[rhit_rs]

Two weeks ago I was in an accident with my 92 RS. The insurance company valued the car at $6100 (new paint, 1 yr old engine, lots of maintenance, etc). The estimate from the first body shop in Indianapolis was $5700, but the insurance company didn't want to pay to have it fixed for fear of finding additional damage. Now I have the car plus a check for $5500 (value of car minus deductable and scrap value plus cost of tax on buying a new vehicle) and the car. It is wrecked on the front left side. It needs a new front end, drivers side fender, hood, and part of a front left frame rail.

I took the car back home to the shop that just painted it because I trust them to do good work. Their labor rate is a little higher. They quoted around $4000 for labor and paint assuming I find a suitable donor car for all of the parts. I've found a couple options on parts cars - a 91 RS body here in Indianapolis that look good in the pictures for $500 and a complete 92 Z28 (77,000 miles, 305 w/ T-5) wrecked on the passenger side for $1200.

One option is to buy a parts car and pay the shop to fix it. Another is to sell the car - apparently there's been some interest at the body shop. I'm also considering parting the car out. I could sell quite a few engine parts, brand new (1 month) front koni yellows, 3 year old koni yellow rears, LS1 style front brakes, PBR rear brakes, brand new front steering parts (I don't think they were damaged), 18x8.5 chrome iroc style rims, addco sway bars, plus some interior and 5 speed parts.

I'm pretty much on the fence. I'd like to keep the car - it's been my baby for 3+ years and I've put a bunch of time and money into it already. I'm also having second thoughts about keeping it long term and this would be a decent opportunity to move on to something different (I've had my eye on bmw 318ti's) or more reliable. I won't really have a good place or time to work on a car over the next couple of years while I tackle grad school.

What are you guys' suggestions? If I get rid of the car will I regret it forever? (can anyone speak from experience on this one?)

Thanks!

Josh

[rhit_rs]

Thank you for all of the suggestions. I really appreciate yall's input.

I've considered buying another body, but I don't have the time or space to swap all of the parts over. I work in Indianpolis, start grad school at Ohio State in a little over a month, and I'd have to do all of the work back home in central Illinios. I don't have the time to run all over the country looking for a decent roller to transfer parts over to.

Now I'm down to three (maybe only two) options. I've located the front end parts that I need, so I can have it fixed for $1000 in parts (some used, some new) + $4000 in labor and paint. The owner of the body shop says it will drive just as good as it did before and the frame repair he would be doing is relatively minor and not affecting where any of the suspension bolts on. I was really leaning towards this option until I found out that the guy at the body shop told me a parts supplier that was in saw the car and it interested in buying it. He told the owner he'd give $1500 for it as a roller and $2500 as it sits with engine and trans. That would give me $8000 to buy a new car vs spending $5000 to fix mine. I really leaning towards selling it. I don't know if I could ever get $8000 out of it and it sounds like it's going to a good home. I still need to get in touch with the prospective buyer and see what his thoughts are. I don't know if he realized every thing that's been done to it. Maybe I should shut up and take the cash.

I won't lie that the fact that my parents just spent a bunch of money to have the car painted (college graduation present) isn't affecting the decision, but they're all for me making my own decision and don't want that to be a factor.

Josh