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I guess I could say, it could have been worse

Strikle,

No there was no bondo on any part of the car and there won't be much when it's done.

The fender that he (Classic) has is for a 74 1/2 to 76, with the bumper hole in the wrong spot. The hood is an option.

I also spoke to Dave at TRF and there are a few OEM fenders available for my model year. I will put one on hold tomorrow for the left side and the damage is minimal on the right, so I'll keep my original. The hood is up for discussion once we get it opened up Friday. If the hinge mounting hole surfaces are twisted, it's going bye-bye......
 
Sorry to hear about your incident and glad everyone is alright. There are a lot insurance companies out there that will try to dictate to you as to where to take your car to be repaired. Don't know in Rhode Island what your laws are but in many states insurance companies try to direct you to one of there preferred shops on their list that supposably will insure their work. MOST of those shops will do some cut rate work or use lesser quality products to cut corners to make up for what discounts the insurance companies demands to be on their preferred shop list..

Remember your in the driver seat and because it was not your fault you should have the right to take your car to what ever body shop YOU select and the insurance company will have to pay their rates. Check your local and state laws. I deal with this every day in Ohio. Good luck!
 
Paul,
I just got back from the West Coast and saw this post - my heart sank to see the damage. After seeing the beautiful condition of your car at Brits By the Sea, I hope Haggerty comes thru for you.
Triumphs Only would have the parts you need, but they would need to be shipped from CA. I sent you a PM from the 6 pack forum.
FYI
Stirkle said:
I would call Sports & Classics in Darien, CT

I believe they have closed up / moved. They have an ebay store but the physical location has become another desparately needed antique/high priced crap store on the Post Road.

Tom C
 
Hey Paul - Tom C's post triggered a through. Let me know if you find anything out in CA that I can help get it inspected or shipped. (off actually stands for any of your guys).
 
Thanks TD.

Don, you're a bad influence on me.............
 
Interesting day today. I didn't like the attitude of the adjusters office that called me, so I called Hagerty. I just had a bad feeling about their work load and how they were going to work with me.

Long story short, new adjuster assigned, friendly staff, appointment confirmation tomorrow.

We'll see...............
 
Hey Paul--
I meant to call you last week and ask how your car was doing. I guess I know the answer. I also had a slight mishap with one of my cars. My pride and joy fully restored 1968 Dodge Charger R/T suffered under my stupidity and allowed a 3/8 ratchet and socket to fall from the top of the garage door directly onto the decklid thereby chipping the paint and denting it. Condon-Skelly was contacted and hopefully just the decklid needs attention. On a better note--my Triumph Tr6 is back together--rearend is quiet and leak free thanks to Erik. All 6 u-joints replaced, and Erik redid my hubs while the diff. was out. No clunks, no leaks no errors thus far. I still have a slight hesitation with the weber DGV's and timing is set at 12-14 BTDC. No signs of any ping/detonation. The monza exhaust system is loud and wife hates it but it is fun to rocket around the neighborhood and everyone stares--ha!! I plan on giving you a call tomorrow to discuss my next adventure in British sports cars. Thanks again, and remember--cars can be fixed to better than new condition--you and your loved ones cannot. Daniel Perkins
 
The saga continues.

I was in meetings the better part of the morning so I call the "new" adjusters office. The same pleasant young lady answered as she did yesterday. She recognized my voice and said she had my file in front of her for a call by 11:00 as promised (it was 10:30AM).

She gave me my adjusters full name and said that he would be happy to meet with me and the body shop owner at 10:00AM tomorrow. Unless I stated otherwise, he planned to be there then, or at a time that suits me better. I confirmed the appointment, called Alan and we're good to go for todays events.

What a difference from yesterdays experience..........
 
I want this to go smoothly. I want it to affirm my faith that there ARE folks out there who understand we're not pedalin' about in worthless forty year old English trash bins.

GO Paul!! GO Hagerty!! (just my ebullient side exposed) :laugh:


This is antethetic to TWO experiences we've had... One was a Cadillac implanted into the trunk of the Elan, another was a Buick clipping my '69 GTV in MUCH the same way Paul's car is damaged. Both events were years ago, both repairs were ultimately done by ME because the mooks "assigned" to do the work were... well, MOOKS!!! My "nickel" every time. I did luck out and find the LAST OEM new left front GTV panel in the country... OUCH.

Pullin' for ya, Paul. Really. My heart sank on opening this thread.


<span style="font-style: italic">EDIT: And when I hear these five simple words strung together, I generally come unhinged:</span> <span style="font-weight: bold">"Well, it's JUST a CAR!"</span> :madder:
 
Doc,

I agree. We're the only ones allowed to say those words.
 
At least it sounds like you're having a better experience than the third one I had with Progressive. First was my Mustang was clipped in a restaurant parking lot. The adjuster was there in 15 mins in one of those Explorers that you would see driving around town. He looked it over, gave me a card, and told me to take it to my shop of choice to get it fixed. Very smooth transaction. That caused me to swap to Progressive. Second one, I was rear ended by an uninsured driver, again, I was told to take it to the shop of my choice no questions asked. Third and last one, I hit a deer on my way into work. When I contacted Progressive, I was told to take it to the local service center. Granted they had a rental ready for me, but the adjuster was very standoffish, and wanted to know why I hadn't avoided the deer. Then rather than take it to a Ford shop, it went o a Toyota shop, and they used junkyard parts from another Mustang that had been in a wreck. The fit of the hood was all wrong, and they had missed the broken front valence panel, and broken headlight bracket. Dealing with the adjuster there in the parking lot only raised my blood pressure, and I finally got her boss to come out. First he wanted to know why I was worked up over "small potatoes", then I finally convinced him that a rework was needed. The hood was straightened up, and a new valence panel was used, however the headlight didn't even come off of a Mustang, instead a third party company that made Mustang headlight assemblies was used. The headlight now has some play in it (maybe .001-.003"), not enough to be physically flopping around, but I can see the left headlight beam move around as I go over small bumps.

That experience turned me off of Progressive so badly that I told the manager of the local office that as soon as the repairs were completed, that I would be changing companies. To which I did less than a month later.
 
DeltaAir423 said:
At least it sounds like you're having a better experience than the third one I had with Progressive. First was my Mustang was clipped in a restaurant parking lot. The adjuster was there in 15 mins in one of those Explorers that you would see driving around town. He looked it over, gave me a card, and told me to take it to my shop of choice to get it fixed. Very smooth transaction. That caused me to swap to Progressive. Second one, I was rear ended by an uninsured driver, again, I was told to take it to the shop of my choice no questions asked. Third and last one, I hit a deer on my way into work. When I contacted Progressive, I was told to take it to the local service center. Granted they had a rental ready for me, but the adjuster was very standoffish, and wanted to know why I hadn't avoided the deer. Then rather than take it to a Ford shop, it went o a Toyota shop, and they used junkyard parts from another Mustang that had been in a wreck. The fit of the hood was all wrong, and they had missed the broken front valence panel, and broken headlight bracket. Dealing with the adjuster there in the parking lot only raised my blood pressure, and I finally got her boss to come out. First he wanted to know why I was worked up over "small potatoes", then I finally convinced him that a rework was needed. The hood was straightened up, and a new valence panel was used, however the headlight didn't even come off of a Mustang, instead a third party company that made Mustang headlight assemblies was used. The headlight now has some play in it (maybe .001-.003"), not enough to be physically flopping around, but I can see the left headlight beam move around as I go over small bumps.

That experience turned me off of Progressive so badly that I told the manager of the local office that as soon as the repairs were completed, that I would be changing companies. To which I did less than a month later.
Even if the accidents were not your fault, why would they want to keep a customer who for whatever reason keeps having claims? Which means they lose money on?
 
Late Update:

Met with adjuster who only knew that he was looking at a 1974 Triumph that was covered for a lot of $$$ by Hagerty. He walked in the shop and was taken back at what he saw. He really likes cars, so he checked it over very closely and took about 40 pictures of the front, top, sides, under hood, frame, fender wells, you name it. Then he looked at my web site and saw what had been done over the past three years to get it to where it is today.

He said it will take several days to write it up, but he wants to make sure it once again looks like it does on my web site. He gave me the go ahead to order the agreed upon sheet metal to get things started.

I CANNOT EMPHASIZE enough how important it is for all of you to go buy a digital camera if you don't own one and start taking pictures from every possible angle of your cars. When I showed him the pictures of my door and hood and trunk alignment in high resolution, there was no arguing about anything not being perfect before it was hit.

Save them on your computer and put them on a memory stick for safe keeping in case your hard drive crashes. You won't be sorry that you did.

Day 5 - So Far, So Good. Hagerty looking better and better every day.
 
TheSearcherMan said:
Even if the accidents were not your fault, why would they want to keep a customer who for whatever reason keeps having claims? Which means they lose money on?

That's the problem, you are required under state law to have insurance, and yet if something happens you're treated like the plague. I've been with State Farm now for four years since then, and in my one and only dealing with them (disabled car tow), they have been nothing but spectacular.
 
I don't want to offend anyone, but, the best auto insurance for your "regular" vehicle comes from one company, their service and prices, beat everyone by not just a little, but alot, that company is Erie Insurance. This only applies to your "regular" car, not classic vehicles.
 
You could be right about that. I'm just very happy that I switched from "regular" to "collector" two years ago. That is for the Triumph, of course.

My daily cars have regular insurance.
 
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