HELP needed after Accident

[Gee0]

Rear ended someone on my way to the 60th Bash
I will add more detail of the accident later. (when get back from the hospital)

Insurace company says because it involves all pannels front of the windscreen they will look to wite it off

It stil drives and the rads are all fine with NO fluid leaks.
The drivers door now rubs against the wing when I open it.
I thinks its panel and bracket damage.

The kind lady I spoke to suggested I opt for it to be looked at by a indpentant repairer.

SO to the HELP
Anyone know a good fiberglass repairer in the west-Mid.

Here are some Pics of my baby

[RayD]

Sorry to read about your accident Gerry and hope everyone is OK.

I’m sure you’ll have the car back in one piece in no time.

Ray

[Gee0]

Thanks Ray

Basically what happened was
We were crusing along about 45mph ish behind the camper van and there was a SLK on front of him. The guy in the SLK was going to the Kidderminster Harriers game and spotted the sign for parking at the last minute. (the small yellow sign on the right of the pic at the junction) indicated and slammed on his brakes and then the camper slammed did the same and then me, only I lit up my tyres and the guy in the merc spotted the smoke and noise and drove off, but the camper didn't have enough time to pull forward and I hit him in the back.

I did not see the SLK until the guy in the camper told me why he braked. SLK man drove up the road an came back help to move my car and then F.u.c.k.e.d off to the football saying it had nothing to do with him as he was not hit.

He did say if he had not pull away the camper would not have stopped in time and hit him.

I guess I was the unlucky one that ended up at the back and almost inside the camper.

Spoke to the insurer and did not admit liability as I believe the Merc driver caused the whole thing.
But as we all know I will get stung

The lady passenger in the camper did not realise they get hit she thought her partner had stalled the engine.(LOL)

On the plus side no one was hurt my wife and I are a little sore and I have soft tissue injury to my hand.

[Rambo]

Definately get a 2nd opinion Geoff - it doesn't look too bad to me How can they say it will be a write off if they haven't assessed the damage yet ?

Just a small observation - is that an oil leak on the pipe to the right of the turbo ?

At least you, the Missus and the occupants of the camper van are relatively OK

Dodgy Darren or Sy might no a good fibreglass repairer in the West Midlands ? What about asking Paul Matty ? Or even getting the car to him for a good professional opinion - as long as it's safe to drive that is ?

[Russc]

Glad to hear that you both walked away as safe and sound as you could.

To be honest i wouldn`t worry too much about what the ins co said at this point. The person you spoke to wouldn`t have been an engineer and they were probably guessing.

Get it inspected and take it from there. They can go either way, sometimes the smallest accident works out expensive and the bad ones not as much as you think.

Sorry to also be the bearer of bad news but I`m afraid it`s very unlikely that you will be able to apportion any blame to the other party. They will claim that if everyone had left sufficient stopping distance then the incident wouldn`t have occured.

Good luck with the claim, most go as they should. Once you have it inspected then you`ll know what to do next.

[Gee0]

Thanks for you comments Rambo/Russc

Yes everyone was ok thank god.


Re the ?? oil leak in the Turbo inlet/outlet (not sure thick it is) the one from the dustbin
I think that is just due to heat rather than an oil leak as I drove it 4 miles home without any problems.

I will have a look at it after work tomorrow just in case.
yip deep down I know I will get stung for the clam

[Jackonicko]

That looks like a very nice Elan.

If you have a classic policy, with a no quibble agreed value, then things will probably not go too badly awry.

If, however, you don't, then you don't want to get book value for the car.

Off-the-wall Devil's advocacy suggestion:

That doesn't look like bad damage on the VW. Why don't you pay for that to be done (if you organise the repair it should be easy to keep the bill down....) and pay for your own? Advantages: No-one claims on their insurance, you are guaranteed to keep your car, which isn't written off and does not have a value-sapping Cat C or Cat D against it's numberplate.

[dapinky]

Gerry,

Sorry to hear about the prang (Its never nice to see/hear about, but the main thing is that you are still about to talk about it) - bent metal is a pain in the @r$e, but flesh and bones are FAR more important.

I know that other things are well down the list of priorities in your thoughts at the moment, but just so as you are aware, I sold the BBQ tickets on (only after i found out you wern't going to make it), so that's a few quid not to worry about, and i've sorted out the HT leads with TigerDoug. Thet are in the dapinky parts emporium (aka the conservatory), and if you still want them, we can sort it out - if you dont (answer NOT required urgently!) i'll make use of them somewhere!

Nothing will hapen one way or another until you are ready to make an informed decision, whether that is this week or next year, i'm not bothered - they are safe! The circling vultures can take a running jump

[Sy V]

Gerry

I've said everything on the phone last night.

All

Let's try to give Gerry as much help as we can here - Silk Reds are as rare as hen's teeth so can we have a concerted effort of assistance here, please?

John's (Jackonicko) words seem pretty wise to me Gerry. If you can do it privately it'll keep the bureaucrats at bay.

Can someone post the details of the car that's getting stripped (and parts sold on eBay) as the consensus in the bar last night was that the clam and front bumper on that scrapper are in one piece and they're the only apparent stick-in-the-mud that could jeopardise this car's resurrection.

[Russc]

Looking at the damage to the VW i think it might be a bit too much to come out of your own pocket. Rear bumper looks like it has impacted on the rear panel. Rear panel is quite large and depending on the manafactures guildeines for repair could mean a big chunk of the rear being fixed. That and it may, only may, have affected the engine positioning in the rear.

Re your car give the insurance a go anyway. You don`t need to actually go through with the claim and can withdraw your side at any point you want, even after an offer has been made. By all means offer the other party the option of getting a quote, if they want to go through insurance there is nothing wrong with you dealing with their insurance co.

Who are you insured with at the moment? Feel free to pick my brains (won`t take long) if you want on the insurance side. I`m in the industry.

[Specky]

Sy

Clicky

I can't find his Tel No at the moment...

He should break the red one soon...



Most important Glad you're ok.

If you need to know where the Clam cracks and where the damage occurs in accident just let me know...

But in all honesty anything can be fixed....... and it's just a question of time and money...

and think outside the box too... Spalding man made just under six grand on the green one...

TTFN

[Gee0]

Thank you all for your Kind words and support.

Not going through insurance is not an option as the VW engine bay was touching the shocks

As for mine; funds are not really available to do it without insurance.
I need to get some quotes and see what happens then.

[Jackonicko]

I do need to ring Martin (the guy breaking the green one - and perhaps the red) tomorrow, so I'll ask about the front clam and bumper. The bumper certainly was still available a week or so ago.

[Gee0]

Thanks John

[Jackonicko]

No problem. He's a good guy (a Lotus driver) and if he breaks the red one (his wife's) it will be to fund a new one for her.

He's breaking very high mileage cars in common colours that really are worth very little. If I had a barn and the expertise to do it, and I had a 150 k mile Elan that I needed to sell, then even I'd sell it broken, because with £5-6K I could buy a better replacement than I could having taken £2k for the same car 'unbroken'.

I think that he'll be very sympathetic to someone who wants parts to save an Elan from death.

But if you're going to use my name, do drop the 'H'!

[Gee0]

Thanks again
whichever you perfer Jon/Jackonicko (sorry didnt intend to offend)

Yes all the help is very much welcome and appreciated.

Gerry

[Nige]

Gerry sorry to hear about your shunt but pleased that there are no serious injuries. I think all options remain open to you but my first impression is that time, money and the collective fund of knowledge and help that's here should be able to fix your car. I think panels can be sourced from other cars, the key thing will be whether the chassis has been bent. However, a straight front end impact at a speed I assume was considerably less than 45MPH the front crash structure should have taken most of it, Damage to glass fibre often looks worse than it is, its whats beneath the glass fibre you need to get profesionally assessed.

[Monty]

Gerry,

sorry to hear about the bad news

Does your elan have an agreed valuation? If so let them right it off and should beable to buy it back from the insurance Then you could etheir source the second hand parts and repair it or maybe sell it to a member who wants a project Elan.

From the Photo`s it doesn`t look to bad but until the clam has been removed you just don`t know whats damaged ie front crash structure, longarons, prongaron, ducts, rads etc

[Jackonicko]

Gerry,

Have just spoken to Martin. The front bumper from his green one has gone, but they do come up from time to time.

The front clam is still on the bodyshell, which sold for £155, but the buyer for that has not paid, and is about to have an unpaid buyer strike. When that happens, the front clam will be available again - along with the bonnet and driver's side headlight pod, which were sold to the same non-paying buyer.

If you're willing to pay a reasonable, fair price for the parts that you need, that would tip Martin into breaking the red one, which would get you every panel that you're after, and in Calypso, which may be easier to respray to silk than BRG......

If you were able to say to your insurance that you had those parts in hand, that might tip the balance between them writing off the car, and not doing, and all for a paltry investment of a couple of hundred quid.

I've PMed you Martin's number.

J

[Sy V]

Great work Jon. This is beginning to look promising.