need body work/insurance advice

[redbug64 at hotmail.com (Jason Arms)]

Yep, your '84 rocco IS going to be totaled.  No doubt about that.  The only 
thing you can do is get all your recepts ready to show the adjuster.  They 
will low ball you the first time, but you can fight it and they usually give 
ya a better deal the second time.
Once you settle on an amount that you will be getting back, then you tell 
the adjuster that you want to buy the car back.  Prolly you will have to pay 
around $300 of your settlement back to the insurance, but you get to keep 
your car.
At this point you do some looking around.  Find a body shop in your local 
area that is a "private" body shop.  One that does not work as a dirrect 
repair shop FOR the insurance companys.  This will garantee your car to be 
fixed RIGHT!  it might cost a littl emore, but its worth it, believe me.
It should cost you around $1000, prolly less to have the car "pulled" on the 
frame machine so all the door gaps and such line up again.  As long as you 
can unbolt stuff yourself, go ahead and change your own bumper etc.  And you 
have your rocco back, and prolly a little cash in your pocket as well.
I work at a NON dirrect repair body shop here in vermont.  My mk1 rocco and 
I were coustomers at this body shop before i worked there for a similar 
reason, this is what i did, and it workd out great. :)  HTH!





Jason Arms (Essex, VT)

'87 Scirocco 16v (mein Scirocco 16v befindet sich im Winterschlaf)
'81 Scirocco S (mein Scirocco MKI S befindet sich im Winterschlaf)
'78 Rabbit L (16v project to be for sale opon completion)
'64 Sunroof Beetle (livin' a new life)
'93 Nissan Pathfinder SE V6 (4.5" suspension lift)
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>From: Wolfsbrg8v@aol.com
>To: scirocco-l@scirocco.org
>Subject: need body work/insurance advice
>Date: Fri, 1 Aug 2003 16:56:03 EDT
>
>
>First accident in 20 years... a 16 year old girl, just got her
>driver's license, darts out across the road in a honda civic,
>no time to brake, so I cut the rocco to the right and mashed
>her door in, and also mashed my front bumper 4 inches to
>the right.  Also skewed the frame an inch or so, it looks like,
>as the hood is cattywonkus and won't open, and the passenger
>door won't open either, it bumps against the right fender edge.
>The rocco drives fine but the frame's gonna need straightening,
>I think.
>
>Anyway, I was hoping for some advice if anybody on the list
>has been-there/done-that -- somebody told me that since my
>car is an 84, their insurance company may not pay for the body
>work but claim the car is "totalled" instead.  Is there any strategy
>or way I can avoid this?  The claims adjuster hasn't looked at
>the rocco yet and I sure would like to get the damage fixed right,
>not settle for some paltry "blue book" payment amount.
>
>TIA
>Leo
>
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