Dude! That was my best car!
 

So I'm sitting at a redlight behind somebody towing a flatbed car hauler complete with car on top facing toward us. While we're waiting (wife n kids onboard) my son says "hey, wouldn't it be funny to wake up mom and say that car is going to hit us head-on?". He was thinking of that utube video we saw where someone did that and freaked out their passenger. Anyway, seconds later the light turns green and the dude hauling the car drives BACKWARDS ramming his trailer into and under the front of our car! :eek: Like first he said it, then it became real! Now our best vehicle is sidelined waiting on insurance adjusters to check it out. :(

Sorry to hear that, man. I sure hope it works out for you. Was the flat bed driver drunk?

That sucks.

No Rube, he was not. In fact, after going through the "stages of grief" he was very apologetic and polite. My guess is he was fiddling with his "smart" phone trying to get unlost (he's from West Virginia, the accident was in Bedford, Virginia).

The good part is that my insurance, his insurance, the rental agency and the body shop have all been very polite and helpful throughout.

The bad part is it's almost certain they will total the car because of it's age. I would much rather they fix it since I don't really have time to work on it myself. I couldn't possibly replace it with something in like condition for the book value of that car (I've been looking).

What'll probably happen is they'll total it, I'll buy it back from the insurance company and take the cash difference and make minor repairs and drive it in duct tape while I take the remaining cash to pay overdue bills.

Got a friend back in TN in a similar situation. Dude ran a red light, left hand turn into the driver side door of her Chebby pickup. It's an 03 model with low miles, 4x4, extra cab with a 5th wheel. She's thoroughly pissed (understandable) that his insurance co will probably total it. I told her to let them, buy it back and use it as long as she needs it, then put it up for sale. Someone with a nice cab and worn out drive train will buy it and just swap the cabs. I think she'll come out money ahead in the long run, if she just listens to me. Shame of it is that she had it sold and that was the last time she was going to be driving it.

Got the Satty back Thursday evening. They did total it and offered me $1200 for it. You can't hardly find a car for that price around here that doesn't have something major wrong with it or isn't completely worn out. Other than the lock issue and being dirty as all get out my car was ready to go anywhere anytime. So for just $200 I bought the car back from the insurance company and they gave us the remaining $1000 in cash. My dear wife has already found a new radiator for $80 that one of her friends bought but never used for their 2001 SL. I'll hit the junk yards for the rest.

Meanwhile we're having fun with the rental car that the insurance provided for us. For some reason they thought a 2016 Jeep Cherokee "Trail Hawk" edition was a suitable substitute. They must have heard about my 4-wheeling adventures in the Saturn :D. Anyway, this thing has more gadgets than we can shake a stick at and is actually fun to drive. What makes it more interesting for me is that it has that 9speed transmission. I work for the company that builds the machines that balance the rotating parts in that transmission. In fact, I have built several of those exact machines myself. So it's kind of strange to know that I'm driving something that I actually had a part to play in it's construction.

Sounds like you'll come out ahead. Congratulations on not getting screwed by the insurance company.

Got the radiator swapped yesterday.
There's the new and old together so you can see how bent up it was.
How did that thing hold water??

Well, aluminum and copper are both malleable metals. I guess neither reached the breaking point. I've actually seen radiators bent worse than that that still hold water!

The front mount heat exchanger on my redline is bent far worse than at, and still holds coolant... I dragged it in my moms driveway, and bent the bottom core backward under the unit, then straightened it(ish) with a crescent wrench... Still leak free, lol

I hate to see good cars go by the wayside because of a dumb mistake. Glad to see you are going to get it back running.

Oh no! I see this was last year. How have things turned out?
-Caryl
ps I always wanted the station wagon. :-)

This was just last month, it looks like the car is back on the road.

oh dear, blonde moment! I am glad to hear she is back, playing on the road. :-)

Conclusion at last!
 

I discovered that in Virginia a car will not pass state inspection if body parts are held on with duct tape. A rejection sticker is good for 15 days.
Guess what got pushed to the top of the priority list?

I finally had a chance to work on the Saturn and try to fix the bodywork yesterday but I had no money for parts so things got interesting.

First, removing the Gorilla tape was a chore in itself. Whoever came up with that inspection rule must have never worked with Gorilla tape. That stuff is NOT just another duct tape. Once that was off I was able to pull all the damaged body parts off. I had a damaged front bumper cover, shattered inner fender liner, broken lower support, twisted metal backing plate, side markers that had retaining tabs broken off and many of the plastic rivets were shredded or missing.

A propane torch carefully fanned across an area of that plastic fascia will soften it enough to mold things back in shape (several areas were twisted and stretched severly from the wreck). A couple of the tears I was even able to "weld" back together with the torch. I used a 16oz claw hammer to beat the metal backing plate back into shape and got it re-inserted into the bumper. Some scrap metal and screws patched up the bottom where it had been ripped completely loose. The shattered inner fender liner got a layer of Gorilla tape on the inside (where the inspector won't be able to see) to hold it together. The two marker lights are now screwed in from behind in addition to the one on the outside. Bulb replacement will be a pain but that doesn't matter right now. Fortunately I had purchased a couple of boxes of plastic rivets a few months back (so I could reattach the lower air dam when it got ripped off by a rock in the creek I was crossing. I never got around to putting it back on.) so I was able to use those rivets to replace the ones that got damaged in the wreck.

What surprised me was how easy it was to put the front back on and that it's only held in place by plastic rivets and the six little screws connecting it to the thin plastic fender liners.

Should pass inspection Monday and didn't cost me anything but my time in the freezing cold.

Fine job sir! And good to see you back!

I especially love how once you fixed it, the whole world turned upside down.

Just like my Dad used to tell me. If you don't have what you need,find a way to use what you have.

I admire both the repair work you did and the incentive to actually accomplish it. Having gone through about the same thing, an accident on a high mileage 7 year old vehicle which I had bought new totaled it. A vehicle I had planned on driving double the mileage on and was not replaceable at the at the value determined to pay up on. It was both mechanically and cosmetically acceptable yet had very little cash value and certainly one could not be found that was serviceable that could be purchased at the price. I did actually find a match (well sort of) at a dealer. A trade in that was the same year and mileage and in rougher shape but acceptable. The dealer would not accept my offer for the car which was what my insurance carrier was giving me for mine. I guess at the time while wrestling with the mental attitude of the accident itself along with the dire need to replace the van and Valeries extremely difficult lung transplant surgery and the questionable at the time my need for some resolution vascular solutions I can say that making rational decisions were questionable I guess I was trying to figure out who was fooling whom as to values of vehicles.
I ended up purchasing a one year old Dodge Caravan and both the gadgets that made up the day to day operation (as there still is are few not figured out as they are not in the owners manual ) the power of the 3.5L V6 being double or so of the 3.3 the other had but it was a 2007 and the performance of the 6 speed transmission is best described as awesome. points out that I have never seen such advancements in engineering over less than a decade in time.
The transmission of my '94 S coupe, a 4 speed with performance/ economy button is similar in concept and operation to the Dodge from a user's stand point, and it gets used. As does the same controls in the Dodge. But the Dodge is crisper in operation, the extra 2 speeds are usable and get used (a different mechanical standpoint as to how it works) and with a HP rating in the arena of the 1970 Muscle car level out of an engine almost half the size (200 Cu in vs 390 cu in) pushing a huge box vs a pony car the thing got 21 mpg on it last tank of gas in mixed city/freeway driving.
My pony car never gets better than 10mpg in the city although has seen 24 on the open road. But then again the Dodge regularly sees 24+on the open road with the double A/C on at some serious speed limit + some.
Technology has finally hit the automotive world! The thing almost gets the same gas mileage the Saturn S car gets on the open road.

Huh? 24 mpg highway from a 94 SC2? I have gotten about 35 mpg highway at 65-70 mph in both of my SC2's (95/97) since they rolled off the factory floor.

Must be the extra weight of the heavier 20W-50 you run in it :p:D:p