Very sad week since tuesday!!

[greasemonkey6886]

Well the week started out good untill tuesday evening after work. Got off and was on the way to help a friend out with his car when an idiot pulled out in front of me from a stop sign. Locked my breaks down and tried to mis her but.... you guessed it KA-BLAM. Good news is that no-one was hurt to include her two very young children that were in the car with her. Really good news considering I hit her in the drivers side rear door right where one of her kids was sitting in his car seat.
Now my beloved project Step-child sits in the driveway with a mangled front end just 20 days after getting her registered for the first time in four years of actually owning her.

And the worst part of it

Yep that is a bent frame your looking at in the last two pics. Just the front 6 inches or so on both rails but it's still bent.
Now waiting on the insurance company to come look at it. Bad part is going to be keeping them from totalling it. I'm not getting rid of her or parting her out after all the work I've done to her. If they total her out then It will be a lot more work to put her back on the road because here in Ga. all the work has to be done by certified tech's and then state inspected in order to be "road-worthy" and able to get a tag again.
Any suggestions for the rebuild or dealing with the ins. company? Already know not to settle for anything less than replacement value and not "book" value.

Thanks
Paul

 

[adsm08]

Frame swap. Find one that was rolled or the body rotted away and get the frame, but your shell on it, and go from there.

That will be the easiest way to fix that.

 

[greasemonkey6886]

Thats what I was thinking too. Anyone know how hard the metal inner fender supports are to remove and replace? I know they are just spot welded to the cab but is it a royal PITA or not too bad? I know the core support is also welded to them but that works fine because mine is toast anyhow.

 

[adsm08]

I'm pretty sure it involves a drill and a drill doctor.

I have not attempted this myself.

 

[chrwilkins30]

core support is actually pretty easy. inner fenders I have no idea.

 

[TwoWhels]

Had to change mine.
Got spot weld drill bit/cutter
lot of drilling/ battery packs went dead at JY had to come back the next day with recharged battery's.
sheet metal screws holding it on now, done in 2004

 

[greasemonkey6886]

That is pretty much what I thought. I will weld mine back on once I get it back together. Also thinking about boxing in the front portion of the new frame in the area in front of the sway bar mounts. It was designed by Ford to bend in case of a crash but it also causes you to replace frame.
Checked last night on the local u-pull jy website and a frame only cost's 109.99 but the hassle of stripping down to a frame at the jy may over-ride the cost. may wind up cheaper to buy a whole parts BII and go that route.

 

[adsm08]

Never hurts to have more spare parts.

 

[greasemonkey6886]

Very true!! I keep going with my parts collection I will eventually have enough to build a whole truck LOL!!

 

[jhammel85]

Is there any way to have the frame pulled at a shop?

Otherwise I would also say to swap the body onto a better frame. Sorry for your luck man...It'll pay off!

 

[greasemonkey6886]

It may be able to be pulled back. i had my wife check with a few shops she delivers parts to and they are saying that it would cost somewhere around $90 just to set up the frame machine then between $100 and $500 to straighten it depending on how bad it is. Of course to get an accurate price I am going to have to get to them.
I was looking at it yesterday and it looks as though it has been welded on the pass. side already at some point. It also has a small crack in the same area so it might be better to do a swap anyhow.

 

[adsm08]

Very true!! I keep going with my parts collection I will eventually have enough to build a whole truck LOL!!

I used to say that when asked about why I kept parts that I took off my truck. I'd tell people "eventually I'll be able to build a whole extra truck, it just won't work."


No, if you think the frame has been repaired in the past, I wouldn't mess with trying to straighten it. Do the body swap. Then if you really want, hang onto the old rolling chassis and build yourself a replacement section for the front out of box-channel and repair it that way.

 

[CraigK]

Guaranteed write-off.

That's the problem with restoring these things. I was offered $800 "book value" for my '87 BII with 123,000 miles. Your best scenario is to fight them over the value (use receipts for all your parts/work and values from AutoTrader etc. - the longer you go without accepting an offer, the higher they will go), then when you do settle (it WILL be a write-off), buy the vehicle from them with the salvage title. I ended up with $1700 plus my BII, which I fixed up and still drive (with some crumpled bodywork).

CraigK

 

[unoleisu]

Reminds me of my first car...an AMC Spirit. I was a college student and driveing to school one morning after an ice storm. went sideways and ended up sliding down a ditch, and dropping into a creek. The front end was smashed like yours, and the passenger side twisted upwards. I had to pull the fender and bash it out with a framing hammer so the wheels could turn. Car tried to spinout on wet surfaces.
Headlight was baling wired inplace. (I had just financed it 2 weeks earlier, and needed it to get to school).
Got pulled over by every cop in town many times. (used to run up alleys and down side streets to avoid them) One day, the Chief of Police pulled me over. Didn't want to hear my "poor college student" story any more. (I was notorios, apparently), and told me he was issuing an order that if I was caught driving it anymore, I was to be arrested and car impounded. (no sense of humor)
I think it's fine. Has some personality. drive it!!

 

[greasemonkey6886]

Well wound up setteling with insurance company for $2656.72 plus 7% sales tax. yes they done a total loss but I am keeping the BII without buying it back. They wanted to give me $2100 at first but I fought with them back and forth for a couple days disputng there comparibles and them disputing mine that I gathered.
Now comes the job of getting her put back together. Good news is that now I will have the money to do some of the things I didn't originally have the money for. So I guess in a way this turned out to be a blessing.

 

[AZFX4]

$2600!!!? Damn maybe I should wreck mine!

 

[greasemonkey6886]

I hear ya AZFX4!! I wouldn't wish this on anyone though. I was almost in tears when I climbed out of her and seen the damage. All that work and time that has been spent getting her back on the road ruined in a couple seconds because someone decided not to stop at the stop sign.
That $2600 is based upon replacement cost. Didn't realize how much these little things are selling for untill this. Look up ones for sale at dealerships on the web at like carfinder.com or something like that. You would be surprised how many are at dealerships for one and then by how much they want for them. It was a learning experience to me that's for sure.
Looks like they are going back up in value after hitting a rock bottom. Probably getting old enough that they are considered classics now. Getting kinda hard to find also.

 

[unoleisu]

SCORE!
I'd buy an earlier model Explorer for about $700 and strip off everything usable. Swap all the 4X4 parts (fix the frame while yer stripping the BII down) Sell all the left over usable components on Craigslist, and pump that money into the BII as well. You have everything you need to make a great truck.
__OR__ Find another BII as well, cheap, and use the parts from the first, and the EXP to build a great truck. keep the first one for spare parts later.

 

[country0001]

I grafted my inner fenders on. You can see how I did it in my build thread.

 

[greasemonkey6886]

Well I already have the 4.0 in her and a pair of axles from a 91 Exploder waiting for her. Problem with the axles is that they need gears and lockers but that is do-able. Don't think 3.55's would work well with 33's LOL.
Biggest thing about straightening the frame is that the frame I have found to have been "worked" on before with a welder. Didn't show up untill the crash and the undercoating flaked off where it bent. So a frame swap is in the cards now.
Georgia law states that the work to restore a salvaged title vehicle MUST be done by licensed rebuilders(body shop) and then be inspected by a state inspector. So I cant do hardly any of the work myself. Good news is that I found a shop that will do the sheet metal replacement for $750.00 and they have a couple of inspectors that they work with all the time and have a good relationship with. They also said that they aren't that fussy about the inspections.
As long as the frame isn't noted on the insurance company paperwork I will be able to replace it myself without any problems. I will find out as soon as I get the paperwork. Should be in the next couple days.