I can totally understand my story is even worse. I was run off the road by an old lady (82 yrs old) on her way to, get this to a Bible Retreat. I saved her life by avoiding T-Boning her at 55 but smacked my beloved car into a guard rail on the side of a mountain after trying to pull a J turn into the other lane. Believe it or not she kept driving. After making sure my girlfriend was alright I literally chased the old ladies car on foot banging on her trunk to get her to pull over. She asked if there was a problem I said hell yeah you just caused an accident! So now you know how fast she was goin when she cut me off and I was goin 55 mph. She later made the statement that she didn't see anyone coming to which a witness replied I saw him and I was 3 cars behind you! She said she put her car into 'low one' to climb the hill. Can you image an 82 yr old woman in low one cuts me off at 55 coming down a mountain! Her insurance company refused to pay because I did not make contact with her car, so I had to hire an attorney and sue them. Luckily I had witnesses who were willing to make statements. I literally had to force the Sherriffs Deputy to take the statements after these kind people had been waiting an hour with me! The sherriff's dept then had my car towed and stranded me and my girlfriend on a mountain and refused to give either of us a ride to where we could use a phone. One of the witnesses was at a camp up the road and gave us a ride to his tent and we called on his CB to get a land line call out to my Dad to pick us up. So much for protect and serve!
The body guy that was recommended to me 1st started by screwing up the money received from the old ladys insurance company and told them the value the car was worth in crashed condition which they wriote down as intact condition prior to the accident $2500. My car spent 2 -3 years in a body shop promised at somewhere around 6 months I really didn't care about the six months cause it was free Winter storage. I was quoted $1500 I paid $750 towards materials, a new vinyl roof and the seats were recovered (on both counts the work was wrong). I called the guy constantly and he avoided me I kept saying I want the car back and he kept avoiding me. He lived in a small town and the guy who recommended him said rumor had it he had lots of interest in my car and was gonna sell it. That was the last straw I said I wanted the car now, showed up when someone had told me he was at his shop, cause literally he would leave when I came. The car was back together and already had rust bubbles on the finish. I went and picked it up by that time the rear main was toast and I was leakin oil from sittin so long. The work was horrible he was a real bondo slinger. He replaced a lot of cool original parts with crap and threw the originals out, the bill more than doubled to like $5,000 remember he screwed me and I only received $2500 plus had to pay a lawyer to get that. I also had brought a parts car he took stuff off of and then had it crushed. He sued me for the difference plus interest at like 10% which I had to hire another attorney , he lost cause he couldn't produce any evidence any work had been done.
I am just happy to have gotten my car back I know it is a Gran Coupe not a Cuda, as I am reminded many times. It was the first car I ever owned and has so much sentimental value to me. I would never be able to afford a car like that now given the crazy prices, hell I can barely afford parts.
I count my lucky stars that I am now fixing the work myself and a great friend of mine is helping me with all the fabrication and serious paint work. This has been a long time comin since the car hasn't been right since like 1986. I know we don't have the quality of tools or day to day experience of a 'real' body shop, but I can say that I did the work myself with my buddy Dave.
I guess the moral is, your story sucks and I can totally identify with the frustration, but you have your car back and that is what is most important!
If you are anywhere near Upstate NY I can give you a name of a guy who I think is pretty good I can't afford him but he knows MOPARs.
PS this is about half my story of woe!
Sean
