I had to deal with sounds about the same as what you're looking at +/- a fender.

Robert-sl2 · 08-22-2003, 11:45 PM

Thanks for the tips. That is exactly what I am loking to do. Did you do the repairs ot the mounting points on the body yourself and how difficult was it? Thanks again.

Also, I would assume there is no way to check the frame to make sure it isnt bent without proper equipment, correct? Some paople have told me my frame may be bent, some said it isnt. Right now, when my car is going down the road, the front is about 4 inches to the left of the rear. I am hoping this would be caused by the alignment being off.

Robert

PS. I have been trying to upload the pics to my cardomain page, but due to my slow connection (tests consistently @ 27K) my connections to the upload pages keeps timing out. any tips? We are having our cable modem installed this coming friday! Yay.

munkie · 08-23-2003, 01:45 AM

robert...sorry to hear about the ride man...you know i'll help if you need it...as for saturn body shops...can't tell my car has ever been a wreck can you??