Gramps' turn with "The BRR Curse" (new pics on 5)

ejclide · Post by **ejclide** » Fri Feb 05, 2010 4:38 am

sorry to hear about your little bump and grind gramps, and I hope all is well with the surgery.

I am SOOOO gonna have to get me an SRT washer fluid reservoir. That's just too funny.

LilSparkPlug · Post by **LilSparkPlug** » Fri Feb 05, 2010 8:58 am

Yeah the frame is definitely tweaked, much easier to be seen in those shots. The shop will be paid to replace those stickers, it will be on the estimate I can guarantee you that. Just make sure they do it. And again, ask for the old parts back

Midnight_Rider · Post by **Midnight_Rider** » Fri Feb 05, 2010 9:31 am

LilSparkPlug wrote:The shop will be paid to replace those stickers, it will be on the estimate I can guarantee you that. Just make sure they do it. And again, ask for the old parts back

I am going to email the estimator about the stickers but I don't know if State Farm will let me have the old parts. I have nowhere to store the hood anyway, as much as I would like to keep it for nostaligia.

LilSparkPlug · Post by **LilSparkPlug** » Fri Feb 05, 2010 10:12 am

Headboard!! Ha ha that's where my original CBD one is

I have a picture somewhere....

MyNeonSaysHi · Post by **MyNeonSaysHi** » Fri Feb 05, 2010 11:09 am

Glad its getting taken care of. It will be just like new when you get it back. Be nice to have a freshly painted new front bumper and hood.

Don't know why they wrote all that crap on your windows. "No air hose to be used on wheels?" What? Car show in march?

These pictures really show how beefy the stock crash bar is on SRT's. Sad that so many people get rid of it for their giant intercoolers. No aftermarket crash bar can replace the stock one.

Tam · Post by **Tam** » Fri Feb 05, 2010 11:17 am

The SRT washer fluid bottle adds 30 HP!

I'm glad it's getting fixed up.

LilSparkPlug · Post by **LilSparkPlug** » Fri Feb 05, 2010 12:26 pm

MyNeonSaysHi wrote: No aftermarket crash bar can replace the stock one.

That bugs me bigtime...you think they'd make a suitable replacement.

Midnight_Rider · Post by **Midnight_Rider** » Fri Feb 05, 2010 1:21 pm

MyNeonSaysHi wrote:Don't know why they wrote all that crap on your windows. "No air hose to be used on wheels?" What? Car show in march?

When I dropped the car off at the body shop last Friday, I mentioned that I have Mopar wheel locks and to use the removal tool for hand torquing if, for some reason, they would need to take the wheels off. I don't know where the estimater got the idea for the car show in March- maybe that is why they started work so quickly (I'm not complaining if this is the case!).

Tam wrote:The SRT washer fluid bottle adds 30 HP!

EXACTLY!

LilSparkPlug · Post by **LilSparkPlug** » Fri Feb 05, 2010 1:28 pm

SRT washer fluid bottles are shaped differently to allow for the front bumper/foglight combo. The SRT-D has the same washer bottle. If you had a neon and put an SRT-D or SRT fascia on it, you would need to source out that bottle

Midnight_Rider · Post by **Midnight_Rider** » Sat Feb 06, 2010 2:32 pm

The dealership in Iowa where I purchased the car had drilled a hole in the fascia for the front license plate bracket and I had been planning to have bodywork done there. Also, there were two small chips on the passenger-side lip (directly below the fog light) that also needed to be fixed. Well... DONE!

slaw · Post by **slaw** » Mon Feb 08, 2010 5:14 pm

LilSparkPlug wrote:SRT washer fluid bottles are shaped differently to allow for the front bumper/foglight combo. The SRT-D has the same washer bottle. If you had a neon and put an SRT-D or SRT fascia on it, you would need to source out that bottle

yes i can back this up! i still need one of those bottles, no washer bottle + new england weather stinks!

Midnight_Rider · Post by **Midnight_Rider** » Tue Feb 09, 2010 1:51 am

LilSparkPlug wrote:The shop will be paid to replace those stickers, it will be on the estimate I can guarantee you that. Just make sure they do it. And again, ask for the old parts back

Body shop knew nothing about the stickers but have now added them to the estimate. Thank you for suggesting this!

I am getting custody of the parts. They will

show up

somewhere, I'm sure.

LilSparkPlug · Post by **LilSparkPlug** » Tue Feb 09, 2010 11:36 am

Awesome

Glad to have helped!

Midnight_Rider · Post by **Midnight_Rider** » Tue Feb 09, 2010 11:42 am

Well, now State Farm is balking about paying Ziebart for updates to my rust protection and Diamond Gloss after the body shop finishes with my car.

Pocahontas · Post by **Pocahontas** » Tue Feb 09, 2010 11:43 am

Midnight_Rider wrote:Well, now State Farm is balking about paying Ziebart for updates to my rust protection and Diamond Gloss after the body shop finishes with my car.

LilSparkPlug · Post by **LilSparkPlug** » Tue Feb 09, 2010 12:18 pm

Too bad, they insured you they need to fix it.

Passt · Post by **Passt** » Tue Feb 09, 2010 3:04 pm

Midnight_Rider wrote:Well, now State Farm is balking about paying Ziebart for updates to my rust protection and Diamond Gloss after the body shop finishes with my car.

Welcome to reality. Some people suck. Good luck Gramps ^_^ Can't wait to see her at Carlisle.

Midnight_Rider · Post by **Midnight_Rider** » Wed Feb 10, 2010 2:27 am

Passt wrote:Good luck Gramps ^_^ Can't wait to see her at Carlisle.

Thanks Nate.

The problem is who will be billed and how. I talked with four different people about this on Tuesday morning and just wished that I could get them on a conference call rather than call one back and then another.

Car was on jackstands today with all of the skirt pieces removed. I wish that I had known as I would have taken some car wash solution and wax with me- I'll probably never see the rocker panels again once the body shop has finished with the car. Then I got a late email- the hood that Chrysler sent to the body shop arrived with some kind of damage and was rejected so now we have to wait for another one. All of the new parts were supposedly in the paint shop when I was there so I couldn't see them.

LilSparkPlug · Post by **LilSparkPlug** » Wed Feb 10, 2010 8:16 am

That sucks

a minor setback in the scheme of things.

Midnight_Rider · Post by **Midnight_Rider** » Wed Feb 10, 2010 10:56 am

Yeah, i thought that I would use my noggin' and rush over there this morning and do a quick wash and wax of the rockers but was told that the shop's insurance wouldn't cover my being inside like that. Oh well. The worst thing is that, after checking my pics from yesterday more closely, it looks like my exhaust is starting to rust big time. This is the longest time that the car has sat outdoors in bad weather since it was on the dealer lot. I thought that SRT's had stainless exhaust parts- am I wrong on this? Should I be concerned?

Post by **racer12306** » Wed Feb 10, 2010 10:58 am

Regardless of a car sitting outside, there is still plenty of moisture in the air.

Surface rusting should be expected, not all stainless steel is completely rust free. I wouldn't worry about it until it starts to put holes through the piping, which will probably be a while.

Midnight_Rider · Post by **Midnight_Rider** » Wed Feb 10, 2010 11:06 am

Thanks Frank. I have been feeling so helpless about this situation, my car being miles away and out of my sight for so long.

Man, is my car dirty.

LilSparkPlug · Post by **LilSparkPlug** » Wed Feb 10, 2010 11:58 am

I've never seen a stock SRT exhaust that didn't look like that. You'll be fine

mattern248 · Post by **mattern248** » Wed Feb 10, 2010 9:04 pm

ok well i have had my fair share of repair shops and one thing is the your stock crash bar took no damage any and all was deflected into the lower frame that it bolts onto. so thats reusable and is the strongest you can have on there the fog light cover should be reuseabl also because i see no damage if there is you need to find out for sure what the damage was. as far as the hood take with you a hard book and place it up against the stricker on the hood if it is bent you will see it. it should be 90 degrees n every direction. as far as the head light and sticker for the car dealerships can print them out for you and almost all carry headlights in stock. from reading your post and original there is NO WAY you have over 3k in frame damage. that the kind of damage you get from drifting and crap. so before they touch your car any more take all your picture of everything to at LEAST 3 other shops to get a final quote because some thing is really fishy here i know body panel bolt are only so tight for a resaon so that the panels can mose some so that minimal damage happens to the frame. just make sure that your not getting screwed and make sure you get every single last peice back and also make sure they use the right bolts in the right place. alot of shops dont care what goes were

LilSparkPlug · Post by **LilSparkPlug** » Wed Feb 10, 2010 9:23 pm

He said 3700 worth of damage, not frame damage. Considering the bumper is $748 and the hood retails at $1,000, the fog bezels are $80+ an OEM headlight is $200, I think 3700 w/labor is reasonable considering parts alone are over 2,000. Add in the rust proofing, frame pulling/straightening, paint materials, labor, prep, cover etc and you're easily at the figure they gave him.

Nothing they've done seems fishy at all, they're handling it rather well from what I can see.

Midnight_Rider · Post by **Midnight_Rider** » Thu Feb 11, 2010 1:20 am

Thanks LSP. I think that things are going okay- my problem is that the car has never been out of my sight for this long before and I was already paranoid enough about everything concerning the car anyway long before this accident.

Passt · Post by **Passt** » Thu Feb 11, 2010 7:08 am

Midnight_Rider wrote:It looks like my exhaust is starting to rust big time. This is the longest time that the car has sat outdoors in bad weather since it was on the dealer lot. I thought that SRT's had stainless exhaust parts- am I wrong on this? Should I be concerned?

As others have stated, all stock SRT exhausts end up looking like this. It is NOT stainless steel as far as I know. The Mopar / Borla performance exhaust however, is. I would highly recommend that. I bought that for my SRT almost as soon as I got my car back in December of 2008. Still no rust. It will fit right onto the stock downpipe.

http://www.modernperformance.com/mopar- ... -1251.html

Midnight_Rider · Post by **Midnight_Rider** » Thu Feb 11, 2010 7:22 am

^^Upgrading the exhaust was on my mental list of mods even before I bought the car but, unforunately, my finances have prevented me from doing anything other than the STS. Maybe someday...

Neon4Life · Post by **Neon4Life** » Thu Feb 11, 2010 8:21 am

An exhaust upgrade would be so beastly on the srt Gramps.

well anyways.. is there any word on when you are going to get it back ?

Passt · Post by **Passt** » Thu Feb 11, 2010 8:45 am

Midnight_Rider wrote:^^Upgrading the exhaust was on my mental list of mods even before I bought the car but, unforunately, my finances have prevented me from doing anything other than the STS. Maybe someday...

I'll see if I can source a used one for you.