You might ask the kind folks at any of the shops how they feel about welding
in straight used parts instead.

Karl Wolz

|-----Original Message-----
|From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On Behalf Of
|Mike "Rocket J Squirrel"
|Sent: Monday, August 16, 2010 2:22 PM
|To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
|Subject: Re: Body parts for Mellow Yellow [SOLVED]
|
|The insurance company of the guy that smashed into the two cars (one
|1972 VW bus, which then rammed into my 1984 van) is mailing out a check
|for $2800.
|
|Two body shops quoted $2800 - $3000 to do the repairs using new parts,
|but those were imaginary parts because they have been discontinued, but
|that's how their systems do the quoting.
|
|Since I can't find the parts, those two quotes are pretty useless.
|
|A third shop quoted doing the repair by banging out the old parts,
|filling and pasting as needed, then painting for $2300. This appears to
|be the only route to take since new parts are not available.
|
|That leaves $500 which I will apply toward rust abatement.
|
|All in all, though I'm not happy that new parts cannot be obtained, I'm
|pretty okay with the outcome -- so far. We'll see how pretty the body
|shop's work is.
|
|BTW, for anyone in Bend, Oregon, the two shops that would use new parts
|if they existed were Crabtree's Auto Body and Paint, and Auto Body
|Concepts. The shop that looks at it as a bang-it-out job is Ron's Body
|Shop.
|
|--
|Rocky J Squirrel
|84 Westfalia: Mellow Yellow ("The Electrical Banana")
|74 Westrailia: (Ladybug Trailer company, San Juan Capistrano, Calif.)
|Bend, OR
|KG6RCR