I just got the estimate this morning to fix my beloved celica.
My wife hit a deer in it.

The labor is going to be a little over $2000, but the parts are killing me at a whopping $8000.
I refuse to post pictures of my celica as is because it's heart-breaking.
And it's really not that bad, a hood, a fender, front glass...
maybe an upper core support and a couple headlights.

The freakin' body shop told me, and I quote, "It would be stupid of you to fix this car"

I can get wholesale toyota parts from a dealership I used to work at,
but they're still expensive. Especially those airbags.

I'm depressed and I just thought I'd share.
Nobody else's celica to compare to mine in my heart.

I have to decide whether to part her out and buy a newer 6th gen,
or continue on this "stupid" quest to restore her to her glory + extras like a GT-four hood and C-one front cover.

Ebay doesn't look too promising at this point. I don't want a convertible or a 1.8L.

they dont understand
they told me it wasnt worth it and mine wasnt bad AT ALL

i was very mad at them
but it was nearly totaled [technically speaking] only because the car cost 5400 and the repairs cost 4700

edit: what about insurnce?
my insurance covered it as long as repairs didnt cost more than the car
i only paid $500

This post has been edited by hurley97: May 3, 2006 - 12:09 PM

pics? I got hit by a guy duin 60km/h and i was stopped, took out my entire 1/4 pannel..$6500..$8500 with a whole car repaint. $10k seems a bit high for hittin a deer

if you want bad try my boy shin's car


now check it out


you can do it! just tell those guys to kiss your a$$

id have to agree....tell them to kiss your ass....they always estimate way high, and because the car is in essence "totaled" if u break nething else....whats it going to matter? I agree with dan on this one, do it yourself.

i can help you out with the airbag, i am sellin mine for cheap..if you still decide to fix her..

ryan

wow! do it yourself!
if you can find the parts you need at a junkyard or whatnot, it's not that bad to swap panels... you just need someone who knows how to weld the new core support in...

You guys are inspiring.

I only had liability insurance at the time. I was planning on getting FC that week.

Another thing I left out, there is some hail damage on every panel on the car that will need to be fixed also.
Not to mention I think every rubber moulding is dryed out, cracked, or rotted looking.

I've decided NOT to buy another celica and junk this one out.

I'm going to take the parts from the body shop's estimate
and find out what I can get them for wholesale from my old friends at toyota.
Then I'm going to see how much the labor from the estimate and
my parts are and boom. Total cost should be way less than 10k.

I'd like to do my whole car, stereo, and wheels and tires for 10k. That's my budget.

Nobody else's celica can compare to mine in my heart. She's special.

>

Well, I need the passenger side and drivers side airbag assembly, cover, and spiral cable.
Then I need the 3 sensors, center, right and left.

I'm going to get all my funds together this week or next week.

What have you got exactly?

This post has been edited by silverspyder: May 3, 2006 - 4:55 PM

I'd say buy junked Celica and use it as a donor car to fix yours. You can do it... don't give up.

Shouldn't the insurance just cover the cost of the entire car (value of it before crash) and cut you a check?

I don't think any 6th gen besides a 96+ is worth over 10 grand, and even then it'd have to be in immaculate condition with low mileage.

Thats alot of $$$.
Have you tried getting other quotes?

shouldn't they just total the car out cut you a check...go back and buy your car back from the insurance company for a few hundred bucks then use the money they cut you to fix it?!

>

I only had liability insurace at the time

This post has been edited by silverspyder: May 3, 2006 - 7:35 PM

>

eh, this guy charges $40 an hour.
I know for sure the other couple body shops that I would trust charge $50 and on up.
This guy is good too. Very good.
It's probably going to run me no more than 2k in labor when I get it tore down enough.

>

i was going to do something like that if they totaled my car but i didnt think it was quite that easy

lol...always thinking dan, nice

>

While this thread is still kinda hot, I thought I'd ask.

I know the core support has an upper and a lower part.

Is that top part a bolt on or does it have to be spot welded in?

its all spot welded in

Show us some pictures of your car. And I will show you some links to ones closeby.

Lexington has a listing for a 95 Gt for $2950

Description — $2,950, 95 Celica GT - Standard transmission, blue, 140K mi. $2950. 859-523-6529

GET MORE DETAILS


Listing Date: May 3, 2006

Listing Source: Lexington Herald-Leader




Here are some more.

http://www.autotrader.com/fyc/vdp.jsp?car_...ng=&cardist=148

http://www.autotrader.com/fyc/vdp.jsp?car_...ng=&cardist=127

I hope this is'nt the damage they are quoting you over $10,000

>

Well, dang. I forgot I must of posted that at one time.

*sigh* Yes, that's the damage, but what you can't see is the hail damage all over the car.

I've got hope though, I found a steering wheel and airbag last night for cheap, and I found a good C-one style bumper used for half price! Things ARE starting to look up.

bump...what happend? this just died?

U fix the car? scrap it?

edit: i looked into your profile and saw u fixed it up with gt-4 stuff. CRAZY stuff man, Glad to see out of something bad, something SOOO awsome grew. The car looks insane.

This post has been edited by devilsden97: Sep 6, 2006 - 9:00 AM

well, since it's all fixed up with projectors etc, can I ask if you still have the old driverside low-beam? if you still have it, how much do you want for it?

i'd def. say try fixing it..im still in the process of fixing mine just bc of a students budget..but i rear ended some1 and i've dropped a grand into it including airbags, windshield..new lights..and some parts for the bumper..just search around for sure..its worth it in the end

Thread is old, but a word to the wise....

Don't be a cheapskate on autobody work or you'll regret it the rest of your cars life.

95% of the guys out there do absolute **** for work, and the 5% that are actually good are well worth the price they charge you.

Basically, you pay for what you get. I've seen "professional" paint jobs and rust touch ups come back a year or two later peeling, cracked and bubbling. I've seen hood and fender gaps that would make General Motors wince (and that's saying a lot). Any idiot can be an auto body tech. It takes someone who likes his job and cares about you to do it right.

"I have a buddy that..."

Your buddy is ****. If he does it for free then that's just an excuse to do a bad job.

>
Totally agree. I've seen it first hand. My friend took his cavalier to macco after we installed full body kit, aftermarket hood, and he went with the best paint job they offer. Well, right away we noticed small hairs in the paint, and small runs. Also, a couple months later, there was chipping. Another friend took his nice MK3 supra to get painted by some other economical based paint company, and now, 8 months later, being exposed to cold and hot the paint is fading and chipping. A bad paint job is easy to spot and a good one is hard to find. I have very little knowledge of auto body but from what i do know, it has allowed me to paint some things on my own and save tons of cash and headaches becasue i took my time.