Frame and Panal Damage
 

I just got rear ended on Wed night. The passenger side end of frame and panel is bent bad. I don't think the insurance company is going to fix it. Just wondering if there is anyone out there who has fixed their mustang's frame? My car is an 87, 5.0, high output. I believe its a unibody?

It is a unibody. As far as repairing it, I'd get a hold of a good body shop and ask their opinion but it might be easier and cheaper to find another car and swap over what you want from yours.

Sorry to hear it, welcome to the site, hope nobody was hurt. That's the main thing, everything else can be fixed. Definitely need someone to assess how bad the damage is, and then get a game plan from there. Chads got a good idea with finding a solid replacement and swapping everything over. Tough to tell without knowing how bad the damage is.

Welcome to CMOC. First you have to deal with the insurance company. If they write it off and you decide to keep the car to fix, they are going to brand it. Who wants a branded car. Some good advice from Chad and AP.

Thanks guys. But I am going to do anything I can to keep my car. It was the car I grew up in with my dad. He is Ill and I bought it off him in promise to keep good care of it. There goes that, but I'm going to fix it. It sucks that the insurance will brand it but I want to keep it. I'm thinking the same is around the 7000 mark, but I won't know anything till Monday. Ugh. I am thankful I wasn't hurt, but my poor car :(

In that case I understand why you want to keep the car you have. To avoid a salvage title don't let the insurance company write it off. You can settle with them based on the amount of the repairs and they will issue you a cheque and allow you to keep your car with a clean title. What you should do now is start digging for as much documentation as you can find such as receipts for anything that's been done to the car, as well as other for sale ads with high asking prices to justify a higher value for your car.

It sucks too cause the car was in mint condition and completely stocked. Not a stratch on her. The only appraisal I got for it was 10 years ago, but my insurance said they use their own and won't take mine in to consideration. If I don't get what I deserve to get then it's going to be one hell of a fight! Thanks for all your info :)

A current appraisal would probably show higher than one from 10 years ago. The fox cars just seem to keep going up in value from what I see. How many km's and GT or LX? What province are you in? If it's got really low mileage I know there has been some pretty insane asking prices for them around Alberta.

It's an LX with 125,000 kilometers. I believe this cars value goes up?

And I'm in ontario

125,000 km is low for the year of car for sure. I've seen a few with well under 100,000 km and the asking prices were over $10,000. It seems like way too much to me but it's pretty rare to find something mint with extremely low mileage I guess. The coupes seem to go for more than the hatchbacks too though.

I went on Auto Trader and printed off some of the asking prices that are closer to the 10,000 mark. I just hope that if they decide to write it off that they will give me an amount close to the appraisal, even though its 10 years old. Guess I will find out sometime tomorrow. I also have to be prepared to pay roughly 8,000 on a new frame, as I still owe 9000 on the car. And there is a chance that the frame could be too damaged to fix, is that correct?

You can't really replace the frame as it's part of the body of the car. It can be repaired though and probably will be an expensive repair. As I mentioned before it would be better for you if they don't write it off. Once it's a write off the title is branded and the vehicle needs to pass a salvage inspection to be put back on the road. Depending on how strict the Ontario inspection is a repaired frame may not pass.

Here in Ontario, if you have been in an accident and the police and insurance company have been notified it will be recorded with the amount of damage to the car. This will show up in public records for other insurance companies, CarFax , Car Proof etc. Now if the $9000.00 you owe is a secured loan and the insurance company write it off, the insurance company will cut a cheque for the amount of the claim minus the deductible and it will be made out to you and the securer. You can still keep your car, but probably will have to buy it back. Also you will have to fight to keep it from being branded. This is not written in stone, but close enough to what will likely happen. This is only based on if the car is a write off.

Just my 2 cents.