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Originally posted by iceman302:
Damn it! That thing was very clean. As a general rule, I always have my Mustangs insured for agreed value. Even my Raptor has additional insurance to cover the mods. My GXP had $10K worth of extra coverage.

Gather all of your receipts, find as many comparable cars as possible to reinforce the value, and pay to have a custom vehicle appraisal done. Those things will give you the strongest legs to stand on. Then, submit a claim to your insurance company and negotiate like mad. They have a duty to deal with you fairly. Let them seek reimbursement from the other insurance companies involved.

Once you've settled on a value with your insurance company, negotiate the salvage value. If its low enough, buy it back and use the parts for another build or sell them outright.

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Originally posted by stangin':

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Originally posted by iceman302:
Damn it! That thing was very clean. As a general rule, I always have my Mustangs insured for agreed value. Even my Raptor has additional insurance to cover the mods. My GXP had $10K worth of extra coverage.

Gather all of your receipts, find as many comparable cars as possible to reinforce the value, and pay to have a custom vehicle appraisal done. Those things will give you the strongest legs to stand on. Then, submit a claim to your insurance company and negotiate like mad. They have a duty to deal with you fairly. Let them seek reimbursement from the other insurance companies involved.

Once you've settled on a value with your insurance company, negotiate the salvage value. If its low enough, buy it back and use the parts for another build or sell them outright.

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great advice. assuming you have full coverage, deal with your insurance company would be easier and your best bet. hopefully, you're insured with a decent company that won't dick you around.

remember, DO NOT take their 1st, 2nd, or 3rd offer. stretch it out as long as you can and ask for the moon. they will offer some ridiculous low amount, you counter with a ridiculous high amount. don't settle until you get what you think it fair. just haggle and haggle until you're tired of the situation. they will want to close the case asap, but don't let that happen. each conversation should end with a better deal each time if you play your cards right. good luck.

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Exactly. This is a long story but here goes...

I bought my first Mustang (an '87 LX hatch) a month before my 18th birthday in 1995. I loved that car and sunk every dime into it over the course of almost 5 years... built 306, Tremec, built rearend, full suspension, stereo, chrome Ponies, etc.

The car had 78k when I bought it but 5 years of commuting from Roseville to UC Davis really racked up the miles. It had 184K on it went it went to the glue factory in November of 1999. Let's just say that bald drag radials and a downpour don't mix. I spun the car backwards into a decorative rock median at around 40 MPH. It broke 3 out of 4 wheels, the front suspension was toast, and it ripped the welded subframe connectors right out of the floor. The car was so tweaked that the hatch was pinched tight on one side of the roof but you could stick your thumb in the other.

Fortunately, the accident was deemed a "no fault" and I reached out to my insurance company. I told them that the car was basically new mechanically and I had a folder full of receipts for all of the parts and labor. They said "no problem" and that they would account for the mods. Their first offer? $2800. Big problem. I damn near threw the phone but I held my composure and told the lady to call me back when she had a reasonable offer.

$3500... No.

$4000... Nope.

She got up to $5000 and dug her heels in. This was after a couple months of haggling. I told her to get her supervisor involved. I got him up to $6000. He told me "not a penney more". I responded that they had a duty to deal with me fairly, that I'd provided everything they had asked from me, and they had basically dicked me around for 3 months. I also politely let them know I figured the arbitrator would have a little problem with the fact that my independent appraisal came in at just shy of $11K.

The appraisal and threat of arbitration reopened the doors of negotiation. It finally crept up to $9K and they told me they wouldn't go any higher. Arbitration was the next step. I negotiated the salvage value down to $300 and told them I would walk away if they cut me a check for $9K and I got to keep the car. I think they were so sick of me by this point that they agreed. I parted out that car for every nut and bolt. I got another $6500 from all the parts... a total of $15,500 on a car that was probably worth a little more than half that.

Not a bad end to the story... except its not quite the end. My second Mustang (a '91 LX hatch) was even more built than the first. It was a beautiful car with higher quality parts than the first... Emerald Green, 331, Tremec TKO, Boyd Coddington Timeless 5's, the works.

The '91 didn't meet the same fate as the '87 but I did hit a very large dog in the dead of night on a dark stretch of Greenback. I did some damage... mostly to the bumper cover and headlight. I got a quote for the repairs and headed to meet the adjuster.

It was the same damn lady that handled the claim on the '87! I cringed. My estimate was quite a bit higher than theirs. She didn't even blink and wrote me a check on the spot for my repair estimate. She clearly remembered me.

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'65 Mustang Fastback

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Originally posted by Nasty Notch:
A quick question say for example your car is built from the ground up and u purchase alot of the parts from the shop owner but the are used but everything has Ben documented and receipts have been wrote out for all the parts and the labor and something like a accident happens will the insurance company pay for the labor and parts or do they have to be brand new purchased parts.... sorry if I'm jacking your thread

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Originally posted by 50Reasons:
Sorry about your car but the main thing is your ok and you can always build another one I know it will be a pain to do again though .

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