I am not sure you are doing him any favors by not running it through insurance or making him pay up. That is what insurance it is there for and maybe those increased premiums will make him a little more carful considering this is his second driveway incident.
dean1484 said:I am not sure you are doing him any favors by not running it through insurance or making him pay up. That is what insurance it is there for and maybe those increased premiums will make him a little more carful considering this is his second driveway incident.
That's a fair line of thinking. Couple of thoughts:
The first driveway incident was a driving error. He rolled into his icy driveway too fast and couldn't stop (a tree stopped him). This was different in that he put the truck in park, removed his keys, and stepped out. If the shift lever wasn't in park, the keys wouldn't come out (I tried). There's slop in the cable/linkage and it didn't fully engage park. My side driveway is steep.
He's in college with his folks paying his insurance. If it gets claimed, he has no direct connection. His parents hold him accountable however they see fit, the car gets totaled, and that's the end of it. Maybe I can buy it back, maybe I can't. I'm not willing to risk it ending up in the scrapyard. It wasn't/isn't super nice, but it's a decent V8, four speed car done with factory Monza V8 parts. Nobody is making reproduction parts right now and it would be a lousy thing to see this one meet the crusher.
If he buys the parts, it impacts his wallet directly. He has a job at school and I suspect that we'll work out a payment plan. I heard back from a local guy today who has fenders, grill, header panel, headlight buckets, etc. for $300. I spoke to another guy who has a hood but we didn't talk $$ yet. I'm gonna pay him a visit next week. I have a fiberglass hood that I might use. The radiator is a good (all metal) unit that may be repairable.
Perhaps more importantly, he'll be involved in the repair. He's coming over tomorrow morning and we're going to remove the front end parts to get a better picture of what's needed. I'm hoping that he'll understand the impact by being directly involved in the repair. It would be a bonus if he developed an interest in working on cars.
Another variable is that he's been around for a couple of years now. It's possible that he could be around for years to come. It's a good opportunity for me to build a relationship with the guy who could end up as my son in law.
I winched the car back into the driveway this morning. The kidlet's boyfriend is coming over tomorrow morning to disassemble so that we can confirm the parts needed. I have a couple of promising parts leads. I think I have the headlight buckets - I haven't dug into the boxes of Vega parts to confirm. The passenger fender is definitely salvageable and the driver side is a possibility. My primary concern right now is the core support. If I can't straighten this one, I may be best off finding a parts car. They're out there but I don't need another car parked at the house!
That was some hard hit; even knocked the air out of the DS tire!
The amount of damage was shocking.
NOHOME said:That was some hard hit; even knocked the air out of the DS tire!
The amount of damage was shocking.
Hah! The tire was flat before the hit. :)
In reply to Motojunky :
You do you on this one. From where I am sitting looking through very narrow blinders I see a lot of excuse making and enabling of this kid.
But I am flying at 10,000 feet looking at this and only have five minutes of time invested in this.
Why not just let your classic car insurance deal with this? That is why you paid for it no?
Motojunky said:dean1484 said:I am not sure you are doing him any favors by not running it through insurance or making him pay up. That is what insurance it is there for and maybe those increased premiums will make him a little more carful considering this is his second driveway incident.
That's a fair line of thinking. Couple of thoughts:
The first driveway incident was a driving error. He rolled into his icy driveway too fast and couldn't stop (a tree stopped him). This was different in that he put the truck in park, removed his keys, and stepped out. If the shift lever wasn't in park, the keys wouldn't come out (I tried). There's slop in the cable/linkage and it didn't fully engage park. My side driveway is steep.
He's in college with his folks paying his insurance. If it gets claimed, he has no direct connection. His parents hold him accountable however they see fit, the car gets totaled, and that's the end of it. Maybe I can buy it back, maybe I can't. I'm not willing to risk it ending up in the scrapyard. It wasn't/isn't super nice, but it's a decent V8, four speed car done with factory Monza V8 parts. Nobody is making reproduction parts right now and it would be a lousy thing to see this one meet the crusher.
If he buys the parts, it impacts his wallet directly. He has a job at school and I suspect that we'll work out a payment plan. I heard back from a local guy today who has fenders, grill, header panel, headlight buckets, etc. for $300. I spoke to another guy who has a hood but we didn't talk $$ yet. I'm gonna pay him a visit next week. I have a fiberglass hood that I might use. The radiator is a good (all metal) unit that may be repairable.
Perhaps more importantly, he'll be involved in the repair. He's coming over tomorrow morning and we're going to remove the front end parts to get a better picture of what's needed. I'm hoping that he'll understand the impact by being directly involved in the repair. It would be a bonus if he developed an interest in working on cars.
Another variable is that he's been around for a couple of years now. It's possible that he could be around for years to come. It's a good opportunity for me to build a relationship with the guy who could end up as my son in law.
I have 2 kids (24 and 20) and I think the path you outlined above makes great sense. The guy is going to learn to be more careful through the hit to his wallet, he is going to learn some valuable skills, you and he will have some great 1:1 time and, perhaps most importantly, he will see the grace with which you are handling a difficult situation. All of those will be great life lessons for him. Bravo!
NOHOME said:Why not just let your classic car insurance deal with this? That is why you paid for it no?
I took the car off of the road a few months back, planning an extended stay in the garage for an engine swap, 5 lug conversion, etc. Didn't make sense to keep it insured for that. Yeah, I know... my own fault for getting sidetracked and not starting that work yet.
That said, I'm not sure I'd make a claim on my own insurance for something like this anyway. A few hundred bucks out of pocket is probably less expensive than the long term rate increase. A couple of deer strikes in recent years already has me feeling the sting re: insurance premiums. I have *cough* several cars insured and really need to thin the herd!
dean1484 said:In reply to Motojunky :
You do you on this one. From where I am sitting looking through very narrow blinders I see a lot of excuse making and enabling of this kid.
But I am flying at 10,000 feet looking at this and only have five minutes of time invested in this.
Interesting take. I suppose time will tell. Curious question: do you have kids?
Edit: I don't mean to come off as combative, but did you miss the part where I'm expecting him to cover the costs and provide labor? I'm not sure how that is enabling. An insurance claim is his folks' problem. This way, it's his. Admittedly, I am trying to soften the blow to some degree.
In reply to Motojunky :
Do you have the option of backdating the front end?
If so, I'd see this as more of an opportunity than a setback.
Woody (Forum Supportum) said:In reply to Motojunky :
Do you have the option of backdating the front end?
If so, I'd see this as more of an opportunity than a setback.
Yes, but, most of the parts I'm finding are available due to everyone doing the same backdating. Both of my prior Vegas were 70-73 with the more desirable front end. In recent years the newer front end has grown on me. I'd be happy with either.
That's a surprising amount of damage for a driveway, rolling car hit. When I saw your title I figured maybe a little dent on the hood, bent bumper kinda thing.
Motojunky said:NOHOME said:Why not just let your classic car insurance deal with this? That is why you paid for it no?
. A couple of deer strikes in recent years already has me feeling the sting re: insurance premiums. I have *cough* several cars insured and really need to thin the herd!
Interesting approach to the task.
In reply to NOHOME :
This is not how I wanted to thin the herd! 🤣
docwyte said:That's a surprising amount of damage for a driveway, rolling car hit. When I saw your title I figured maybe a little dent on the hood, bent bumper kinda thing.
It's a long, steep driveway. Things would have been much better if the bumpers would have met. His bumper slid right over the top of mine.
The core support is a mess. I need to get a look at a good one for reference. It appears that whoever installed the V8 cut some of the structure from the core support to make it fit. It also had some rust happening on the driver side that doesn't help. I'm in the market for a core support/parts car at this point.
Bit of a drive but I bet they'd haggle down.
Motojunky said:dean1484 said:In reply to Motojunky :
You do you on this one. From where I am sitting looking through very narrow blinders I see a lot of excuse making and enabling of this kid.
But I am flying at 10,000 feet looking at this and only have five minutes of time invested in this.
Interesting take. I suppose time will tell. Curious question: do you have kids?
Edit: I don't mean to come off as combative, but did you miss the part where I'm expecting him to cover the costs and provide labor? I'm not sure how that is enabling. An insurance claim is his folks' problem. This way, it's his. Admittedly, I am trying to soften the blow to some degree.
Yes. 4 of them. You need a loaner? 😁🤣😜
Edit: ages 19-35
In reply to dean1484 :
How are they with bodywork? 🤣
Motojunky said:In reply to dean1484 :
How are they with bodywork? 🤣
My oldest daughter is actually pretty good at it. She has banged up the most cars. She rear ended an F150 with her Impala. Did very similar damage. She purchased all the parts using car-parts.com and replaced most of the front clip. Including the core support and the Radiator. Color me impressed. I guess all those weekends helping dad keep various POS cars on the road payed off.
Re the Vaga. I think that missing the bumper and not bending the frame is actually a good thing. Yes there will be more metal bits to replace but that car is simple. Once you have the parts it should be like big kid LEGOs. You/he will spend the most time getting everything aligned once it is all on the car. Just a bunch of fiddly work.
dean1484 said:Motojunky said:In reply to dean1484 :
How are they with bodywork? 🤣
My oldest daughter is actually pretty good at it. She has banged up the most cars. She rear ended an F150 with her Impala. Did very similar damage. She purchased all the parts using car-parts.com and replaced most of the front clip. Including the core support and the Radiator. Color me impressed. I guess all those weekends helping dad keep various POS cars on the road payed off.
Re the Vaga. I think that missing the bumper and not bending the frame is actually a good thing. Yes there will be more metal bits to replace but that car is simple. Once you have the parts it should be like big kid LEGOs. You/he will spend the most time getting everything aligned once it is all on the car. Just a bunch of fiddly work.
Paragraph 1: Nice work dad! My older daughter is pretty mechanically inclined too. I have a few proud dad stories there. The younger, less so. She did hang out with her boyfriend and I as we worked in the Vega.
Paragraph 2: I just did a front end repair on a Subaru. It's a beater so it didn't need to be perfect. Even that was more fiddly than I'd have liked. I'll want to do a better job with the Vega.
This ended up being more of a ramble than I intended.
I'm starting to think about the future for this car. Before the accident my plan had been to do some minor mods, clean it up a little, and get it back on the road keeping its current character. It was fun as-is and I didn't want to go nuts and end up with something that doesn't retain that existing vibe. My thoughts were generally:
The driveway incident has kind of upset the apple cart in terms of my desire for this car. I'm still in a little bit of a funk over it and can't get motivated to get moving on repairs. I assume that will pass with time. That said, I started thinking about what might make it more interesting. The one thing that keeps coming to mind is going for a better driving car. I'm lucky/fortunate/dumb in that I can find pleasure in driving just about any car. In its current configuration this car was fun to drive, even thought it really doesn't do anything well. It's not fast, it doesn't handle well - it just scratches a nostalgia itch, I guess.
So what would make it better? What is better?
The common route is to make it faster. There's a high ceiling there - just bring time and money. There is a point of diminishing returns in there somewhere though with easy drivability probably being the first victim.
The less common route would be to make it a better handling car. Assuming availability, springs, shocks, & sway bars should go a long way there. Improved braking should be pretty easy to accomplish. The immediate challenge is the heavy V8 under the hood that totally upsets the balance of the car. Engine choice is a thought exercise on its own. For the sake of the current thought, I'll assume something that makes modest power and weighs closer to the stock four cylinder.
The big elephant in the room for all of this is ROI. If I wanted to go fast in a straight line, it would be far more cost effective to buy something already done. If I wanted something to do well in the corners... same thing. For less than what it would cost to make this nice, I could easily buy something that is better at both.
When I really stew on the ROI question, I come up with two options:
1.) A low budget (including time budget) effort to get it back to where it was and just enjoy it as is. I really enjoyed cruising this car. The leaky sunroof and leaky engine were the only issues I had. With those two things addressed, it could deliver a lot of smiles. It would also make the car a whole lot more marketable if I were to decide to sell it.
2.) Dump it as-is. There's a lot to be said for this option. It also feels a little bit like quitting which turns me off to the idea. I have too many cars, and too many projects. Walking away from this one would help a lot in terms of time spent and storage space. I like this car but I don't have a strong emotional attachment to it. I don't need to own it forever but I also don't want it to end up in a scrapyard.
Those two options are solid and the decision is easy.
Are there other cars that need attention that you love more?
If the answer is yes, dump the Vega.
If the answer is no; simply fix what's wrong with it. Read fix the oil leaks etc., then just drive and enjoy it.
You are handling it well with the boyfriend, although I would take this chance to emphasize to the BF that there is a reason to take care of things, and to fix problems with his cars. If the shift linkage was operating correctly this never would have happened. You don't have to beat him up on this, but it's a good lesson to learn.
Also, on a hill, use the damn parking brake in addition to putting it in park!
If he does end up as your son-in-law, you'll always have a bit of leverage from this (cue cackling and an evil grin).
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