Looking for input from Vancouver/Lower mainland members here.
Through an incident I have an approx. $1000 estimate from ICBC to fix my broken windshield, replace a marker light (1990 integra, 50 bucks on ebay for two JDM amber, woo) and some super minor paint specks missing off my hood. (they want to repaint the whole thing)
I can go to multiple places (glass shop, body shop, etc) Or just have it done all at one shop, doesnt matter.
SO. Anyone have a shop they would recommend? Where can I get the most bang for my buck? What’s a CF hood worth? lol, Cheaper than paint? Anyways, if anyone has any tips, I would appreciate it.
What’s your deductible? Do you have to pay the full $1000?
Can you just pay for the damage yourself and not file a claim? Is that possible, or have you already filed? I’m not sure how ICBC works, but I assume it’s similar to SGI in Saskatchewan.
If you can fix it yourself, I would suggest you get a number of quotes on a new windshield and have it installed at a shop. Then find a used marker light in the classifieds here (or a junkyard) and replace it yourself. I’d ignore the paint damage to the hood if it were truly minor. It may be cheaper in the long run, particularly if your premiums go up after the claim.
I’m not convinced an insurance co. would pay for aftermarket marker lights or a carbon fibre hood. :think:
What I mean is that I’m not sure the insurance company would pay to replace an OEM hood with a carbon fibre one or an OEM signal light with an aftermarket one.
Put it this way. ICBC quoted me $516 for hood repairs. If I can get a carbon hood in for around that (the shop just charges them whatever and ICBC pays it) the insurance will pay it. Especially if its less. Thats what happens when your province has a government-run, monopoly on the insurance industry. They’ll save a penny everywhere they can.
If you can find a shop that will do that for you then I would try to get the best quality hood I could find cause if you get a cheapy then it’s gonna look like crap and the bodyman is not going to spend anytime to try to make it right unless you pay him to and even then there is only so much that can be done with carbon fiber. I am a bodyman in burnaby and we won’t do stuff like that for people because it can get the shop in trouble with ICBC unless the part was there to begin with in which case ICBC pays what it would cost for the stock replacement and it is up to you to shell out the differance. If this is a claim that will go against your insurance than you better rethink it cause your rates will go up and you will be paying double over the long term.
Yes it’s going against my insurance, already thought about that. Insurance is paying for the guy’s bike that I hit and the days of work he missed. As well as anything else that might one day crop up in the future. Trust me, insurance made more sense here. As far as the hood goes, okay, that makes sense. I’ll see what some shops say. I might also talk to ICBC and say “If it’s cheaper to buy a new hood, than repaint and undent the new one, would that be okay” I mean, I don’t know if it will be cheaper, but if it is, I’m guessing they would be fairly happy to oblige.
as far as i know icbc will replace what you already have and not care that the cf hood is cheaper. they really aim to replace what you had. they will put on a used hood and repaint it it needs replacing vs repairing. good luck to you though.
Don’t loose hope there man. Some shops will make that stuff happen. If you can get a picture of your hood up here I can tell you if it will be replaced or not. Check the inside frame of the hood and look for buckles and cracked paint, we don’t usually fix hoods with significant inner frame damage because it’s just to hard and takes to much time to get it right especially because it’s under a big flat panel. As far as the dent goes ICBC is going to try to slam a jobber hood on your car if they replace it not OEM. The curve is not right on them, the hood gaps are usually off a bit, and there are usually a shit load of abnormalities along the edges but most people never notice because they don’t know how to look at it. If you have an OEM hood now and you can’t get a shop to do what you want then I would let them repair it and tell them to leave it in sanded primer (I can’t see them caring about that) and sell it to someone then get you CF hood. Before I was a bodyman I had a shop that got my old car a color change including all the inners, shaved door handles, shaved locks, and shaved radio antenna on a rock chip claim. All I had to do was take the car apart and sand it in 400 grit and they did the rest. It ended up costing $2000.00 and that included the damage the car got right after it was finished and I drove it on to a lift at a muffler shop and ripped out all of my fuel and brake lines and caved in the floor rail on the drivers side because the guy said “keep coming you’re clear”…asshole. sorry. Little rant there.
Oh and I guess you could say I work for ICBC cause I fix cars for them and ya…fuck ICBC.