I'll spare you the details, but in a nutshell, a young woman decided to suddenly turn right from the far left lane Sat evening and took out the left front corner of my nearly perfect 2000 c5. (yes, I cried like a baby once I got home, and yes i almost choked her once I was sure no one was hurt...).

I don't trust any of the local shops to work on it, and will want the repair done properly by someone who has some real background with these types of car. This one is new to me as of early this year and between the previous owners and myself has had significant "upgrades" (including brakes, etc...).

Any recommendations in the area for the repairs? I'm in Greenville NC.

Thanks in advance for your help! I don't have a problem putting the car on a roll back and taking it somewhere else. Not sure how her insurance adjuster is going to like it, but we'll see... I'm heading out to see mine now and then get the car moved from the shop I had it towed to to my house if they're ok with that. although, it'll be hard to walk by it... Kind of hoping my ins company will make it right and then go after hers. the fault is really clear.

Either way, any thoughts on where to get fixed would be greatly appreciated!

 

If it's just cosmetic stuff (fender, front fascia) it's all bolt ons, any decent shop should be able to tackle it without much fanfare.

 

Bolt on parts are easy. Just make sure that the shop can paint to your requirements.

If you have a local Corvette club near by, ask them is they have a known Corvette friendly shop tha they have used

 

painting is indeed an issue...

I "play" at doing paint work on my toys, and am not going to be comfortable that it will match and stay matched unless the whole car is painted using high quality materials. (I'm partial to ppg dbc and dcu 2021 of late).

I guess the main think I'm uncertain about is knowing for certain whether anything in the fame or suspension is damaged in a way that wouldn't show up for a while or until it was really pushed... but I guess that's just part of the deal...

I'm also worried about the dminished value situation - I wouldn't have bought a car that's been wrecked unles it was WAY under the going rate for one that hadn't... I'll just have to see what her adjuster says about the situation...

Thanks...

 

Diminished value is a silly thing to worry about, especially since the C5's are going for so little these days.

 

Your car will have a hit on carfax if you got a ins. check, There is no way around it. Ins companys will pay for a repaint only if the paint cannot be matched. You need to locate your local corvette club or car club for info about quality shops in your area.
Everyone would like new paint after a wreck, But the only thing coverd is the damaged area. If you request work that is not in directly related to this accident its called Ins. fraud! Carefull companys are cracking down hard.........I deal with this weekly....

 

I understand... and am an honest man.

damage is likely going to include the front bumper, both front fenders, the hood everything behind the drivers side headlight and it looks like both doors will warrant at least a partial repaint. Somehow there is a crack in the right rear fender right above the wheel well, but surely not from this... I haven't pulled the hood open yet nor started it, but it rolls ok when pushed, and obviously there are a lot of codes. I lost brakes completely after the impact and much of the brake fluid was on the road. I'm going to wat to open it up until the adjuster looks at it and I figure out where I'm going to take it. The hood was driven far enough back and toward the passenger side during the impact that the passenger fender is puckered out a bit and was pushed back enough to hit the passenger door causing some damage to the paint on that door. It doesn't look like either of the doors is out of place based on the lines at the rear edge of the doors. The hood also hit the driver side windshield but did not break it.

The impact was on the drivers front corner, and just missed the front of the frame rail but appears to have torn fasteners out of the frame that supports the bumper and bend it to some degree.

I have the car at home now and will look more closely tonight after open house at school.

I'll get it fixed "properly" independant of what the adjuster and I work out. Right now, as a single parent, and with work having fallen off the way it has, we're not starving by any means, but even a few thousand dollars makes enough difference in my budget to be worth pursuiing - as long as I am comfortable that it is ethical. I don't do fraud. I also know that I would personally have an awful hard time laying down / blending navy blue metallic and clearcoat without painting the entire panel that had any damage. I know there are guys out there that can do it and burn the clear in so it's hard to tell, but i've not seen one yet I couldn't tell where they did it - especially with darker color metallic paints. depending on how it works out, i;ve done some decent work using ppg concept dcb and dcu 2021 and if push comes to shove, can do the final prep and paint the whole car myself. No one will put as much time and care into the making it perfect as i would on my own car anyhow.

wrt "diminished value", the high number of nice cars on the market and the low prices make the diminished value at least as much an issue - why buy a car with damage history when there are a lot of other nice cars out there with owners willing to deal? unless of course you can get it quite a bit cheaper...

Thanks very much for your input. I'm sure I'll get it worked out in the end... and I'm not planning on selling it any time in the forseeable future - I love it and have had an absolute blast teaching my 15 year old daughter to drive a stick in it - she's sooo cool now that she's learning to walk it smoothly through the gears. Huge grin factor for both of us! Cheers!

crap, sorry for the book! been a long day and I type waaay too fast.

 

Well it sounds like it should be documented-the whole car almost needs new paint and work on many panels. A 10+ year old car with that much work needed is probably borderline to an insurance company to repair. Hopefully they won't "total" it, salvage on the title is the kiss of death. Luckily her insurance has to pay.

 

Yep, to be back to the condition it was in... before the collision, it was in immaculate condition - including all of the interior, etc... I'll just see what happens. it has 70k miles on the clock, so if it's totalled I should come out with enough to go car shopping...

I appreciate the frank input.

 

no, its called getting YOUR car repaired to YOUR satisfaction
not taking what the Man feels like paying for

and personally ...

I would sue the owner of the other vehicle for Diminished Value

as much as Insurance Companies " pretend " it doesn't exist...

just wait 'till a future Buyer of Your Auto gets a CarFax..

You .. Lose

 

 

Ugggggggggggggggggggggg....... Make SURE that they replace that inner fender well if its damaged!!! Its GLUED to the frame and a BITCH to replace and get straight. Keep the old undamaged headlight parts if there are any. There hard to get individually and easy to sell.

Nice color!!

 

I have a stock hood that color if you need it (looks like Navy Blue Metallic).

 

You'll be lucky if they don't total it.

I know that sounds crazy, but if its 5k worth of damage on a 10k car, they won't fix it.

 

If they total it try to make a deal and buy it back.
That's 5k easy.

 

Theres NO WAY that is a total!!!!

 

Let's see what the other guys insurance co. tries to do here? A 10+ year old car that need some help on almost every panel on the car might be a close call here.

 

It depends on the ajuster, Make sure to piont out your concerns up front.
It doesnt look bad to me from this pic, but if it is totaled do not let car leave your hands until your happy. I am sorry your vette was damaged...

 

Then take the remaining balance and fix the car yourself and mod it.

 

I'm pretty sure they won't want to total it - and I think I found a local shop that I'll be comfortable doing the work. The manager can't look at it until he gets back from carlisle and has a couple of his own. If it is totalled, i won't buy it back - I'd prefer to buy another car without a salvage title. and to be honest, it would be a shame to have this one parted out - it's a beautiful car and should be prepared and driven.

The car already has brakes (rotors, pads), clutch (C6 ZO6), rear end (4.10 gears), lowered on stock bolts, exhaust (corsa), intake, differential strut, chrome rims, just put new tires on last week, etc... I figure it's just about ripe for heads, cam, long tubes and a tune...

I will just wait and see how the adjuster handles it after they look at it Thursday. I understand that the insurance commissioner in nc really frowns on claims resolution taking longer than the 30 days allowed by law, so if we're not on the same page by the 30 day mark, a well placed call can yield a lot of incentive for the ins co to make it go away... I'm not going to get in a hurry and it'll stay in my garage until the adjuster and i agree on how to handle.

Ironically, I bought my 15 year old a 2002 camaro in exactly the same coilor this afternoon - completely by coincidence because I got it for a really good deal with a dented quarter and some scratches in one side... we'll see how good I can make it look in the mean time...