Waynos work truck.

[wayno]

I had a wreck in this truck today, came to a 4 way stop, vehicles on the right, nothing across or to my left, but when I come to a 4 way stop just before letting the clutch out I look left like I did today, then as I start moving I look right and here she was coming at me, I slammed on the brakes(I was not even moving 10 miles an hour) and skidded maybe a few feet and right about when I came to a stop she hit my right front corner and it pushed the truck to the side a little, her car sorta pushed my bumper and valance into my tire but she kept going and it worked it way up the fender, it pushed the outer sheet metal in a little around the turn signal area and rubber tire turned my turn signal lens black but it didn't break it, it ruined the Stainless steel trim around the headlight along with denting the fender around the headlight hole.
I can fix most of this myself, I have a fender and a few bumpers, I have the SS trim piece also, it's all about trying to remove the fender, I have never had them off before.
Her car(2007 Elantra) had thousands of dollars damage, she didn't stop till she was past me, it scraped/damaged the side of her car past the door and it appeared to have almost scraped her door knob off, the button sticking out was damaged but it still worked.
When the cops showed up less than 5 minutes later they had to tell her to not stand in the middle of the road.

[jtinluvr]

That was a close call.

[DRIVEN]

That suuucks! But you'll fix it. Sounds like she'll be shopping for another $900 car.

[wayno]

I cannot really do anything to it before all this stuff with the insurance company gets taken care of, I am really worried about them saying it is a total loss, I will not let them total it as it likely will effect my insurance as I am fairly sure my insurance company will not want to insure a totaled vehicle, and that is only one of the things I am worried about on that front.

[wayno]

After thinking about this for a while I have come to the conclusion that she had in fact tried to beat me across the intersection, I was a slow truck with a trailer and she floored it and that is why she never hit the brakes until after she had hit and past me.

[DRIVEN]

Any witnesses?

[wayno]

I am sure there were as there were cars behind her, but none of them stopped.

[jtinluvr]

I would guess if it goes to insurance there is a good chance it will be totaled. The only way to avoid that, and the salvage title would be to not make a claim. You could try and push the issue of value but if the insurance finds out the “modifications” you have done, that may only make matters worse. Might want to see if the lady would be willing to hand over some cash in exchange for you not making a claim against her insurance. The other possibility is ask your insurance if you made repairs yourself up to a certain dollar amount would they pay out then go after the other insurance to reimburse, although the repairs may only be what the deductible is.

[wayno]

I have come to the conclusion that I am not going to get anything out of this, it's sad but true, if I had not hit the brakes she would have slammed into the side of me and it would be totaled and there would be no doubt who was at fault.
I am just going to wait to see what happens now, if they claim it was my fault my insurance company will fight them, at least I think they will.

[wayno]

I got a call from the insurance company and they took responsibility for the accident damage to my truck which sounds like they are saying I am not at fault, I can move on now.
I shall start looking at my replacement parts and see what I have, I know that I don't have the front valance, I am fairly certain I have the fender, bumper, and the trim ring around the headlights on that side, I can put another turn signal lens on that side after I pull that area out about an inch.
It's too hot out there to deal with that today, I am showing 97 degrees.

[DRIVEN]

I'd be real tempted to try to straighten what you have if the fender and valence aren't too mangled.

[wayno]

I did this today, several bolts broke off, that lower piece of sheet metal lost all it spot welds along the bottom.









The hood didn't want to open, there was more damage than I expected, I will have to drill and re-thread several bolt holes, 3 out of the 4 screws holding the headlight buckets on had to have the head drilled off to remove it.

[wayno]

It's all back together now, I took my time and put a 1/16th" pilot hole in the exact center of all the broken bolts, then I searched what drill bit was used for each tap, they were 10NF32 and 1/4NF28, I did so good that when I drilled the tap clean up hole when I got almost thru the rest of the bolt spun the rest of the metal out of the threads, there was nothing left in the threads to clean out but I put the tap thru them anyway to clean out the rust in the threads.
I had to make a new capture square nut for that bolt behind the turn signal assembly.




Here is what it looked like when I started.


Next I put the fender on, this was my best fender of the 3 I have.


Next I straightened out the valance and then installed it.




Then I used my best bumper which wasn't all that great, straightened out the mount brackets and then installed the bumper, it's not as nice as it was if you want to even call it nice as it is just a heavy duty work truck.




Right after I finished for the day it started raining, I still need to install a radio antenna, this fender doesn't have a hole so I am going to likely use a pillar antenna, I also need to paint the fender/truck again.
I also got a call from the insurance company again, I had sent all the photos to them I had of the damage, this guy looked at them and I told him it was fixed except for the antenna and paint, he listened and then we talked some more, I suggested that pick and pull prices were likely the closest we could find for the parts I used to replace the bad parts, I told him I had about 8 hours into it so far of which some of that time was spent fixing broken bolts which were not caused by the wreck, anyway they are sending me a check for almost $1200.00 and the truck is not being totaled out, he said the truck could be worth close to $1900, I didn't say much about that, I just said I didn't want the truck totaled and he said it wasn't going to be as it was worth more with all the upgrades, he actually called me twice, after I suggested wrecking yard prices he said he would call me back, and then he called back and told me what they were going to give me.
I think there is more going on, I believe they have to give me something so they can say they dealt with me in good faith, I said I would have been happy with $100/$200 as long as the truck was not totaled out, they were not having that.

[wayno]

By the way I know I should have done way more than just putting it back together, like treating the insides of the fender with POR15 or something like that, but I just wanted it back together and it will likely outlast me, since I have pulled it apart everything will come back apart easy if I want to go that route.
Also that fender has trim on it, it kinda looks like B210 trim, I got some of that trim from Jamee but need to look at it, if it is the same I might add trim to the truck, need to use what I have around here.

[DRIVEN]

Sounds like you'll be okay. Might even have enough for a fresh 4 can repaint.

[wayno]

I don't like the fender a different color, it will get painted red fairly quickly, just need to get the pressure washer out and clean it.
I also found the trim Jamee gave me, there is enough there to do the doors except for one end cap, and only little pieces left over, none are long enough to do the left fender.

[DRIVEN]

Wouldn't be too much work to weld and smooth those holes since you're painting it anyway.

[wayno]

I was looking at the original fender this morning, I might see if I can save it and put it back on, I didn't really look at fixing it when I removed it, I just wanted the truck back in service for work.

[DRIVEN]

It really doesn't look that horrible in the pictures. now that it's off I bet you could do a lot with some rubber mallet work from the inside.

[wayno]

Well I got up and sat in front of the computer for a while, then I went outside and looked at that fender and a few hours later all is good again.






I broke the original antenna so I put this one on, the radio appears to work just fine.