A couple of weeks back I was coming home from Yass, when without warning Skippy lept from the bushes....................



Right up the middle! Thankfully I was only doing about 80k's, but there was no chance for brakes untill after the impact. I expected much worse actually.
Grille is toast (obviously), new radiator is banana shaped, crinkled bonnet, crinkled skirt, crinkled bumper, gouged headlight surrounds.



Good news is there is insurance, it's been quoted & assessed. Repairs should be under way early next month.



And the Kanga? How might Dave put it?............. That critter is busted-arse!

(PC translation: The animal in question was immediately assessed and found to be expired. A further investigation revealed that it was a male animal, and so the likelyhood of an unfortunate pouchbound orphan offspring considered to be quite low.)

Matt.

NOT GOOD NEWS ..BUT GOOD NEWS WAS ALL WERE WELL NO.ONE HURT EXCEPT POOR SKIPPY .....DID YOU GET A SPARE GRILLE WITH AUNTY MARY ? PERHAPS THE GUY IN MELB WITH THE BLUE ONE HAS A SPARE GRILLE HE SAID HE HAD BITS ..ALL THE BEST MATT CHEERS DAVO

Where did the now-damaged new radiator come from, and where will the replacement radiator come from?

On this side of the world, that damage would be written off by the insurance company as a total loss for anything more than ten years old. Even before getting to the detail about the replacement parts being impossible to get.

Yes Matt, that was a pretty sad incident but could have been worse if Kanga's bounce was higher and came up over the bonnet. Hope you find the parts OK and have Aunty Mary repaired soon.
Lewis

Matt. Head light surrounds have been sent . Gricey

that makes me sad. glad your ok.
have you got all the bits to fix it?

Sorry to hear your bad news Matt, hopefully you will be able to return it tomthe same glory you had it in prior??
Keep your chin up, if anyone can assist with parts as Gricey has already, I am sure they will.
DAVE M.

thats a sad look. Guess it could have been much worse. You hurt or The bonnett damaged also.
I hope you can fix asap

glenn

Yes I sent matt parts . He sent me parts I needed . He is always helpfull with parts for anyone who needs them . Thanks Matt . Mutch appreciated thanks Matt. Gricey

Oh dear... Aunty has lost her front teeth !! She will get a new set though and their isn't any terminal damage. It's just a BUGGER at the time.

I've recently done a few hard trips through the Adelaide Hills in the GT. Skippy is always in the back of my mind, it's Skip Central up there. I've hit a few over the years in other vehicles, luckily without too much damage, but I've also seen alot of Skippy road horrors.

Yeah Gricey. When I pop the bonnet on Blue beastie and look at the fuel pump reconstructed from one which suddenly turned up in the mail, I think of Matt. He is a Gem.

B.

So i guess its back to the Sigma as a set of wheels, Matty?

there may be a few odd bits and pieces kicking around down this neck of the woods as well.

dont think there is a spare radiator but

hope you and yours have a great Christmas and New Year



OZ

there are bits floating around, i have an origional radiator kicking about somewhere if its needed, just no idea on thecondition it is internally! also have a few other spares if they are needed just yell out.

You guyyyys.......you're all so helpful! Thanks for the offers.
JT, the radiator was re-cored before Mary went on the road last year by a shop in Canberra. (Cool Core Radiators, Maryborough st, Fyshwick) They also silvered the insides of the brass tanks. Thankfully theres no plastic, so the steel frame can be straightened, the tanks are undamaged, and another core can be sourced from Adelaide.
I now have a Grille, the plastic headlight surrounds can be re-chromed by a place in Brisbane, the bumper can be straightened & re-chromed, and the skirt & bonnet damage is light & repairable.
Classic insurance is pretty good in Aus, 2 main companies offer agreed value, and owner retians the wreck in the event of a total loss. (Write-off.) Mary is insured for $5,000, the damage here quoted at $3,200.
Should be all fixed early in January.

This episode brings up the risk of driving a rare car with rare spares, but cars love to be used, and I like being in a conversation starter! I'm considering putting Mary back to club rego at the next renewal though, & putting the Sigma on the road. Parts are freely available & fairly cheap. (Bought a new tie rod end for it - $20)

Cheers, Matt.

good news matt ...alll ends well ..hey matt it brings me to insurance what would it cost for my car ??? cheers davo ...just in case ?????

Dad says them little chrome shoo roo things are on boxing day sale at Autobarn...

Matt, put a pair on the guards of the florian in front of the mirrors and everyone will wonder what is the original chrome fittings on the old girl...
and the Sigma rules the road again. will be a little harder on the fuel though.



$3200 was a pretty expensive repair as well


insurance with Shannons is so good


OZ

Yeah jt, you'd be mad to insure a car of that age on anything other than classic car insurance for that exact reason.

I work in that field and people still sometimes call and say their early Kombi or Holden Torana is insured for "market value" which is about 1500 dollars when the real value would be in The tens of thousands!!

Glad Farmer had some cover on the Florian and that it will live again!!

I have pretty negative opinion of the insurance situation. The law says we have to have it to drive, but does not require the company to actually make payments to fix damages. You pay two thousand dollars a year to insure a car. They depreciate the car every year, but still charge the same dollar amount for the policy. 15 years later, you've paid $30,000 for coverage, bump into the back of a BMW that suddenly stopped in front of you on a 35 MPH road, and they write off the car because the bumper, grille, and hood will cost $2,500 to fix. I have a very nice car (region points champion a few weeks before the accident) with $5,000 paid to fix and completely repaint, out of my own pocket, that has sit for ten years without a settlement from the insurance company, and they won't release it without a salvage title, that would render it un-insurable.

Regular insurance companies, over here, do not offer classic/collectible car insurance. (And, regular insurance companies hit a brick wall with any vehicle that does not have a 17 digit VIN [serial] number).
Classic/collectible car insurance prohibits use of the car to drive to and from work/employment. Use is restricted to transport to and from repair shops, car shows, and a limited amount of "pleasure driving". The company decides if the car is classic or collectible. I tried many times in vane to convince them that a Japanese car could be classic or collectible, and things got exponentially worse when I mentioned it was an Isuzu. (Surely only Ford, Chrysler, and GM, and a few exotic European companies, ever made cars that could possibly be valuable or collectible).

Here's a wrinkle I have not yet figured out how to get past: Classic/collectible car insurance can not be purchased for an unfinished or not-completely-restored vehicle. The vehicle has to have insurance to get plates and has to have plates to be driven on the road or parked outside of a completely enclosed, roofed area(building)(state law)(I'm not kidding). As someone who is not a paint and body wizard, I had hoped to get cars drivable, then registered, and drive them to a body shop for repair estimates and paint work. But according to the insurance company, the policy purchaser must squat down and plop out fully restored vehicles, in order to obtain an insurance policy.

Those of you down around the Big Warehouse in Melbourne, seem to have the situation ironed out much better.

things are much better here.... several companies at least will insure 'collectible' cars. And if they are on our 'Club Rego" system rather than full registration then premiums are even lower and most offer retention of the wreck also to the insurer. You can also insure a car that is not registered at all, called 'laid up' insurance. Either a car being restored or not being used for whatever reason. Again pretty cheap and usually, it's agreed value insurance.
Actully, insurance here of a car is totally optional. Not something i agree with though, especially if you are ever hit by somebody with no insurance where it becomes a battle to recover money, if not impossible in many cases.

Insurance cover for 'people damage' is part of the 'rego' payments. It's also a no fault system so even you are at fault and injured, hospital costs etc are taken care of.

My Sport is now insured for a premium of ~$150 for a reasonably high agreed value. Club 'rego' on the Victorian Permit scheme was $132 for 90 days usage. (45 days only is optional) The usage is up to the user although it's not intended that one uses the car to goto work in, on a regular basis at least.
This compares with full rego around $660 in this state. It varies a little depending on where you actually live, high or low risk suburb.

Yep.

Reckon we are pretty fortunate here in AUS.

Have all my classic cars insured with Shannons and it is by far the best option. Even if off the road for extended period of time, still insured while sitting in the shed and its cheaper when off the road. Just need engine number and car description or last Registration number for indentity purposes.
and in SA the Historic Registration cost approx $180 for a full 12 months. This allows you 90 trips in the Log book and they dont need to be Club related events either. You could drive for 8 hours to a location of your choice.

and SMASA (Sports Machine Association of South Australia) welcome anyone who wants their classic car on Historic Registration.

well looked after over this neck of the woods


OZ