Collision repair advice -- got rear ended

[player1up]

Merry Christmas to me! well, the day after anyway.
Looks like I'll be needing a new rear bumper... if any still exist.
The adjuster is coming tomorrow.
How should I handle this?
What I mean is how do I go about finding a shop that wont screw up the car and / or that can repair the bumper if a new one isn't available?
It wasn't too bad of a hit, but it seems to be leaking coolant from the driver quarter somewhere. So far I've resisted the urge to start taking it apart before the adjuster has a chance to look at it.

[168glhs1986]

Oh NO!

Check with Randy, he has a rear bumper.

[Fox]

you'd be better off finding the bumper yourself, have it painted by a shop, install it yourself

i didn't notice it was a consulier , hope you can still get a bumper

[player1up]

Oh NO!

Check with Randy, he has a rear bumper.

Thanks, I'll give him a call shortly.

[blk86trbo]

Sorry to hear of your misfortune! Hopefully the damage doesn't appear minimal because the energy was absorbed and transferred elsewhere...have any pics? I wonder if your adjuster has ever inspected a Consulier?

[CoolV300C]

I wonder if your adjuster has ever inspected a Consulier?

Betting thats a big no.

[168glhs1986]

They should total it, give you $30,000 with the option to buy it back for $5000. Win and win and win

[Johnny]

The adjuster come? What did they say?

[Johnny]

Was wondering how and why it happened. I really think the GTP tail/stop lights are way too low. Even with the third brake like, it's not enough. And of course there is the issue we can stop a lot quicker than most others.

[player1up]

ok, I didn't really want to get into what happened until the adjuster came out, but here's what happened.
I'm sitting at a stop light about 10 cars back from the light. Light turns green and everyone starts to go. The car in front of me checks up and stops, so I stop, the car behind me didn't. I wasn't really even off the clutch all the way by the time I had to stop. The guy in the van did say that he "looked away" for a second and admitted fault. It was a little ford transit van work truck. My guess is that he was looking at paperwork, but obviously doing something other than driving.

Johnny, I actually added a third brake light to my 73 Duster years ago because I had way too many people running up on the back of that car the first week I had it on the road. I had been thinking about adding some additional LED lighting to the rear of the Consulier to make it obnoxiously bright after all of this is done.

I wasn't a very big hit, but enough to crunch the bumper, exhaust tip and a tag light. The kicker is that it's now leaking coolant at the driver side of the radiator.
The adjuster was pretty cool although it was clear he's representing the insurance company. He did admit that he's never seen one before.
When I opened the garage door the adjuster said "Man, he hit the wrong car"
The funniest part of the whole conversation was when he asked me what the car is worth and what I paid..."to determine value"
I told him that I have it insured for 65...he said , "oh, 6,500 isn't too bad" ...to that I replied, "No, 65,000"
At that point the conversation turned back to business really quick.

I did talk with the owner of AAR Fiberglass about making a mold. He's at least willing to make one. He gave a guesstamate around $1,500 - $2,000 to make the mold and $200-$300 additional for the finished piece. He also said that it'd take a while.

I'll be headed down to Rossion sometime this month to go digging... I'll let everyone know how it turns out, but it's not going to be a quick turn around even if I find what I'm looking for.

Basically I'll be pulling the radiator and having it fixed and taking the smushed bumper somewhere to have it fixed and paint matched ( or just getting a new bumper painted to match )

...Does anyone have any idea how the radiator comes out?

[Johnny]

I took mine out. Two brackets from the top...two radiator hoses, one small hose on the right side also.Trying to remember...fun to get to the two hoses. Tail lights were still out, so maybe had to get to them that way?I do remember reaching to get to the clamps someway. One was from under the car.

[jrbexhaust]

Send some photos of the to me or post them here. I manage a collision repair shop. We can repair a lot of plastic bumper covers.

[player1up]

I took mine out. Two brackets from the top...two radiator hoses, one small hose on the right side also.Trying to remember...fun to get to the two hoses. Tail lights were still out, so maybe had to get to them that way?I do remember reaching to get to the clamps someway. One was from under the car.

I've looked at the pics on the consulier site of your car and mine seems to be a little different. It maybe the difference between a long tail car and a short tail car, 4 brackets ( 2 in front, 2 in rear ) then it appears to slide to the passenger side after removing some little cover. I've not had a lot of time to work on it, but I should have the radiator out sometime in the next couple of days. I'm just trying to be super careful with removal. There isn't a lot of wiggle room back there and even with it unbolted it's tight in the body.

jrbexhaust, I'll send you a pm with my contact info. The bumper is foam filled fiberglass with embedded metal brackets that hold it to the car. The glass and foam are crushed on driver side and the metal bracket is bent