My Wagon Got Rear Ended Today

About 10 years ago, I had just finished a restomod on a 73 Dart. So fresh, you could still smell the engine paint cooking. I was stopped, in the left turn lane, with a car behind me, when a crash happened in front of me with a car making a turn and one going thru. One slid in to my car and smashed the left front pretty good. After the cop was done writing one driver a ticket, and the wreckers were showing up, I removed a fe nder brace from the fender and pulled it away from the tire, and drove away with my accident paperwork.
I called MY AGENT to report that I'd been involved in an accident, and he set me up with an appointment at their claims center. I went for my appointment, and they had me drive my car in to one of their bays. I was sent to the waiting room. I watched as adjuster after adjuster came out, looked at my car, raised the hood, started it up. Finally, I got called in to an office, where I was informed by a lady that, while it is obvious I had spent a lot of time and money on the car, they were unable to locate parts for it's repair. They told me to come back with the keys and title and they would write me a check on the spot for $500.00.
I was furious! This was MY insurance company, and I wasn't at fault, and wasn't ticketed. I called my agent back and he said, oh, that's just in case the other insurance company won't do anything. I asked why I was paying the kind of premiums I was to get a 500.00 check in the end, and lose my car.
The other insurance company sent an adjuster, who looked at the car, and offered to pay me $1200.00 on the spot to fix my car, and I keep it. I remember the replacement parts from the pick-ur-part was $100.00, and I had them on in a Saturday morning. I got the fender painted and pocketed the rest of the money.
Incidently, I don't have that insurance any more............
Bill

 

I would bet that the tailgate is repairable. Not easy, but if you can't find an easy replacement, I know people that could fix it.

 

1969
Lid/Gate
Dodge Monaco GLASS GONE,1 TLP BROKE $150 Bud's Salvage USA-OK(Aline) E-mail 1-800-375-2837 1-580-463-2424

You can also try CTC Auto Ranch. They hace a '73 Sport Suburban http://www.ctcautoranch.com/Parts%20Cars/Mopar/C-Body/C-Body%20Sub-Pages/C-Body.html


And John's Salvage in Seguin is great. http://www.johnssalvagecompany.com/johnssalvagecompany_files/Page1341.htm

Good Luck!

-Mike

 

Anything is repairable the question is "Is it worth repairing" In this case no. I have a good 71 Plymouth Suburban tailgate that I will cut out and weld im my Monaco tail light openings into if I don't find a good one. I called on the one in OK and he said it needed 5 hours work which means it's pretty rough. Murray Park has a good clean one for $350 so right now it looks like that's the one I'll go with. Shipping is the killer, $200-$250. I might as well ship a good one rather than a rough one. Right now though I'm still waiting for the adjuster. He called me Monday and said he'd be here Thursday (Yesterday) but no sign of him. I guess they'll get tired of paying for the rental car at some point LOL.

 

Might try Fastenall for shipping - real reasonable and they have a lot of locations, if the yard will co-operate.
Cost me $50 to get a crank from Fla. to Chicago - 3 days, undamaged!