Buyer's Remorse (AKA "Hideous") - Giraffe's 1990 Grand Marquis LS

[Grand Marquis GT]

Good news, ish!

I am going to the yards in Dallas this weekend, 50% off weekend! You should mosey on down!

[Giraffe]

When you hitting the yards? We'll be in Dallas this weekend, but I'll be busy with the in-laws. It's not as bad as it sounds. Sometime in the near future I'm going to take a few days off to check out some more of the yards around my local area. Haven't really seen any with box panthers yet.

[Grand Marquis GT]

Saturday morning we are hitting Pick N Pull Dallas West. I hope that awesome taco truck is there that we order from in Spanish!

[Giraffe]

The damage. The crack starts near the bottom of the marker lamp and extends into the structure of the marker lamp bucket (only visible with the hood up). I'm going to see if I can get a used panel out of a local yard. I'll probably keep this one around and eventually try my hand at repairing it. Not sure what's up with the gap between the fender extension and the fender.

[VicCrownVic]

Totaled over that? The car still looks better than any of mine.

There are 3 bolts that hold the fender extension portion of that filler panel to the fender. Either the filler panel pulled around and off the bolt heads and now can't go back past the bolt heads or the bolts pulled the holes they are in with them and the metal will need to be persuaded to go back into place. Either way it shouldn't be a bid deal to make that gap go away.

[DerekTheGreat]

Totaled over that? The car still looks better than any of mine.

X2 on that lol. It's like the insurance company didn't even want to make an attempt at an estimate.

[gadget73]

Depending where they are pricing parts, i can believe it. If its factory original, they'll be quite pricey. Also, we're talking 30 year old car with miles. For insurance purposes, they probably grade it next to worthless, like 800 bucks or something. You can argue the valuation but it doesn't always work. They appraised mine as being worth somewhere about 850, I managed to argue it up to about 3200.

[VicCrownVic]

I know, but still find it stupid. At least it sounds like keeping the car won't be too difficult to do.

[sly]

There's an 89 in Reno, Tx: http://row52.com/Vehicle/Index/2MEBM74F8KX735235
Beige though.

[DerekTheGreat]

Depending where they are pricing parts, i can believe it. If its factory original, they'll be quite pricey. Also, we're talking 30 year old car with miles. For insurance purposes, they probably grade it next to worthless, like 800 bucks or something. You can argue the valuation but it doesn't always work. They appraised mine as being worth somewhere about 850, I managed to argue it up to about 3200.

Certainly depends on the company you have. Perhaps I missed the fine print but negotiating the price fell on deaf ears to the derps at Progressive. And now, I'm pretty much fucked for 4 more years or so until that shit goes away as no insurance company wants to insure my car due to all the claims I have thanks to Progressive.

[87gtVIC]

Could the bumper shock be bent downwards due to the impact, thus holding the filler panel away from the body?

[Giraffe]

I know, but still find it stupid. At least it sounds like keeping the car won't be too difficult to do.

Keeping it is insanely easy since it never went to a wrecker. Texas law worked in my favor in not applying to my car at all. Basically, nothing changes. I do need to talk to my insurance about whether I should keep collision coverage on it. I may not get anything if it gets hit again since it's already been declared a loss. But the guy I spoke to said that an accident will go on the record. Didn't make it clear whether it's officially recorded as a total loss.

Could the bumper shock be bent downwards due to the impact, thus holding the filler panel away from the body?

I don't think so. The bumper is still aligned correctly looking at the car from the front. I'll remove that light bezel sometime in the future to make a better assessment.

[DrHax]

Glad you got to keep it. Where I live they'd be totaling it out, giving me nothing, and lol'ing. Here in our no fault state you're paying for the privilege to have them total out your car.

I like these old cars but these insurance companies really ruffle my feathers.

[DerekTheGreat]

Glad you got to keep it. Where I live they'd be totaling it out, giving me nothing, and lol'ing. Here in our no fault state you're paying for the privilege to have them total out your car.

I like these old cars but these insurance companies really ruffle my feathers.

For whatever reason, this made me think of the NES game "Mike Tyson's Punch-Out" where if you get knocked out by Soda Popinski he stands over you laughing lol. It's funnier when playing the game due to how the Nintendo emulates the sound.

[Giraffe]

Saturday morning we are hitting Pick N Pull Dallas West. I hope that awesome taco truck is there that we order from in Spanish!

Did you end up checking out any other yards? I've scoped out a few that have panthers according to online inventory (one of which is the Pick-N-Pull west). I'm taking a week off in early-May to do some junkyard hunting, among other things. I found four yards in the Dallas area that have reliable inventory searches with panthers along with a yard I used to frequent in OKC that says it has a 1990 GM.

Anyway, I did some small repairs today. I replaced all four door strikers. The rear doors are actually difficult to open. They're not misaligned, they just need more breaking in, I guess. It doesn't take a ridiculous amount of effort, but it is a bit heavy. The upside is that all four doors close like new with no wiggle at all when closed. Excellent.



Also replaced the headlamps. I got a Rock Auto deal on Wagner TruViews and replaced all four. I also took the opportunity to clean up the accumulated dirt from underneath the bezels as well as take a better look at the damage to the driver's side of the header panel. Surprisingly, the damage isn't nearly as bad as I thought. Just a simple crack that will probably be easy to repair. There was a lot of dirt underneath these things. I think there may be a measurable weight savings if I took more things apart and removed more dirt.



Finally, I installed a Crown Victoria instrument bezel I snagged off eBay a few weeks ago. Since the faux wood trim just doesn't do it for me, I'm looking to de-bling the interior as much as possible. This is a nice start.



A nice, productive day.