1974 wrecked today; what to do?

Hello,

My 16 year old daughter wrecked her 1974 Mercury Comet today. She was turning the radio down and hit the side of a parked one ton Ford truck. She was okay, just shook up a bit. She was 1/2 a mile from our home. We are all bummed -- this car was perfect in almost every way. She munched the passenger side and I believe she snapped her front right axle. I have pics if you would like to see them - I attached one but I don't know if I am allowed to post or not.

She has liability only. Wishing I had paid for full coverage now, but wishing won't help.

We had the car taken to the tow truck yard -- the officers said, "oh, it's totaled."

So, what would you do if this were your car? Part it out? Sell it to a local salvage yard? Ebay? Rebuild? It only had 56,000 miles on it -- no rust, motor was strong -- a real sad loss.

Thanks in advance,

Jim

 

Wow.

First off, glad your daughter is ok, that's most important.

As for the car, looks like a pretty hard hit... Hard to tell from that one pic but there could be substantial sub-frame damage. I'm not sure it's really worth fixing unless you're in love with the car. Without knowing more, I would say to part it out so other cars can live on. It's worth much more in parts than it is as a whole car being sold for salvage. If you have a place to store it, I'd say keep it and sell whatever is good to folks here on this board who are restoring our own cars. Good luck.

 

i would part out what you can... the insurance company wont pay out what the car is worth in your eyes... you could always salvage it if you arent worried about getting rid of it, then buy it back from the insruance company.. usually about 10% what they give you for it.. then you could part out almost everything on here to everyone..

trim pieces, back bumper, rear trunk lid, interior stuff.. etc..

but like sam said.. if you are in love with the car, you could try and rebuild it..

sorry to hear about it, and glad your daughter is ok


if you do decide to part it out, i could use the trunk lid.. but no rush

 

I really wouldnt bother with a rebuild, being a unibody car the whole thing could be out of shape, not enought to see but youll know when driving. I cant tell from the pic but was it a 2 or 4 door, and what kind of engine? You could probably part it out and get a head start on buying a new one if your really in love with comets. (then again if I was in love with a car I would have any 16 year old driving it lol)

 

Ouch .... you had some foreboding in this thread ...

http://mmb.maverick.to/showthread.php?t=23829

Definitely keep the Orange Interior if it's in nice condition ... including the carpet, door panels, kick panels, etc. ..

 

well at least you were sucessful from that standpoint. I would imagine a modern day econo box wouldnt be able to take a hit like that and allow the driver to walk away. when I was just a little older than your daughter I put my '85 cutlass through a stone barn on ice at 6:30 am and walked away with not even a scratch. I thought i was a good driver espically since i did so much of my own work on that car i didnt want to see get thrown away but now im 10x more carefull on the roads, hopefully if anything comes out of this your daughter will learn that lesson. i know that to you will be alot more valuable than a 30 year old comet

 

simon, he's not going to get anything from the insurance company at all. if you plan on another maverick or comet, i'd keep it until i knew what parts i needed. then piece out the rest. glad the daughter is okay. that's the main thing. i went through the same thing many years ago.

 

how bad off is the truck she hit?

 

Damn, sorry if my bad luck rubbed off posting in your previous thread. That really sucks!

Some under hood shots and a few underneath would tell us alot. Why did you let them tow it to a yard? They are probably going to charge your storage or something now, I demanded when I wrecked my car that they tow it back to my house. If it's anything like my situation (liability only) the insurance company likely won't want anything to do with the car. They offered to replace my car, but other then that I never heard anything else from them.

Really need better pics to help you determine what to do. Looks like it's time to find another body and swap everything over though. But it's hard to say. It may not be as bad as it looks underneath it all.

It will be a year ago 10 days from now that I wrecked my '74 Grabber. I know how much it sucks. Then someone rolled backwords into me last week and my brother lightly rear ended someone a couple of days ago. November is a bad month for Mavericks and Comets... Good luck.

Ohh, and if you do decide to part it out, I want the rear quarter panels and tail light panel.

 

Glad to here your daughter is OK.
I'd say it's time to part it out, get what you can from the insurance company, it's worth more in parts than it is whole.

 

Sorry to learn the news, Jim. 'Glad your daughter is okay.

If you don't plan on getting another Maverick and use this one as a donor, I'd part it out on ebay. The junkyard probably won't give you diddly for it.

Sux.

 

Thanks for all the replies

Hello again!

Thanks to all of you for your replies and encouraging words. The main point is that she is okay.

Today we went and looked at a few older honda's -- found several we liked, all in the price range she can afford -- which ain't much -- but they are good cars and parts should be a'plenty.

We will probably part out the comet at this point. One of her friends dad's rebuilds old cars -- when her friend heard about the wreck, she said her dad may want to buy the car, so we'll see what that brings.

If we do part it out, I will let you folks know.

Take care and thanks again for the replies.

Jim

 

i wouldn't say that, i had a honda that i made a left turn infront of a trailblazer when i first got my license, the car went up in the air about 3 feet and flew back about 10 feet facing other way of where i was going, the right front wheel was smashed into the firewall from the impact, he most likely was going about 55 and i was about 20, the only pictures i have are on hardcopy and i don't have a scanner, but i do have pictures of the recent accident my gf was in her sunfire, a drunk driver pulled out infront of her hitting her sunfire head on, she was going about 40mph

 

Sorry for your loss.
Glad your girl is okay though!

Rip...

 

Yep. When I wrecked my Grabber, the cop told me that we might not have made it out alive if we were in some little newer car. I got hit at an estimated 65 mph by a Navigator. The cop said he had seen wrecks like that with newer little Honda's and stuff, and said either the car would have folded in on us like a tin can or the Navigator would have rolled right over top of us which would have really been bad... Instead, that rigid old car bounced off the Navigator and went up on two wheels on impact and did a 360 before slaming back down and rolling up on a curb. The damage to my car is very deceiving, it really through us for a loop. The road was wet and I guess conditions were just right to keep damage to the car to a minimum. You should see the inside of the passenger side door where my gf at the time got slammed into the door. The door will have to be replaced, and she is definately not a "big" girl, if you know what I mean.

These old cars survive very well in wrecks. Just make sure your seat belts aren't as old as the car, that's the big mistake I made...