Accident on the US60 - rebuild thread

Hey everyone... I've had an interesting few weeks, topped off with a nice little accident on the US60 at about Alma School. We were all cruising right along and I could see the cars in front of me slowing pretty quickly. When I started seeing everyone slowing down and recognized the guy behind me may not be able to see what was going on I tried to move over within my lane as much as possible hoping he would see the cars in front of me but it didn't work. Sure enough he hit me and punted me into the car in front of me, then the Chevy truck two cars behind me got involved and bounced everyone around again. It was pretty rough. I do think that my moving over in the lane made it a bit of an accordian effect which kept me and the lady in front of me from getting hurt. The 4th car back, 2 behind me, was the vehicle cited and the two guys behind me are apparently sharing the bill to fix the vehicles. Thanks goodness for insurance who handles all of that mess.

The damage to my truck doesn't look severe but it will be close to $13k to fix it all. The whole front end has to be replaced including some kind of radiator mount that was sheared off the frame. The hood has to be replaced, the front driver side fender has to be replaced, the drivers side front headlight (and maybe the other one as well) has to be replaced, both doors have to be repainted, the tailgate and drivers side of the bed have to be repaired and repainted, the rear bumper has to be replaced, the rear drivers side tail light has to be replaced, and then a bunch of stuff underneath like radiator, battery, AC compressor I think, and various other things. All in all the damage doesn't look terribly bad but it adds up fast. The most important thing is the frame was not damaged which surprises me.

Front end damage:

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My insurance said I could take it anywhere but only had a handful of shops that they would 'guarantee' the work, one of which was Camelback Toyota Collision Center. With all the body panels and parts that are going to need to be replaced I wanted to make sure as much OEM parts as possible were used so I decided to go with Camelback Toyota Collision Center. So far working with Darryl has been good and I have nothing to complain about.

Taken apart at Camelback Collision Center:

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In fact, I'm actually going to be changing a few things since I'm going to be needing so much work done and they've been accomodating so far. I basically went thru TW and found some pictures of the stuff I wanted done and put them all into a PDF document and sent it over to them.

I'm going to have the lower front bumper insert painted matte black along with all of the badges since all but the passenger side badges are coming off.

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I'm having the front grill and the rear bumper replaced with the Speedway blue versions, along with the newer LED taillights.

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We shall see how things come out and I will definitely report back here on it all after it is done. It has been in the shop now for about 2 weeks and has another week to go. I'm hoping to have it back by end of this month.

 

Ouch... Poor Tacoma

 

Glad you are ok. I hate the 60.

Az

 

That sucks!

I'd ask the body shop about fiberglass fenders and aftermarket bumpers if you have any interest in it - for the cost of OEM parts, you could get a LOT of aftermarket stuff.

 

At least the truck took the beating and you werent hurt I hate the 60

 

Glad you're alright, Man!

 

Thanks, everyone. I think I was lucky to not be hurt.

 

Well that's a major bummer... They came back to me and said the changes I wanted to make, even after the money insurance was to pay to replace the part was going to be well over $1000. That really doesn't make sense to me at all.

I guess the only thing I will be able to report out on is the quality of the work to get the truck back to pre-accident condition.

 

Well I finally got my truck back yesterday. I think they did a pretty good job of getting it back to normal.

I'm still extremely dissappointed with them for not working with me to replace parts with alternatives. Having to pay an additional $200 for the Speedway Blue grill instead of the chrome grill when insurance was already replacing the chrome grill was just disgusting. They wanted to nickle and dime me even though I brought a $14k repair bill from insurance thru their door. Very dissappointing!! But at least I have my truck back and it is in good shape now.

Camelback Collision Center seemed to do a good job on the repairs and kept me informed along the way. They did seem to take a long time but I'd rather it take a little extra time and be done right. They didn't work AT ALL with me on tweaking things.

 

Yah no offense meant but sounds like you were following a bit to close there buddy, then again phoenix drivers are assholes.

 

Unfortunately it's not Arizona drivers that cause most of the accidents here it's snow birds or people from other states that don't know how to drive here that do

 

... I would have stopped in time, it's the guy behind me that hit me and punted me into the car in front of me. I hate how close people follow on the freeways here. I-10 down from Phoenix to Tucson is the worst, I hate driving on that road for that very reason.