Building a Wagon Queen Family Truckster.

You have a military ambulance? You lucky dog! IIRC, that's a WC54 or 56 chassis? From what I could see, that's what I think it is.

And yeah, if the wagon were mine, I would be stripping everything off from the front doors forward, and if you didn't make a pattern, I'd grab the sheets off the side windows to bang them out and use them to cut the new ones.

 

Yes and you did a better job of it.

 

Hell, keep all these pictures, especially the work in progress pics, and you can have a dang good story to tell when your showing off your future finished project. Gosh I hate that.

 

I keep wondering what the insurance company is gonna say.

 

Saw your PM on Tech, and man, I really hate seeing things like this. If you don't have any luck finding another car, I have one I would sell. It's a gold '79 Country Squire, 351 auto, has tan interior, the cut out front bumper, the sail mirror on drivers side only, and the trim that goes under it that isn't notched out for the pedestal mirrors, almost the perfect candidate for a Truckster clone. Its an original 81,000 mile car with original paint, never been wrecked and only has one small dent in the front fender. The dash pad is cracked, but i have a super nice 3 speaker dash pad that goes with it. I bought the car probably 6 or 7 years ago thinking I would build another Truckster, but if I'm honest with myself, I will most likely never get around to it. I don't know what part of Georgia you're in, but Atlanta is roughly 800 miles from me, so that may be a deal breaker. I'd like to get $4000 out of it, if you're interested I can get you some pics.

 

They'll say, 'Yeah, right, uh huh, $500." and that's when he hits them with a bill for all the work he did on the car, the purchase price of the car, all the receipts for parts from the junkyard, the materials for the sheet metal work, and says, with a boring gaze, "My lawyer's ready, I'm ready. You ever dance with the Devil by the pale moonlight?"

 

I've been lucky. So far only the one accident and the driver that hit me supposedly had good insurance. Since it was the middle of the nite, no one was around, and both vehicles were driveable we swapped info and I went to work with my one eyed truck. Mr Nice Guy, I didn't report them being drunk. In reality, out in the country in midwinter there was no one to report to. Cell phones and computers weren't invented.
I'll be durned, part way a State cop stopped me and was gonna give me a ticket for one headlight! I explained it and when I got home I had to rig up another headlight to the crushed fender. Lucky I had a VW beetle bucket, some bailing wire and C-clamps.
To make it worse, the other driver had no insurance so rather than go to court I paid the deductible on my truck.
Still it was all cheaper than the parts I'd already ordered to update the truck.
The moral of this story call a cop and fill out an accident report. Good luck with the Wagon Queen Truckster.

 

The Army Ambulance is a 53 Dodge M43. She is a Korean war vet. She was retired from the Army in 1980 and was used by the Forestry service until 1988 then she sat in a field in Minnesota until last year. We restored her last winter.

I'm not going to let them take the wagon. I don't know what to do with it yet. Seeing her in a junkyard just doesn't feel right. I do know where a good frame and body are. I will use the rear window sheets as patterns on the next Truckster and maybe this wagon will live again as another.

I am interested in the 79! Thanks a lot. I need to see what becomes of this situation first. If they just give me back my cash outlay I may be able to jump on it.

 

Well, that's great you found that ambulance and restored it. I couldn't tell, as I couldn't see enough of the front end whether it was WW II or Korea vintage.

Definitely do not give up the project car, and if you can, take U-WANT1 up on his offer. Then buy a cheapo for a throwaway DD.

 

Sorry I didn't get to take any pics this weekend, was going to on Sunday but it rained most of the day. I will get you some soon.

 

No problem, I'm in no rush. When ever is convenient for you works best for me. Thanks again!

 

Sooo. A little update with the Truckster. The update is I'm still dealing with the insurance company right now. I'm not going to go into the Medical stuff just the car claim. The medical stuff is going to take a little bit since I'm still not 100% healed yet, I should be able to replace my car with the medical settlement. As for the car, they looked the Truckster over and they totaled it. The guy that inspected it was cool and loved the car. He was an old car guy and loved the idea of a Truckster clone. But I won't be dealing with him.
The Squire is what they call an "off market vehicle". Meaning you can't just go out and buy one. I explained to them that this was a collector vehicle and I sent them numerous emails with pictures covering what I paid, what repairs were done and copies of all the reciepts. I included a list of modifications and time invested in the project. I sent them information of the Family Truckster from the movie and a copy of the ad for the Truckster that just sold in Texas for $39,900.00 (incase they say I devalued mine with ugly modifications). I then sent them ads for numerous comparable vehicles as well. Some of which had just sold for the price I am wanting. I'm am asking for realistic money, not "my car is worth 10x's market value money".

I got my offer today. Not only was it 30% of my total investment. The offer was less than what I paid for the car. The lady said they had to contact a classic car dealer for pricing and that is what they were told it was worth and she is not authorized to offer more. I would have to go through my insurance company or court. I argued that they are claiming I bought the car, poured a few thousand into it, got it roadworthy and it is somehow worth less than what I paid. She said that parts don't add to the value. She was also saying it was a Crown Victoria. I kept trying to explain it was a Country Squire and they are far more uncommon and more valuable than a Crown Vic. She didn't know what either was nor did she know what a Truckster was. I asked her to put an adult on the phone ......... a supervisor is going to contact me.

I have talked to a lawyer and if this was a 59 Eldorado worth 60k it would be a no brainer to hire him. As it is, I could hire a lawyer, pay for an appraisal then go to arbitration and get even less than the offer given.

Has anyone gone through this nightmare before? I have all my vehicles under Hagarty for declared value to avoid this but Hagarty wouldn't insure the unfinished car. We always end up insuring our cars after paint or completion when they recognize some value to the vehicle. Unfortunately the Truckster was still under liability only because it was not worth enough to meet Hagartys minimum value requirements.

 

Sadly you last line said it all... These vehicles have no insurance value to speak of. The only way to get any money back is under agreed value...with regular insurance a 1980's Ford wagon is basically worthless. I ran into similar issues in the past, and when I hit the deer in my '96 Roadmaster Wagon in 2014, I didn't even bother to report it....I just fixed it myself, knowing they would total it and offer me scrap value for it.

It's the world we live in. FYI the Roadmaster and my Camaro are both insured under agreed value now, but at the time of the deer hit I was still using that car more-often, not as just a toy. As soon as I rebuilt the Roady I moved to collector insurance on it, and it's a weekend toy now.

Sorry not to be more positive....

-Mike

 

Dang, that stinks.
I am sure Marshall will have some insight into this situation.

 

Really sorry your dealing with all this. I think dealing with insurance companies or just corporate America in general has taken years off my life. I rile up pretty easy. I don't know why but I just do. It's definitely not healthy. I don't even know you, this does not effect my life at all, but still, I could feel my blood beginning to boil just reading it. Squeaky wheel gets the grease. My wife is in home warranty branch of some development company , and stands by this cliche. which now that I'm typing this im wondering if my dear sweet, loving and generous wife is not one of these crooked, cold hearted, bean counting, nitwits. It's good you have all that documentation. Send it to them again cause it sounds like they didn't get. Then maybe send it a few more times. I use the same insurance for everything and when I put the insurance on the wagon i got the lowest amount, bare bones. Basically a piece of paper to show cops. My real insurance is the steadily growing pile of parts in the basement. Unfortunately I don't think a pile of parts would help in your case. Unless they were piled up in another CS with a straight frame. Sorry to hear this, hang in there be persistent and don't give up!! Work all the angles! Oh yeah, and if it gets worse please don't tell us...my heart can't take anymore aggravations!!! good luck