legacycentral bbs

Well the best way to put my week so far is to call it the "Week From HELL"!!!!!!

Wednesday morning my wife took my 12yr old cat to the local vet to have him put down because his health & his weight were declining. That alone just put a beating on me all day Wednesday. Then after dropping my nearly mint '85 Chevy C-10 off to my wife to drive home from work at the local hospital I get home only to have her call me telling me that the truck is on f'n FIRE!!!!! I hop back on the motorcycle & race down to find the fire department hosing down my truck in the parking lot. I was absolutely ready to fall over and be shot/run over by a car/struck by lightning/etc. at that point. The best I can tell is that the starter shorted out and caught fire. I only had minimum coverage on the truck due to it's age...

I managed to purchase this truck only because I was at the right place at the right time for $1,000 from a friend's dad back in January of '08. It only had 86,000 miles on it & he was the 2nd owner and it was always garage kept. The list of engine & tranny mods were extensive because he used it to pull their dual axle camper with it. About 4 weeks ago I took an entire day out of my weekend & brought the flat and faded paint back to life by going over it with compound paste, clay bar and carnuba wax. I loved "Lucy" so damn much (yes, I name my vehicles) it drove my wife nuts at times.

She'll likely be rebuilt to better than new status, but it will take at least 2yrs to come up with the estimated $3,000 to gut it down & replace everything that was ruined.

Here's the carnage...

first off id like to say im glad ur wife is ok... secondly that truck looked like it was in very good condition to begin with. hopefully ull have her back on the raod and better than new. gl with the rebuild.

Thanks. My wife hopped out of the truck as soon as she saw the smoke appear. She's just as crushed as I am because she knew how much that truck meant to me. It equaled my love for my turbo Leggy.

That sucks. I don't think insurance would've given you much anyway unless you had them appraise it separately. At least that's what they do in MA, and even then I heard it's a fight to get your money on anything old.

At least the engine should be fine,just a matter of finding a lot of new plastic parts and wires.The body damage definately sucks.

Thanks guys. I haven't really decided if I want to part it out or bring it back from the dead yet. Only time will tell.

Well it looks like there may be a small peak of sunshine on this story...
My wife was looking over the insurance policy last night online and it seems as though my lazy ass never dropped the full coverage I initially placed on the truck when I purchased it ( 1/08 )!!!! So this means it was fully insured for fire damage... I'm certain that this will total the truck for sure, but I don't know that I will try to buy it back and bring it back to life. Depends on what they offer me as an insurance settlement. If I do decide to keep it, I plan on getting a vanity plate for it: PHOENIX.

Cool. Good luck, and don't take their initial offer unless it's somehow amazingly generous.

Damn Jason, that sucks dude! Glad Kate is OK but damn.......

Time to get the Leggy Rolling!!!!!!!

Yeah, she's coming home today. Still waiting to see what the insurance company is going to offer. I figured out at work if they take the truck & all the aftermarket stuff goes with it (ruined & usable), the cost of the parts new is $1,926... So I have a bargaining chip now.

Friends of mine have had luck with presenting the adjuster with current Craigslist, Autotrader, Greensheet, etc. ads. Adjusters don't seem to be swayed by KBB or other pricing services, but somehow seem to be accepting of actual "replacement value" ads.

Good luck! That truck looked clean.

Ok, the insurance company is only offering $2,276 with no option for negotiations...
On the bright side, owner by back is salvage cost by weight. Which comes to a whopping $181!!!!!!
I've also have one of my very good friends wanting to buy it from me to take the good body parts (i.e.: bed, tailgate, power optioned doors, fenders, & bumpers) for the sum of $1,000. So all said & done I'll end up with $3,095 for my truck that I initially paid $1,000 for back in January of 2008.

Understand I'm still not happy to lose my truck, but I would NEVER let it go to the crusher. I'd rather see the parts go to good use locally!