hey all...

Once again a big pig of an suv has left its mark...I went out to my car this morning to find the front drivers side smashed...friggen bitch pretty much demolished the entire front left quarter and pushed up the hood a half inch.

I have never made any claims....luckily the person left a note and their insurance. however I am totally miffed and want to extract the maximum i can out of this PIA experience.

I will be getting 3 estimates to send to the insurance company. I have taken pictures as well.

what i plan on doing is taking the car to a friends shop in order to get a better deal and thus more done (front bumper painted etc..) after i get 3 good estimates and the check.

Im TOTALLY PISSED. I want their insurance to pay as much as possible...my car no longer will have the original body and this upsets me...I feel like my car has been devalued in a way.

any input on this stuff would be appreciated.

thanks

j

 

Well I had to put in a hail damage claim about 3 or 4 months ago. The car was totaly coverd minus my $100 deductable. Remeber it's your car and YOU make the payments on it so Make sure that you have the car repaired to YOUR satisfatcion. The Insurance compaines will most likely try to low ball you. Just keep climging up the chain of command and pester the **** out ofthem with phone calls. If they give you a hard time. I would just take it to the shop you want and make sure that they work with your insurance co. Most likely they will be able to handle all the details for you. Hope that makes sense. Good luck

 

thanks...any other input is appreciated.



j

 

full custom body kit and custom paint job my man don't forget to have them pay for the damage the engine and turbos sustained

 

call a lawyer, sue for negligence, personal anguish...that equals single turbo and bridge port motor....wouldn't that make your anguish go away..

 

Well, there are some honorable people out there afterall. Someone fessed up - a miracle.

Take your car to the BEST shop in town and have it fixed there. Don't try to bullshit the guys about fixing other things that are wrong (although they usually will throw in some paint chip damage N/C since it is an insurance claim and they are making PLENTY of $$ on the repair). Don't try to pocket any money by having a low budget shop repair it - get it fixed right. Don't let ANYONE dictate where you can have it fixed. Insist on genuine Mazda parts for the repairs.

You'll kick yourself in the *** in a year or two when the paint starts looking like **** if you don't go first class.

Consider yourself exceptionally lucky they left a note -
I am amazed.

 

Actually i'm glad they left you a note. Otherwise your insurance would try to put a cap on what they pay you.

Most insurance companies now adays don't require 3 estimates, just one. Alot of them have assigned body shops. Find out which ones "are" their assigned shops and be sure "not" to go there!

I would get prices on '99 JSpec parts which are probably cheaper and offer that as a choice to them. Screw the stock hood and replace with carbon fiber.

Find someone that can buy stock parts through Mazdacomp at a discount (Hey Max ) and buy the parts yourself, because most likely they will offer to just cut a check to prevent the body shop from submitting for more money on something they didn't notice.

If you need a ride or need to borrow my Honda, let me know bro.

 

if you bitch enough can you get a fully repaint? that would be pretty cool.

 

Dude you're not having very good luck lately. Sorry to hear about it, hope it works out for the best. Time to upgrade body parts if you ever wanted to do it.

 

Sorry to hear that Jason. I recently had my own bad luck--while parked with the hood up (to let the engine bay cool down) a large gust of wind caught my hood, blowing it up so that it was perpendicular to the car.

Got an estimate today at the best body shop around--$850 to fix it right

 

damn, that was one strong wind!!!!

 

It shouldn't be a problem for you. I had someone hit me while I was parked a while back and did about $700 worth of damage. As long as you have their insurance and its their fault, all you have to do is drop the car off where you want and pick it up when its done. Of course you need to talk to the insurance companies and get the green light from them to go ahead with having the car fixed. Look at it this way, you'll have a freshly painted car for free.

 

thanks for the advice guys....called a bunch of places...got two estimates...the first was a place here in orange county called m2 collision..supposedly they have all the top of the line stuff...their shop was immaculate. their quote was low..1500 bucks...including replacing the fender...painting the hood...and repair and paint on my ghetto front bumper skin. woo hoo!

I called the local bentley/lamborghini/ferrari dealer and went with their shop...they gave me a 2200 dollar ticket and did not want to fix my front bumper. lazy bastards. lol

bad luck turns into good luck I guess...I was going to get the front bumper and hood painted anyhow(rock chips)...there is no damage to the structure at all...just a fender replacement and some other minor stuff. Fine by me I guess...as long as it looks good when its done!

I get a rental car...a whopping 26 dollars a day. any of you got a nitrous bottle to hook up to the thing for a few days..haha GO NEON GO!!!!

it will be done next friday.

the saddest part was that I had planned to dyno tune next thursday and now will be waiting for another week at least. oh the humanity!


thanks again guys.

j

sorry to hear about yer hood rich...and the damage to the other cars on here..that stinks.

 

No, no, no...You can buy a '99 bumper skin instead! Why would you get the old one, when someone else is paying you to get the new one!!!

If you do get the old bumper skin, add this front 1/2 spoiler instead of the OEM spoiler. Oh, and I think you need a new M2 radiator also.

 

Lazy bastards nothing. Sure, you can repair urethane, but the possibility of it cracking in the future is there.

Remember this....the BEST shops will repair NOTHING. They will replace any component that is even slightly dented or bent. You can fix anything, but it will never be as strong as it was before the accident. Even a slightly dented fender will never come out as smooth or straight as a new replacement.

 

I agree with Flybe Insist on new parts!!! When my car got focked up by hail they wanted to fix lots of stuff. I told them no focking way! They replaced the hood and sunroof part that originally they wanted to fix.
Your car is still going to be your car in a few years so get the repair that lasts....new parts!!!
Don't letthem convince you that it will be all good and cool. Thats what they want you to believe. But you pay alot for your insurance right???!!
So make sure you're paying top dollar for a reason and get new focking parts..
Sorry but I 'm trying to hammer it into yer skull...
New parts dammit!!!!!!!!!


BTW Goodfella that **** happened to me once. Did you have the pole in the center hood latch area on the hood ??
Please be warned all Fd owners wind will take that focking hood all the way back so be carefull!!!!

 

the front bumper skin isnt really damaged..just some minor scratching and bad paint....tis the fender that is farked and it is being replaced. the rest is minor enuff to be repaired.

though thinking about it I may get the jspec skin just for the hell of it...money permitting.

they are fixing my bumper (sand and repaint) because they will have mixed the paint and will have the bumper off anyhow....

the other shop was too lazy to fix both at the same time even though they quoted me almost a grand higher. (the more inexpensive shop was the one that came highly recommended from a collector friend).

the shop that did not want to fix it wanted to do a blend into the door (black is not a good color to blend as it will show horribly with time)....Id rather they used the paint on the bumper...they could have offered to do so....you see..the bumper was not damaged by this accident...I just wanted to get it painted as part of the deal. I bring them a couple grand in work and they paint my bumper as a reward hehehe.

If they do so...they get a repeat customer when it comes time this winter for a full repaint....and if they do a good job.

goracer...i cant deal with that ugly *** spoiler. yikes. aint my style...Im more sleeper look and I like it that way. I like when people jaw drop when I open the hood and that giant intercooler stares em in the face.

I will be picking up a new lip spoiler though...whats the cost on those anyhow?


thanks for the input guys....your words made me think about the jspec front quite a bit...will let ya know if the cashflow allows...gotta get a radiator and toe and trailing this month....and brake rotors and pads for the front.

the list never ends

laters

j

 

As long as your lip spoiler is only scratched, search for a thread of a painted lip spiler, painted witht his plack rubber paint. I thought it looked better than stock and is half the priceof a new lip....

Ya, I cannot frickin beleive you got a note. UYou are one lucky SOB!

 

To have a devaluation (DV or demunition of value) appraiser look over the car and file a claim for that as well. Go do a search on Google for it if you're not familiar with it....

 

Sorry to hear about your FD.
You are very fortunate that the driver left a note with insurance information. THat's one cool person!

In Texas, there are plenty of trucks and SUVs. One big pick-up ripped my driver side rear view mirror clean off the door and didn't bother to leave any note.

J

 

Artguy on a side note...
Mkoch1 is going to be making some carbon fiber r1 lips soon.
Good luck with the paint.

 

thanks for the info!


j

 

As i remember... the quote from above is " to repair or replace with like kind and quality". As i was recently in a wreck with my newly aquired (3 weeks) 94 FD3S Silverstone Silver and black ( 1 of twenty four that year). As i have known personally the owner of the quality repair shop in county Prisim Auto Body, i went for some upgrades, paying the difference myself. Nothing thats not legal... we needed to replace the RF strut assy, thus i bought new Eibach Pro Kit springs, Billstien Struts and HKS sway bars... mounting with a beautiful set of :Widefoot Mounts" for the front sway bar...Awesome they are.."ART"... I had shop take the retail for the strut, deduct his proffit from that, put the ballance in my "labor account" and return strut to dealer..Apply difference from my labor account towards installing my goodies..You alone can choose where you take car for fixing.... by the law!!! Best of luck...if you have any questions i could possibly answer, let mr know.. Carter