Update, My 65 'Ouch'

[Tom]

I finally had an adjuster look at my car. He owns a restored 67 Cougar, so he understands the value of my car. He told me to take it to the shop of my choice, and he will get in touch with them. He said there should be no problems.

[fatherlarry]

That's great Tom! It's great when you find an adjuster that will work along with you.

When you find a body shop that is going to repair it, I would recommend that they replace the rear tail light body panel instead of repairing the damaged one. That lower panel is offered in a replacement. Make sure you ask them what company they use, and tell the body shop to leave the repair open for the insurance company until he sees every item that he may need.
With fiberglass, you don't know until you start getting into it, how far the damage can travel to other areas of the car, especially the upper panels near the rear window.

If any of your bumpers have to be re-chromed, find out the re-chromer he is going to use and tell him to make sure they nickel plate it first. A good tip with the rear bumpers is to have your body shop, before he installs the re-chromed bumpers, to paint the inside of the bumpers with silver rustoleum paint. I know it's dry where you live, but usually it protects from rust penetrating the bumper from the inside and making little stars on the surface of the chrome from moisture.


Make sure he checks the frame and rear body mounts, to see if they have shifted any. That's very essential with the C2's. It's very easy to tell if the body mount has moved any, by seeing where the last position of the bolt cap was on the mounting bracket welded to the frame. Also puts down for a four wheel alignment. And, have him remove the spare tire carrier. A lot of times the spare tires takes a lot of impact from a rear accident like that. I'm sure everything will go along fine. Ask your local Corvette clubs in the area, who does the best work in town. I'm sure you're aware of that already. By the way, also ask if their shop is lacquer ready. What I mean by that is, there are still custom shops that will do the repair in the original lacquer paint that was offered in that year. Thanks for keeping us posted.

[Tom]

My car is at Richey Collision in Houston. This Monday (10/18/04) will be three weeks. Richey Collision is a Corvette body specialist. They are still waiting on parts. This is a shop that will do the job right, or not do it at all. There work on Corvette's is awesome. As the work gets startd, I will post updates.