You are dedicated. I commend you. I am enjoying this thread. (Not the crash, but the rest of it)

Be careful and keep us posted.

Paul

 

You may be lucky. There isn't any "significant" damge there, to me anyway. Those were panels needing replacement anyhow. Make the insurance co replace the quarter panel & door skin! You buy the sills and you have a whole side of the car revitalized as new! I'm with Manuel on this one. If they total it, offer to buy it back for pennies on the dollar, then fix it up.

 

Yeah...that is one way to look at it. In fact I will look at it like that!!!

 

I'm calling the insurance place today to start the claim....hope this all pans out.impatient

 

I may have to fix the bottom of the car before the insurance adjuster gets here. I was driving to work today and I found another hole that looks like it was fixed before. It's about the size of a quarter but if I dig in it I know it's bigger. I think this weekend or next week end will be dedicated to fixing the bottom.

Well, I called the insurance company and they will be sending out an adjuster hopefully next week. They are based in Dallas so I hope I get a guy who likes classic cars.

 

I wouldn't touch the car until AFTER the adjuster has finished. You may uncover more rust damage & devalue the car in his appraisal. Thereby, possibly lessening the amount you will get should it be totalled. Leave it alone. Collect the insurance proceeds & then go to town on it!

 

Got a call tonight from the insurance......they are comming to look at the car tomorrow morning at 8am Pray, cross you fingers, chant, whatever you do to give good luck please do it tonight....more to come...

 

Well, I have to say I'm feeling pretty good about the adjuster. He came out and was excited to see a real Mini. He had actually read up on the car and the different variants. We talked for about a half hour about restorations that he had done on a dodge Charger and a couple of other cars. He told me that when I restore the Mini I should have it acid dipped to remove the paint and other forgien materials. He said that bead blasting would be too harsh on the body with the amount of rust. the car has on it. He asked me about a few other things but overall he was a pleasent person to talk to and deal with. I don't know how much they are going to give me but whatever they give me it's more than I have now. If they total it I'm buying it back!!!!

 

care to ID the insurance company before you
share or

I presume you are insured as a daily driver and not with a "collectable" or antique policy?

 

UNITRIN is his insurance company mine is USAA, I have liablility but after finding out that they have ALOT of folks around here without insurance I am goingto full coverage. His company has been on top of this and I like that.. Now the waiting begins on what the results of the apprasal is going to be?:impatient

 

Today while picking around the car I saw a small hole about the size of a quarter...until I started picking at it!!! I'm glad I'm glad I found this hole because I could have fallen thru and really hurt myself or killed myself .....the Mini is officially off limits until I can fix them!!

 

$1540.17 is the total to fix my Mini. I'm not sure if they will make me have a body shop fix it or if they will just send me a check. I hope they send a check....I would only have to put out $500 for the rest of the parts to make the body SOLID!!!! I guess this wasn't such a bad situation after all.

 

Can anyone tell me what the process is for the insurance company after the apprasial? I thought they would either approve the appraisal or deny it....then give me the option to get it fixed or take payment.

 

Question is not about 'the process' but 'the process for his company' if that's who you've been working thru, for all insurance companies are not the same. When in this situation - someone hit me and was clearly at fault - I called my company and they asked "are you going to handle it with them yourself?'

My reply: "I thought that's what I was paying you to do."

Yes it was and they did handle it and then sought settlement from the other insurance. My caompany appraised asked if I wanted a check at the time of appraisal or wanted to take the car to a shop and have them billed.

No, my rates did not go up.

Company was USAA for me .... Progressive for him, but I never talked to Progressive.

 

I have USAA too.....and I called them today and they told me that I was doing the right thing. Sense it was a cut and dry accident they said that making the claim myself was fine. IF there had been a collision where it was a pointing fingers game then they would get involved. So I guess I will call them (the other insurance) and ask them what they are going to do.

 

Of course it is fine with them - you let them off the hook! Did they tell you they wouldn't do it because you didn't have collision coverage or just say the way you were handling was OK? I told them to do their job....and they did. If you want to do the leg work that's fine all I'm saying is USAA is usually the second highest rated company for customer service - the other guy's isn't (they ain't #1 either last I checked). USAA made me a happy customer - will the other guys company do as well?

People pay for insurance then are afraid to make the company do what they are paid to do....one heck of a racket.

 

Got a check in the mail today...... For the amount of $1540.17

 

cha-ching!

now remember, that's mini money. not vw money. ok?

 

Yeah I know.. but being debt free sounds so good!! We are only $4000 in debt and by the end of Sept we will be out IF I use this money to knock out a bill...

 

With gas prices going up driving the Mustang(V8) is costing me some serious cash....SO, tommorow the Mini is going to the auto hobby shop to get the floor patched up so I can drive it. I will take pictures and post them up here for viewing.
On a side note...I live in Louisiana about 4 hours NW of New Orleans and today we drove about 30 SUV's toa staging area to be taken to the city. I may get to go down there and do security with the rescue teams....we are waiting on the call. We have at least 5,000 hurricane victims (I don't like using the word REFUGEE to describe them) in our area....with more comming. If you can give blood or money or goods...PLEASE do. It's REALLY bad....I'm sure you see it on TV every night so I don't have to explain.

 

Take a look at the pictures here starting with number 1596

http://www.dnlcustoms.net/john/Mini%...maller%20pics/

After consulting with a few of the older guys around the shop they came to the conclusion that I should givethe car back to the owner.... After we started to check for good metal to weld too.....we found that there wasn't any. the rust is all the way up into the side panels and the only thing holding it together is RUST!!! In fact it was so bad that one of the brake lines was almost rusted thru....atleast it looked like it...either way I do this I will end up with a new body.....Me have some thinking to do.....roll:

 

Options:

1. Strip it & sell it for parts
2. Strip it, put it on a rotiserrie, weld all new panels in
3. Buy a decent used shell and transfer the parts.
4. Strip it, brace the shell, make a custom chassis for it, restore the skin & re-attach - this fits with your original idea of a custom drivetrain.

There are many people who have restored Minis as bad, or worse, than yours btw.

DJMINIS.com probably has (or will have shortly) used shells.

 

Yeah I'm aware of my options...the problem is I may be moving to Key West Florida in a couple of months.....and this project may have to wait until then.....but I may just sell the car wait until I get there and buy another shell. TIME is the problem....
With the insurance money I could actually buy all the parts for the back of the car from the front fender back....I thinking about doing that. It would seem to be the way to go....shells cost more than $2000....if I found one for less I would buy it.

 

So a bunch of us are going to restrain from saying

we told u so ......

Mine has issues but looked like a new car next to ur pics.

 

The best part about it is that i only paid the guy $400 for it.....not the full $3000.....I didn't say I couldn't fix it...i don't have the time IF I get my moving orders. I'm going to order my parts next week and we will see.