My poor, poor Integra. 1997, GS-R, about 130k miles on it. It was getting a bit battered, dents and bruises, but the innards were in great shape, and I was fully prepared to continue driving this puppy until getting a used plug-in hybrid Honda became feasible.
Alas. Last week someone rear-ended me on the highway, while I was stopped in traffic. I don't know how fast he was going but it was enough to cause a concussion and some serious back and neck problems in my passenger, and also to smoosh in the back end of my car somewhat. Back hatch won't close, and there's some buckling in the wheel wells. (The rear bumper was embedded in the car behind me, but I retrieved it, and, being plastic, it's probably in good enough shape that I could just rehang the damn thing.)
The other driver's insurance company, of course, wants to total the thing. They'll give me $4k for it, or $3.8k if I keep the car. I'm not too unhappy with the amount, considering the body damage that it already had, and the fact that the blue book says $2000 or so.
Now, I don't know a lot about the technical side of this car, because a) I've never had to, it's been ridiculously reliable most of the time, and b) I no longer have a place to work on a car myself, since I live in an apartment in San Francisco. It seems to drive fine, doesn't pull, and the wheel wells aren't bent up enough to even come close to impinging on the tires. But I have literally no idea if it is safe to drive, nor do I know if it's possible for the hatch to be fixed.
My questions are three:
1) Is the idea of fixing this totally ridiculous? Like, is this just a 'hahaha no' idea? I hear that it has no frame, the body and the frame are all one piece, and therefore if it's bent up back there maybe I'm just screwed?
2) Assuming the answer to 1 is 'maybe not', does anyone know of an auto body shop in San Francisco or nearby that they would trust to give them an honest assessment?
3) Assuming that the body isn't fixable, does anyone have the faintest idea of what I can do? I guess I could see if I could find a chassis with a burnt-out engine to transplant my stuff into, but honestly since I can't do it myself (no place to do it, no friends with engine hoists and car lifts, and anyway the last thing I worked on seriously had a generator and a carburetor, so I know nothing about all this new-fangled stuff) I'm not sure it'd be cost-effective to pay someone else to do that for me.
If I were to sell it as a unit, what could get for the innards of my beloved jalopy? It's the GS-R engine, it's in good shape, passes smog (I take it to a test-only station just down the street), doesn't burn more than a quart or so of oil between oil changes and I still use 5W30. The (5-speed manual) transmission does have 130k miles on it, but it feels exactly like it did when I got it at 5k miles. Clutch has less than 10k miles, and that's the first time I replaced it so I must be doing something right. New-ish radiator, alternator has been replaced once. Oil changed religiously, manufacturer maintenance schedule followed, the whole 9 yards.
I guess I shouldn't complain: I'm uninjured and my passenger is probably going to be fine, and I can afford to buy another car if I need to. But damn, I really loved this car, and I thought for sure it would be with me for another five years, and maybe ten if I was lucky. It was still such fun to drive!
Alas. Last week someone rear-ended me on the highway, while I was stopped in traffic. I don't know how fast he was going but it was enough to cause a concussion and some serious back and neck problems in my passenger, and also to smoosh in the back end of my car somewhat. Back hatch won't close, and there's some buckling in the wheel wells. (The rear bumper was embedded in the car behind me, but I retrieved it, and, being plastic, it's probably in good enough shape that I could just rehang the damn thing.)
The other driver's insurance company, of course, wants to total the thing. They'll give me $4k for it, or $3.8k if I keep the car. I'm not too unhappy with the amount, considering the body damage that it already had, and the fact that the blue book says $2000 or so.
Now, I don't know a lot about the technical side of this car, because a) I've never had to, it's been ridiculously reliable most of the time, and b) I no longer have a place to work on a car myself, since I live in an apartment in San Francisco. It seems to drive fine, doesn't pull, and the wheel wells aren't bent up enough to even come close to impinging on the tires. But I have literally no idea if it is safe to drive, nor do I know if it's possible for the hatch to be fixed.
My questions are three:
1) Is the idea of fixing this totally ridiculous? Like, is this just a 'hahaha no' idea? I hear that it has no frame, the body and the frame are all one piece, and therefore if it's bent up back there maybe I'm just screwed?
2) Assuming the answer to 1 is 'maybe not', does anyone know of an auto body shop in San Francisco or nearby that they would trust to give them an honest assessment?
3) Assuming that the body isn't fixable, does anyone have the faintest idea of what I can do? I guess I could see if I could find a chassis with a burnt-out engine to transplant my stuff into, but honestly since I can't do it myself (no place to do it, no friends with engine hoists and car lifts, and anyway the last thing I worked on seriously had a generator and a carburetor, so I know nothing about all this new-fangled stuff) I'm not sure it'd be cost-effective to pay someone else to do that for me.
If I were to sell it as a unit, what could get for the innards of my beloved jalopy? It's the GS-R engine, it's in good shape, passes smog (I take it to a test-only station just down the street), doesn't burn more than a quart or so of oil between oil changes and I still use 5W30. The (5-speed manual) transmission does have 130k miles on it, but it feels exactly like it did when I got it at 5k miles. Clutch has less than 10k miles, and that's the first time I replaced it so I must be doing something right. New-ish radiator, alternator has been replaced once. Oil changed religiously, manufacturer maintenance schedule followed, the whole 9 yards.
I guess I shouldn't complain: I'm uninjured and my passenger is probably going to be fine, and I can afford to buy another car if I need to. But damn, I really loved this car, and I thought for sure it would be with me for another five years, and maybe ten if I was lucky. It was still such fun to drive!