Totaled Tacoma - Rebuild in Process!

I dont have any idea what the other driver said. I never talked with their insurance, I just let my insurance handle everything with them.

However, no matter what the other driver said, the police investigation determined I was not at fault. It was a hit and run road rage incident, and witnesses provided a police statement where they saw the other driver trying to run me off the road, and throwing beer bottles at me.

I was lucky they found the other driver, and they had valid insurance.

 

This was in Texas?
The rage
Beer bottles thrown at you
GLA!

 

Empty ones at that, so at least we know why they didn't stick around to talk to the cops.

 

Wait so what was their offer and what was the buyback price?
I thought the point of insurance was to get you back to where you were as if the crash hadn't occurred. Idk why they'd be low balling you if they're pulling it out of the other guy.

 

Rounding to the nearest 1k, it was a 12k offer and 10k payout after they took their cut since I was keeping the truck.

Damages are estimated to be just under 8k, so the 10k should get the truck back to where it was before the accident.

The first offer, I would have only been paid a little under 6k.

Insurance companies offer initial low offers hoping you don't plan on keeping the vehicle, so that they can turn around and offer it up for auction to get even more money.

If they had issued a salvage title, I would have asked for more to cover lost value due to the salvage title. But at that point, it would require initiating an appraisal clause which requires I hire and pay for a third party neutral appraiser, and the cost of that may end up being more than an increase in value they may provide.

 

Found a small body shop that came recommended by a few people. I spoke to the owner over the phone and they'll be able to start work on my truck the beginning of next week. They plan on fixing what they are good at (body work and paint), and the offroad centric components I'll have done at a shop nearby shop that specializes in offroad builds.

I'm still looking at different paint colors and designs for the respray. I came across this 96 Bronco listed for sale. This color is very similar to my old F150.

 

Hello everyone. Felt it was time for an update.

I decided to not go with the body shop I mentioned in my previous reply. The owner told me that they were behind on their current work and it wouldn't be until August before they could get to work on my truck.

Fortunately, I found another shop just down the road that is much bigger and who isn't afraid of pissing off insurance companies to work on my truck.

They've been working on my truck for about a week now. Their estimate came in at almost half of Caliber, however they did discover that my frame was tweaked slightly once they started taking measurements.

The frame isn't perfectly squared, it's a slight diamond shape with about 1.5 inches of lift and about 1 inch back on the passenger frame rail, which makes sense as that is where the front bumper would have transferred all of the energy from the collision.

However, they believe straightening it out shouldn't be to difficult. I talked to them today and they were in the process of adding clamps to the frame to use their frame machine to start pulling and straightening it out. This should also straighten out the fender apron as well according to them. The core support though is too damaged to repair, so they will replace that.

They are going to put everything back together with the new fender and check for panels gaps and should have an update on Monday.

 

Good to know you're able to keep it and bring it back to life Back in 2012 I was traveling through an intersection at night going 55 mph when a guy driving a Ford Fusion was making a left turn from the opposite direction. He had a yellow flashing arrow, but he didn't slow down, (he turned directly in front of me) THEN came to a complete stop - I had no time to react other than gripping the steering wheel and planting my feet on the floorboard to brace for impact. I needed to replace my entire front end with OEM parts which according to Nationwide came to $7200 and they deemed it a total loss. I wasn't ready to part with it. I called to discuss my options.

At the time, Kelly Blue book had a 99 Tacoma SR5 in good condition valued at $2874. Nationwide called me back and explained that upon further inspection, there was no signs of rust anywhere, the frame was in tact, and since the airbag hadn't deployed they were willing to completely repair it for $5500.00, but with all aftermarket parts. That sounded reasonable to me, so I reluctantly decided to move forward with the repairs which took approx 30 days to complete. The finished product turned out well.

 

Awesome, glad it turned out well. Do you still have that Tacoma?

The fender never ended up arriving on Monday. It got delayed and now shows delivery for this Friday. However, the goods news is that the frame repair is only going to cost $400. I was expecting a lot more based on hearing horror stories of high costs to repair frames, but it seems like in this case the shop wasn't BSing me when they said the frame damage was minimal.

 

It's the one pictured in my profile with other pics in media - check them out. 350,675 miles to date and still solid as a rock. To see it now, you'd never know it was ever in a wreck let alone that the entire front end except the grille are aftermarket parts. Sometimes you gotta take the good with the bad and keep it moving.

 

That's awesome. Just to get it set up on a rack to start the straightening is time consuming, so that's actually not bad at all. Glad you are able to save this one!

As far as changing the color, why not go with Spruce Mica? It's an OEM color similar to that Bronco.

 

I probably should have known to check your profile first.

Looks very nice.

I have Spruce Mica on my list of colors to choose from. Haven't decided yet if I want to go with an OEM color or something unique.

 

They've probably already told you, but changing colors can be a bit more expensive since they have to do door jambs and other areas that typically don't need to be repainted. If you do go with something totally unique, make sure you save the paint code in a safe place in case something happens again . . . I used to do auto paint work, and custom colors with nothing more than "I think it was a Jaguar color" drove me nuts.

 

Yep, it's going to be expensive. I've been saving and planning on a color change for a couple years now. I'm currently budgeting about $8K for the repaint, but I'll have a better idea of how much I have to work with once all repairs to the truck are completed.

I've been looking at colors available from a few different paint brands, as well as colors from different auto manufacturers.

These two colors below are at the top of my list

https://www.thecoatingstore.com/product/urechem-shady-blue-metallic-basecoat-clearcoat-car-paint/

https://didspade.com/collections/pearls/products/blue-teal-x-pearl

 

Another update.

The body shop finally got a fender in this week. They painted it today, and hope to have everything put together and the truck ready to be picked up either Friday or Monday.

The bad news is that the offroad shop I had planned on taking my truck to, to work on the suspension components and replacing the damaged ARB bumper, flat out told me they no longer work on Toyotas and told me to go find another shop.

So that really sucks, as now I need to find another shop here in SA.

 

What color did you end up on?

 

Still haven't decided yet. This body shop won't do color changes, so all I had them do was paint the fender the stock white color. I told them to not even bother painting the passenger door and hood to match. No point in paying to get those painted twice.

I do have a friend of mind working on some design work in photoship for my truck (vintage stripes, decals, etc...) just to see if there is anything I like. They are also trying a few different paint colors as well to help decide what the main color is going to be.

 

Well, things keep going wrong.

Went and picked up my truck, started it up, and it sounds like it's spitin fire straight out of the headers.

Got under the truck and low and behold, someone cut off my catalytic converter.

The shop says they aren't responsible, even though the truck was in their possession.

I've got surgery on Tuesday with a multi week recovery, so can't really deal with the shop. Not even sure if its worth it to hire a lawyer at this point. Looks like I'll just have to park my truck for now and figure out what to do next after my recovery.

So pissed off.

 

That sucks. This help? https://www.click2houston.com/news/...rove they,claim with their insurance company.

 

Thanks. I had read a similar article. Not sure if it's worth my time and money to try and prove they were negligent. I do have a recording of then admitting that cat thefts are a common occurrence, and they had 11 stolen from their lot in one day.

I believe they should warn customers about the high theft rate, and do something to improve security.

However, a new cat from Rocksuto is less than $500 and a lawyer will probably cost more.

I had the surgery today, and so right now fir the next couple of weeks just going to focus on rest.