Help with accident and body repair

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Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of pageLink to this message   By Chris Lomonico on Thursday, September 27, 2001 - 09:00 am: Edit

Last week I was out driving in my town in the left lane of a 1 way street when a person in the middle lane decided to turn left onto a road without checking to see if anyone was in the left hand land. Cutting across my lane, into the side of my '98 disco he crashed. Both of the doors on the passenger's side of my ride are dented and scratched up pretty bad. I had my insurance company come out and look at the car. They stated that I would need to get new door skins, and a blend done on the side where the impact occurred. After taking to an auto body shop based off of several recommendations, I was informed that putting new skins on the doors would not necessarily solve the problem in the best manner and can cause complications further down the road. On top of that I was informed that this severely effects the resale value of my car. Before this accident, which was clearly not my fault, my car was in perfect condition. I personally want to get the car back to its original state, however I know that would be impossible. The dents are rather low on the doors and bout 1 inch in. Will this effect the overall side impact safety of the vehicle? I am insured through progressive and I did ask about getting 2 new doors but that was frowned upon by the rep. Any advice that anyone has will be greatly appreciated.

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of pageLink to this message   By peter matusov on Thursday, September 27, 2001 - 09:05 am: Edit

get 2 new doors, or better yet - get an estimate from the dealer's body shop. you're entitled to a quality dealer service, remember? your insurance rep will cringe at the estimate :-)

peter

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of pageLink to this message   By Discosaurus (Discosaurus) on Thursday, September 27, 2001 - 09:18 am: Edit

I think re-skins are OK as long as the framework is repaired (if needed). I've had 3 of my 4 doors reskinned over the last several years due to corrosion and there is no way you could tell.

Disco doors aren't like most welded up doors. They're much closer to 1930's body technology - a skin over a framework (in this case metal instead of wood !!).

YMMV

keith
discosaurus

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of pageLink to this message   By Eric N (Grnrvr) on Thursday, September 27, 2001 - 09:26 am: Edit

Why are you talking to your insurance company? His insurance company should be paying for that since it was his fault. They should pay for where ever you want to take it to get it fixed.

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of pageLink to this message   By Sunday Driver on Thursday, September 27, 2001 - 09:30 am: Edit

I think it's because of the "no-fault" insurance thinga ma jiggy....

Right?

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of pageLink to this message   By Eric N (Grnrvr) on Thursday, September 27, 2001 - 09:34 am: Edit

What the hell is that?

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of pageLink to this message   By Chris Lomonico (Clomonico) on Thursday, September 27, 2001 - 09:45 am: Edit

yea the no fault thing is taking effect here. I just got off the phone with my insurance company and they stated "Our job is to get you car back to its origianl condition." He then followed that up with a contradiction stating that skins are considered "acceptable" repair. Regardless I dont want the value of this car to drop becuase of a mistake that I did not make, and I dont want to be stuck with a repair that is an "acceptable" solution as opposed to the correct solution.

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of pageLink to this message   By peter matusov on Thursday, September 27, 2001 - 09:45 am: Edit

that's when no matter who's fault was it, your insurance company pays for your car.

the idea is to minimize litigation.

Michigan's a no-fault state.
California is not.

After 2 years in MI and 5 years in CA, I am not sure which system sucks more :-)

peter

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of pageLink to this message   By Eric N (Grnrvr) on Thursday, September 27, 2001 - 09:52 am: Edit

I live in VA and I hope that they never go to a "No Fault" policy. That is a load of crap. Are your rates going to go up now due to you had to file an accident claim? I would be really pissed off if some one hit me and I had to pay for it. I'd be looking for some payback. Like driving over his car late at night while its parked some where or dragging it down the street a block or two while it's still in park.

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of pageLink to this message   By Greg Braswell on Thursday, September 27, 2001 - 10:14 am: Edit

Chris,
Sounds like you may be in for a fight with your insurance company over their version of "acceptable" versus your own. Don't settle for anything less than new doors. I have just gone through this with my '01 DII when a guy ran a red light and removed my front end on July 15. The concealed damages showed the right front framerail was badly bent. Next week I should get it back after a four week wait for the wiring harness from LRNA. All parts used, including an entire new frame were LR. Total of the repairs is $14,200.

Next step beyond this point is the pursuit of a "diminished value" claim with these people. I'm expecting a big fight on this. The insurance company feels there should be no diminsihed value in my truck since all parts were replaced with LR original parts. Guess we will know more on this soon.

Greg Braswell

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of pageLink to this message   By peter matusov on Thursday, September 27, 2001 - 10:16 am: Edit

diminished value...

my brother's JGC was hit twice from the rear, and both times it went to a frame machine (yet another reason to buy a disco, i guess). all their wows about the diminished value were completely ignored.

peter

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of pageLink to this message   By Ron on Thursday, September 27, 2001 - 11:08 am: Edit

Don't settle for anything
less than new doors.

Not necesarily. I would have to see the damage to be sure, but my main concern would be the body shell (LR have a steel inner body shell) and the door posts and the firewall/bulkhead. If these are bent you are in trouble. One way to check the correctness of a repair is to spec all the gaps. If they are all identical distance and everything is plum and square no worries. If not don't take it back until it is fixed right.

Reskinning a door is no biggy and the frame in it is not difficult to repair like Discosaurus says. Doubt you would be gaining much by getting whole new doors. Only caveat is to make sure the door frame is isolated from the skin correctly. If not corrosion will pop up and eat through the aluminium.

Ron

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of pageLink to this message   By Mike B. on Thursday, September 27, 2001 - 03:27 pm: Edit

Chris:

It's your vehicle, so be persistant. I have found that if you keep calling the insurance person, eventually they will wear down and give in a little. Especially if they think that you will not go away. Try to remain calm and objective.

Like all of the other posts said, reskinning does not sound too bad. On the good side, you will get to keep all of your existing door internals (the devil you know is almost always better than the devil you don't).

Also, maybe try to let the insurance company fix it their way, after all, that's their job. If they don't do a good job, then keep going back to get it rectified.

One of the car shops that we use offers a 5 year satisfaction guarantee on all of their work. I've had them repaint the bumper on the Honda a couple of times. Most excellent!

Best of luck!
Mike B.

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of pageLink to this message   By Kyle on Thursday, September 27, 2001 - 03:37 pm: Edit

I think this will solve your riddle. Skinning doors is fine. Nothing at all wrong with it. Whats on there now is a skin to start with and all they are doing is replacing that part. However!! Skinning doors isnt as easy as bolting new ones on . THe new age body men dont have to fool with skins much and in my opinion dont do a really wonderfull job. The guy at the body shop you talked to knows this as well and is therefore trying to steer you away from it. I was forced to skin doors on old mustangs when that was putting food in my mouth and I screwed more then my fair share up. its not fun and you have to be damn good at it to get it right without leaving numerous small dents behind to fill. If they wanna skin them and the guy can pull it off I dont see a problem with it...


Kyle

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of pageLink to this message   By Chris Lomonico (Clomonico) on Friday, September 28, 2001 - 03:01 am: Edit

Hey everyone thanks for all the advice. I find discoweb to be a great place to get information from people that have been there and done that. I am currently waiting to hear back from the insruance company and the repair shop today. I will post a message here as the situation progresses. Till the next

-C

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of pageLink to this message   By Discosaurus (Discosaurus) on Friday, September 28, 2001 - 06:21 am: Edit

The re-skins I have were done by two different shops that understand aluminium. Visually, both jobs are as perfect as the factory, although you never know how much filler is under the paint, I guess. The real issue is what Ron stated a few messages back - future corrosion.

The first re-skins were about 3 years ago due to standard LR door corrosion issues (all D1's have it - you just may not know it yet). It was fixed but returned in less then 2 years on 2 of the 3 doors, all due to insufficent care in applying sealer to isolate the aluminium skin from the steel frame. Hopefully the latest work was done better.

As Kyle said, the door was originally built with a skin so there's no reason not to re-skin IF the shop knows it's stuff.

keith
discosaurus

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of pageLink to this message   By Ron on Friday, September 28, 2001 - 06:53 am: Edit

Sealing is key. Lots of sealant (there are products for this) between the frame and the skin. Also make sure to paint the inside of the skin and the inside and outside of the door frame and ideally you want to even rust proof the interior of the frame before putting it all back together.

Also if they are not familiar with aluminium don't let them touch the truck with any filler. You can't use much and you have to use Galv-x or similar not just any filler or else the filler will crack and peal as the aluminium flexes more and, do to surface corrosion, it is very difficult to make stuff stick to it.

Ron

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of pageLink to this message   By Ron on Friday, September 28, 2001 - 06:54 am: Edit

I should also say that if I had the choice I would probably choose reskins as then I could make sure the best possible corrosion resistance was in place

Ron


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