accident update, paint questions

[treed2 at wsu.edu (T. Reed)]

Hi everyone,

So I've been in touch with the insurance company of the guy that drove in 
to my baby. They still haven't "established" which party is at fault but 
it's pretty obvious, and I believe it's even in the police report that the 
other driver admitted fault.

A rep called and said he needs to take a statement from me, and that "if 
you desire to have us inspect the car", he needs its daytime address and a 
phone number.

"If"? That sounds optional. I'm not sure what to do here. If I don't have 
them inspect it, he may simply offer a puny settlement. If they do 
inspect it, they will either total the car or offer me a puny settlement, 
or both. Part of me thinks that if I don't have them come, they might give 
me the money they would have paid their insurance goon to come look at it, 
but the other part of me thinks that's ridiculous and acknowledges that 
they are greedy scum-sucking bastards who don't want to give me a dime.

The damage really isn't -that- bad, I'd like to think they won't total 
it.. the hood can just be unbolted and replaced. The most difficult-to-fix 
damage is that the top "tray" part of the core support is bent in an inch 
or two and pinching the driver side hood latch. Incidentally, this is 
where the headlight bracket attaches at the top, so I can't "fix" my 
headlight situation until this gets repaired. In the mean time I'm trying 
to avoid driving at night, how convenient.

It seems to me that the shop can just cut a core support "tray" out of a 
junkyard car, strip it, prime it and paint it and weld it in place. Of 
course I'd like brand new parts but lets be realistic. Still, it seems 
within the realm of any half-decent body shop's capability.

But that's only what I can see; it'll be up to the body shop to determine 
whether the hood hinges are bent, and whether the core support is a 
candidate for full replacement (not sure if the bottom mounting point for 
the headlight bracket is bent too.. though certainly not as much).

I can't foresee any "surprise" damage to anything other than the core 
support, hood, headlight, hood hinges, fender edges, and the piece under 
the windshield. But the later three would be relatively minor compare to 
the first of those three. Who knows..

Again, see:

http://www.wsu.edu/~treed2/pic1.jpg
http://www.wsu.edu/~treed2/pic2.jpg

Obviously, the next step here is to take the car for estimates to several 
different shops in the area so I can "arm" myself with some real numbers.

I've heard that I should also wash + vacuum if the guy is coming over. 
Sounds like a good idea but I need to be careful not to damage the crash 
area further (the paint in that area is peeling off like skin on a bad 
sunburn)


...


So here's the next question.

Let's assume they agree to fix it, and the core support (maybe just the 
top stamped tray piece) gets painted, the chips on the 
under-windshield-piece and the fender(s) get touched up, and the hood gets 
replaced and painted.

Now the problem is, I need to take this car back to school around January 
5th. Right now I'm in Seattle, which has moderate 35-45 F winter temps. 
School is an icy frozen tundra, where the temperature frequently drops to 
5-15 F and a foot or more of snow falls overnight.

It can't be the best thing for new paint to wind up in this kind of 
environment a week after it is sprayed on..

I searched the net and couldn't find any specific advice against taking a 
freshly painted car (or just "hood") to a very cold place, but common 
sense tells me that if it's not fully cured, the evaporation of the 
volatiles in the paint will be on "hold" until it returns to a warmer 
climate. Also, any moisture in the paint could freeze and expand, 
introducing small imperfections in the paint job.

It's out of the question to leave the car in Seattle and "go without"; 
it's my daily driver and only car. I have a feeling that the insurance 
company will not pay for a rental for a month while my paint cures in a 
garage.

So, any recommendations? I'm trying to make my life not-miserable as a 
result of this not-my-fault accident, but at the same time, I don't want a 
car with thousands of tiny cracks in its hood and core support paint.

Thanks for any advice

-Toby

(and thanks to those that responded to my earlier post)