A Blow by Blow Account of The Repair To My Car
This is a blow by blow account of the repair to my car from incident to completion,I have decided to do this a guide to people who experience a similar problem and to share my experiences with anyone who is interested.
Why Me ?
What did i do wrong ?
How did it happen ?
These were some of the questions that went through my mind after i decided to reshape my car,with some fence posts.I consider my self a careful driver and have not had an accident in over 15 years ,so when i am out in the TVR i tend to give it the respect it deserves,the annoying thing about the accident was i wasn't even travelling fast and it was on a straight bit of road .
From Crash To Flash
The Incident
The Weather Conditions were reasonable and the road was as (TOP GEAR would say) very midly moist and cold ,I was on theway to our monthly TVR meet and I had driven about 5 miles so the car was just warming up,Ii slowed to turn right onto a lane to and began to accelerate away when the back end twitched and i corrected to find the car over compensating and it started to snake so i corrected again and perhaps over compensated when the car did a 180 and i started to slide backwards into the fence ,i tried to stop it but the momentum carried it into the post. The back took the brunt of the damage which when it hit the post flung the front into another post as well as scratching most of the paint work and scuffing 2 tyres ,The Damage was basically all over the car as the body was stressed on impact and created a few cracks in other areas and the exhaust was also bent out of shape .This all from a speed no more than 20 MPH .Thankfully the Chassis remained undamaged after all the restoration work i had already done.
I got the car home drove it in the garage and walked away in disgust ,and couldn't believe what had happened
The Insurance Process
The most painful part of the whole process i would say is this ,Now the insurance company themselves were helpful , i rang up told them wahat had happened and they advised me to get a quote from my preferred repairer and forward it off to them.
I did as requested and waited and waited ,eventually after much chasing an assessor was despatched and there was much toing and throwing with me advising that it had a fixed valuation on it and was nowhere near the right off value ,Eventually i received the Nod and was told to go ahead and get it repaired
The Repairer
Now having not owned a GRP car before ,who to use for repair ,i decided to scout the TVR car club mag to see who was available, me being who i am i preffered someone fairly local to myself ,and one add that did stand out for Option one Sportscars ( i am a sucker for black things hence my choice of car colour) and a look at there web site confirmed they were experienced and knowledgeable enough to repair my pride and joy .i rang up and explained the situation and they dispatched some one down to look at the car .He inspected the car and explained that the damage was easily repairable (this was a great relief to myself as although the damage was minimal (to me it was the end of the world) and was repairable ,he did a through inspection and offered to take the car to their premises where they would deal with the whole process from start to finish with the insurance company,assessors etc. Again me being me ummed and arred and asked if i could leave it until i got the quote as i didn't want to let her go in fear of not seeing her again . This was no problem with Frank who furthered explained the work they did. Well the quote arrived and it was sen off and the insurance wanted an inspection , So i rang Option One who came to pick the car up the next weekend this was in a covered trailer to save my embarresment with the neighbours . From that point one I was kept informed at every stage of the process by Option one and had a photographic record if the whole process .
I would throughly recommend this company for any one in a similar situation
