For those wondering, her she is and here's the story, Sad day, extremely upset Options

[Fastbird]

I was heading to work this morning, happy as a pig in mud due to some potential extremely wonderful news I found out late last night. Just putzing along minding my own business, not even speeding. Heading down the four lane road towards work, coming up on a traffic light in about a quarter mile. Lady in a light blue Hyundai Sonata that I'm about to pass in a couple of seconds (moving at slighty under the speed limit she was) decided to move in front of me apparently to go around another car. Irritating, but happens every day. About 150 feet from the traffic light when she was fully in front of me and I'd only released the gas to keep from running into her. Then the light goes yellow and she SLAMS on her brakes, nevermind she could have coasted through and made it. I do a VERY quick situational check to the right, see the car that's still in front of her not slowing down, and make a semi-panic braking move to the right. In the split second I made that decision, the right lane decided to slam on his brakes too, and I was left with NO options. I tried to make the seam between the two cars but there wasn't room and I hit a 98 Toyota Camry right on the corner of the drivers side rear bumper. Hindsight, if I had cranked the wheel fully right I may have been able to escape all together, but that's always a 20/20 scenario. Anyway, the Camry is out a bumper, put a fist sized hole in it. My baby (and my wife's moreso) however, is feeling it. And the worst part, I thought I was still carrying collision, which I am not. Preliminary estimate is for about $3500 BEFORE panels.

The aftermath:











There's also paint damage to the door, passenger a-pillar, and drivers fender where the hood is rubbing. The radiator support is fubar and the under fender support it's welded to on the passenger side needs pulling and repair. All components in the engine bay are OK, car runs and drives fine, just isn't "legal" due ot lack of lighting. The DCW SSIII splitter end mount cracked, but I can repair that myself fortunately. I'm also fortunate enough in that I have a re-enlistment bonus coming at the end of December, and our tax return after that will more than cover the repairs. Problem is we need it fixed asap, and with the economy being in the tubes I have my reservations on my bank (USAA) giving me a secured or unsecured loan for the repairs.

I myself am fine as was the other passenger, and the airbags did NOT deploy. My shoulders and neck are a little stiff, and my ego is severely bruised, but other than that I'm fine. Today is going to be spent debating, pricing, and sulking. My wife already mentioned doing a couple of upgrades we'd been talking about, being a Vis Invader hood, shaved markets, shaved door handles, all of which this is the time to do. So.......hopefully in a few weeks if things go right she'll be back and better than ever.

There is a parts WTB thread in the for sale section, we're looking for a hood, fender, and facelift bumper.

[Fastbird]

Update: Haven't been doing much of anything to her since I need to wait on my tax refund. Got GREAT news today though. I'm having the husband of my boss at my part time job (yeah, a female managing an AutoZone, she's cool though, has a drag car, ect) do the carpet in our basement here soon. He came by and we started talking cars, I showed him the wrecked Celi, he put me in touch with his body guy...........so that guy came by today. Took a good look over the car, and gave me this:

For the bare minimum to fix it and paint, and delete the side markers, $2K. To do the ENTIRE car to include shaving the door handles and glassing in and smoothing the transition to the ducktail spoiler and taking care of any and all little dents.....$3800. Needless to say, for an extra $300 over what the first shop quoted me, she's getting a brand new full paint job. Guy does good work too, had a Vega on teh cover of Super Chevy a while back, has a bike that's scheduled to be featured in a biker mag here soon, and I've seen some pretty impressive pictures of local work so far (he's going to take me around to some cars when we get a chance). Better part? He's got a hookup at the Toyota dealership, gets 30-35% off ALL parts.

So...hopefully in about a month I'll get it in the shop and we'll get rolling with it. Need to order the alarm and solenoids to shave the handles and do a remote for the trunk now though.......