1968 GT500: Crashed without even leaving the garage

[shelbymann1970]

Sorry to hear about . Keep us posted as I am sure others myself included have Hagerty and want to know how well they respond to the situation.

I've had 3 claims with Hagerty on my 70 GT350(all weird occurrences). They paid off in spades on all 3. I did replace them with American Modern 15 months ago.

[Chris Thauberger]

Was the car recently restored? Who painted the car originally? They might have the formula used to mix the paint. Since car has been garaged/covered not a lot of fading. Matching should not be that complicated for a competent painter given the new spectrophotometers used to match paint.

As for the fender, based on the one picture it is absolutely repairable IMHO. I fixed worse than that when I was a body man. Trick will be to find someone who can massage the metal out. Most auto body repair theses days is R&R (remove/replace) with new cars. That is what they teach the new generation of "auto body technicians".

Chris

[KR500]

Was the car recently restored? Who painted the car originally? They might have the formula used to mix the paint. Since car has been garaged/covered not a lot of fading. Matching should not be that complicated for a competent painter given the new spectrophotometers used to match paint.

As for the fender, based on the one picture it is absolutely repairable IMHO. I fixed worse than that when I was a body man. Trick will be to find someone who can massage the metal out. Most auto body repair theses days is R&R (remove/replace) with new cars. That is what they teach the new generation of "auto body technicians".

Chris

The car was painted over 20 years ago using an industrial/commercial paint system (DuPont Imron something not commonly used in the auto repair/refinish industry and then a Spies/Heckler system sprayed on top of that) according to the owner. If you think this color would be a easy match using a paint spectrometer your in for a hell of a surprise, it may get you half assed close to start with but anything more than that you would be damn lucky. I have seen this car in person, but not since this accident and the owner did contact me about this shortly there after.

[Chris Thauberger]

Was the car recently restored? Who painted the car originally? They might have the formula used to mix the paint. Since car has been garaged/covered not a lot of fading. Matching should not be that complicated for a competent painter given the new spectrophotometers used to match paint.

As for the fender, based on the one picture it is absolutely repairable IMHO. I fixed worse than that when I was a body man. Trick will be to find someone who can massage the metal out. Most auto body repair theses days is R&R (remove/replace) with new cars. That is what they teach the new generation of "auto body technicians".

Chris

The car was painted over 20 years ago using an industrial/commercial paint system (DuPont Imron something not commonly used in the auto repair/refinish industry and then a Spies/Heckler system sprayed on top of that) according to the owner. If you think this color would be a easy match using a paint spectrometer your in for a hell of a surprise, it may get you half assed close to start with but anything more than that you would be damn lucky. I have seen this car in person, but not since this accident and the owner did contact me about this shortly there after.

Imron from 20 years ago, that would be a tough one. I was thinking it might have been a more recent.

[chris NOS]

we are using every day a spectro on customer cars , and it's not a magic tool , few times the color is off, and the thing is new painters are relying on it and they are not learning much how to match a paint "by hand "...

[TLea]

Regarding matching Sunlit Gold, its the reason there are yellow 68s 

[KR500]

Regarding matching Sunlit Gold, its the reason there are yellow 68s 

100%. Gold has always been a bear to match.

[6s2055]

Interesting discussion on car insurance. I had Grundy insurance for many years......1974 to 2018. They always went above and beyond on the few claims I submitted. When hit by a drunk uninsured driver while in our Packard they paid the full amount and full medical in less than two weeks. When i hit a bird with my 280Sl and needed to replace the center grill they said to get a nos not aftermarket. But the best was when the rear window on my GT350 cracked they helped find a correct nos instead of just a replacement.

[thewee]

Just a quick update. I sent pictures of the car to Hagerty and received a call from their in-house estimator. We spoke quite a while about what it will take to repair the car correctly and he is working up an estimate based on the information he has. He did say that the estimate he sends is going to be low and we will adjust it as we start getting more accurate numbers from whoever is going to do the work. He mentioned that this isn't just a '68 Mustang, it's a Shelby and they were going to do whatever they need to do to fix it correctly.

I'm striking out on finding someone to do the work. I understand that a job like this would be tough to make any money on, especially with the labor that would be involved in the stripping all of the old paint.

As an added bonus here's the video of the crash:

[deathsled]

Too bad you didn't have land mines 20 feet out around the perimeter with the adequate warnings of course.

[thewee]

Too bad you didn't have land mines 20 feet out around the perimeter with the adequate warnings of course.

Defenses are in the works. They won't drive away next time.

My contractor talked me out of the moat though.

[Corey Bowcutt]

That is a crazy video.  Lots of tire screeching before impact.  Is this a house?  Is it right off the road?  Just hard to figure out what went on here.  What ever happened it is horrible.

Corey

[thewee]

That is a crazy video.  Lots of tire screeching before impact.  Is this a house?  Is it right off the road?  Just hard to figure out what went on here.  What ever happened it is horrible.

Corey

It's a 24' x 40' detached garage next to the house which is pretty close to the road. It's a two lane county road in a very rural area. From the doorbell camera on the house you can hear him get on it down the road and he was moving at a pretty good speed when he drifted off the right side of the road, over-corrected, and spun. When he left the left side of the road he got into the grass next to the garage which straightened him out and he hit the wall head on.

One too many Busch Lights I'd say.

[Coralsnake]

Large rocks!

[Chris Thauberger]

As an added bonus here's the video of the crash:

Nice video. Love those panoramic cameras.