Wrecked SC last night (long story)

phycobob

Registered User
Driving out to my friends house last night at about 9:00pm, right after replacing my spark plugs to my new NGK Iridiums. Driving around, the car felt much more responsive! So Im havin some fun. There is a parkway (sort of a mini-highway) that goes for about 3 miles stright to my buddie's house with three lanes, brand new, and perfectly flat with just a few lights inbetween. Because its new, not many people use it yet....not many except kids that realize its a perfect place to race. So I come up to a light minding my own buisness, and this guy in a little yellow chevy S-10 pulls up on my left, rumbling like crazy. I ask him whats in it, he says a 350 vett engine. Yells over and asks for a race...what the hell...my car feels fast tonight, I might stand a chance. Light turns green, and were off....pulls in front of me fast at the start, but his gearing was real short and midway through 2nd I catch up. By the time I hit 3rd, hes at the end of his gear again shifing to 4th. I pull in front by a nose at about 80mph. By this point he is out of gear and I leave totaly leave him at 110. I slow to a stop at the next light and he congradulates me, and takes a left at the light. By the next light, another car pulls up to my right. Its just another stupid riced out civic hatchback, full of oversized gauges, stickers, fart-pack exhaust, and a cartoon-like body kit. Three idiot college guys packed in a overstyled sardine can give me the finger and yell out in a drunken slur "were gunna smoke yur asszz!" So...still high off beating the Corvette S-10, I REALLY feel like embarrassing these guys. Light turns green, and its on. Stayed dead even with them at half throttle till the top of 2nd gear, then very blankly turned, smiled....and punched it. Phwooosh! The Eaton roared and screamed as I left them standing still. By about 3 car lenghts ahead, just to piss them off I decide I will switch lanes and get in front of them. I look back again just to make sure they are still that far behind before getting over....THEN IT HAPPENS. Out of nowhere my entire car is rocked from impact, and I look forward just in time to see the SEVERED leg of a 8 point buck roll off of my windshield. Oh my god I just hit a dear at close to 100mph. I pull off to the side of the road in shock not really aware of anything. Get out of the car and walk down the road a bit to see a very large dear mangled and twitching. :( I felt sorry for it so I broke its neck. I DIDNT feel so sorry for it after I saw my car.... Front bumper gone, hood and quarter panels crumpled in. A hole in the radiator, headlights gone, front beams torqued. Put in a radiator from u-pull-it this afternoon to get to work tommorow, luckly the engine still runs fine. Went to a body shop.....damage is way more than the car's value, at least $4500. Called my insurance company and they are writing me a check for the value next week. Its an 89' with 170k on it, so I wont get much. I've spent over $8k in this thing so far, so I've decided to just buy back the salvage title and deal with it. The front end seems stright enough, and if I replace the hood, quarter panels and repaint it, it should be ok. Im sorry about the length of this, but Im just sharing my pain. :( If anyone has some headlights, or a hood, bumper or whatever that they could sell to me cheap, I would really appreciate it. What a crappy weekend....
 
Nooooooooooo, :( Your car was soo sweet too. What do you consider cheap for headlights? I know a guy sellin a pair for $70. Dunno about the hood or anythin else tho
 
$70 sounds good to me...I'll be collecting all the parts once I get the check. Since I dont know how much it will be, I dont know how much I can do yet. I talked to a friend's dad about 5min ago that does paint work, and he said he'd re-paint her for $500 plus the paint and a 12 pack of coronas. :) Tell the guy Im interested Tazer. Actually, do you know if the LX headlights are the same? I would think so...probably could find them at a yard for cheap like the radiator ($100).
 
Man!

That really sucks man! I am willing to sell you the front end for $600.00 if you are interested dude. That includes the radiator and intercooler, fenders, hood, front bumper,headlights, everything!:D You pay the shipping!
dirtybird91@hotmail.com
 
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Very interested!

That sounds good dirtybird! Any idea on shipping cost? Oh, and what color is the front end? And is it the plastic radiator or the 89' metal one? I HAD a griffen hi-cap, the junk yard replacement was the stock plastic one from a 92. Unfortunately, no SCs in any of the local yards right now...I was going to pick up a 91 parts car for $500 a month ago, but then my power steering pump went out, and that was a $650 fix. I wonder if the guy still has that car? He said the body was perfect, had a newly rebuilt blower, and a new tranny, but that the engine was blown. I bet he blew the hg's...Anyway, give me a few more details about the front end dirtybird....
 
No

Id just like to say im sorry to hear about that happening. I guess you saved those ricer turds from getting hit instead huh. At least your SC got one good last kill before it hit, and even if there wasnt a vette engine in that s-10, your SC thinks there was and ill bet that makes it happy-- good luck rebuilding it.
-Damon
95 SC www.cardomain.com/id/frozenrope
 
That sucks big time.

Happened to me last spring. New fender, hood, lights, header panel. Never replaced the bumper cover, but it needs it. Radiator was o.k so I got lucky. I only hit it at 65mph.

frontrighthit.jpg
 
So sorry to hear about your wreck! :( At least your SC isn't going to the junk yard, but instead will be given a new life again! :D Good luck with the restoration.
 
WOOHOO!

Well, I got a bit of good news today. Seems that the claims adjuster valued my car at $4800, so after I buy back the salvage title ($500), pay the deductible ($200), and pay off the remaining bank loan on the car ($2400), I will have about $1600 to fix her up! That is much more than I expected, and this way not only will I own the car outright, but I might be able to fix a few other problems (ABS accumulator, exhaust, multi-function switch, etc, etc). mn12sc35th, I really appreciate it! Any idea how much to ship that hood out? Im in Vancouver, WA. Thank you all very much for your support...by the time Im done restoring her, I'll have put over $10,000 in work on my baby! :eek: But I'll say it once, and I'll say it again....my little money pit is worth every penny. Thanks a lot guys!
 
yeah....but

Im sure its a lot less than the $250 the local u-pull-it wanted for one! And if I cant find that right front fender, I'll have to shell out $300 just for that. Found out paint is gonna be around $300-500, plus $500 for the labor to have my friend's dad do it. New headlights are $210, corner lamps are $50...man this stuff adds up quick! :(
 
Watch the fender. Get the LX one and just drill the holes for the ground effects bracket yourself. It's much cheaper. They can also be found in good shape in salvage yards because they are the same on LX T-bird and Cougars. Since you are paiting it, it won't matter.

The expensive part, as you may have found, is the header panel. I paid nearly $150 from the dealer. If you can't find a used hood (I couldn't) the aftermarket ones are nearly the cost of the new ones. And the cowl hood from Cervini is nearly as nice as factory.

The lights can add up.

I think I got the LX fender quoted from ford for $120 new. I ended up finding an old cougar in a yard that had a good fender on it (little rust spot) that I got for $20.00
 
header panel?

Do you mean the housing for the headlight assembly? The front bumper isn't really that bad, the dear hit the hood and rolled. the front frame where the radiator is attached to is a little bent in on the right hand side, but a buddie told me we could use a come-a-long to pull it back into place. Exactly what is the header panel? Oh and I found a perfectly good fender off a cougar for $25 bucks today! :) mn12sc35th, get back to me when you can on that hood & shipping costs. I have the money, now I just need to do the work! On a side note, Ive decided to re-paint the car midnight black....stay tuned!
 
Sounds like your damage is a bit like mine. Great find on the fender. New parts are really quite expensive. Also note that the Cruise Control module is in the drivers side fender so if the fender is shot, the control module for cruise may be as well.

In the picture below you can see the gap on my car between the header panel (the black plastic) and the front bracing and radiator mount. The header panel is what attaches to the front of the car, that the lights then attach to. It's all one big long piece. (also highlighted a bit by the red circle in the drawing... But it spans the whole front of the car)

There's some other pics as well.

bentfrontexample.jpg

FrontClipDetail.jpg

rightfrontnofender.jpg
 
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Sorry, I keep forgetting to go get it (its sitting at my mom's boyfriends bus yard where my car was). I do also have the header panel I can box it up with the hood probably. I'm in the process of canging my front end to a 94-95. I would have a front cover too but it's torn up (the whole reason I decided to swap it) I didn't really want to have to bother with selling this stuff. I don't have the headlights either (they went to my v6 base bird)
 
Tell ya what...If you can ship out the header panel, and the hood using 3day shipping so it gets to me before next saturday, I'll just overnight express you a money order for $100 on monday. Does that sound good? As far as the bumper cover and headlights...dont worry about it. I've got a bumper cover now, and rksc90 is getting me the headlights. All I need now is the header panel and the hood and I can put her back togeather! I need to do it by next saturday though, because me and my friends are planning on taking a road trip from WA to AZ to see a buddy in the air force.
 
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