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This is Part 2 of a four-part series. Be sure to also watch:
Part 1: Introduction
Part 3: Selecting a Restoration Candidate
Part 4: Bumper Restoration
Video dialog for this episode:
PR: Today we’re going to talk about dealing with classic repairs. This is a subject no owner wants to think about, but it can be an unfortunate reality. Even a beloved classic can be involved in a collision, get everyday dings and scratches, even flood or fire damage. Once again, we’re talking with Don Hawkins, owner of Custom Automotive Restoration in Portland, Oregon, for his views on this delicate topic.
So, Don, how important is classic car insurance? Do you recommend anyone in particular?
CAR: With hot rods and classic cars, if you’re driving them, they’re going to get dinged and occasionally you’ll have an accident. So do have good insurance. There’s a company that I prefer to work with, it’s Haggerty Insurance. There are others, but we’ve always had good luck with Haggerty. A particular Thunderbird had been in a front-end collision and it didn’t look like too much damage, so they brought it us for an estimate.
PR: Were you able to give the Thunderbird owner an estimate?
CAR: We can’t give an absolute estimate. We can give you an idea what it may cost, but until we get the material off, the paint and whatever body work has been done previously, we’re not going to know. If we pull the paint off the car and we see other people’s body work that’s been done years ago, we won’t paint over the top of that body work. We can’t guarantee our paint over someone else’s previous work, so all of the body work, bondo, plastic filler, and lead, will be removed. We’ll straighten the metal, replace the lead, redo the body work and repaint it. If your insurance company is like Haggerty and we uncover some problems that weren’t apparent during the first inspection, they’ll simply give us the okay and we’ll fix it.
PR: So if we do have a damaged classic, what should we do? What type of company should we look for to do the repairs?
CAR: If your car does get damaged, take it to a shop that’s going to do the work correctly because otherwise, you’re going to have to have it done twice.
PR: So why isn’t it a good idea to take a classic car to a standard repair shop?
CAR: A good insurance company knows that it is going to cost more money to fix a classic than a new Honda. New cars are pretty easy to fix. Most of the body panels come off and go on pretty easily and are not too expensive. Classic cars and other older cars, are built differently. The metal reacts differently when you work on it, so it’s more expensive to repair. And it has to be done right or you’re going to have problems in the future.
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