Car wrecked in my own driveway!

My wife and I went out for the evening to celebrate a friend's birthday. The party was a surprise, so we had to be on time. Not long after we left my daughter called to say that her boyfriend's truck had rolled into my '74 Vega. I couldn't turn around to come and check it out and spent the whole party wondering. She sent a couple of pictures that had me concerned. The driveway is fairly steep.

The Vega had been pushed back ~6 feet. It looked like his truck was into my Chevelle too. Short version, he thought it was in park, but it wasn't. He had stepped out of the truck but my daughter was still in the passenger seat. She's fine. He's a good kid and E36 M3 happens - I'm not too upset with him. I told them to leave it alone until I got home so I could make sure there wasn't any more damage trying to back the truck off. 

Good news - no damage to the Chevelle. Bad news - the Vega was worse than I expected. I'll take a closer look tomorrow or Monday (have some family visiting planned for tomorrow). Both fenders, hood, header panel, bumper, grill, radiator, headlight buckets are the obvious victims. It was pushed over a railroad tie - hopefully there's no rocker, floor, driveshaft, or exhaust damage. 

Sigh. 
 

God bless ya!  

Now comes the potential awkward affects on relationships.  
Dad / Boyfriend relationships
Dad / Daughter relationships
Daughter / Boyfriend relationships
Heck, even Dad / Mom relationships

Some could get weaker?  Some could get stronger?  

Tread lightly!

John Welsh said:

God bless ya!  

Now comes the potential awkward affects on relationships.  
Dad / Boyfriend relationships
Dad / Daughter relationships
Daughter / Boyfriend relationships
Heck, even Dad / Mom relationships

Some could get weaker?  Some could get stronger?  

Tread lightly!

I have to think about my expectations.

Do I let it go and eat the repair costs completely?
Do I expect payment for parts and eat the labor? 
Do I expect full repair on his dime?

He's a good kid. Hard worker, currently in college, treats my kidlet well, etc. He also just filled my freezer with venison. 

Parts will be used. Nobody is making repro Vega stuff. I don't yet know if it's all bolt on stuff, or if I'm going back to the frame machine (aka tree in the backyard) for the core support. 

Interesting times ahead for sure. 

In reply to Motojunky :

Oh, that sucks!

Yeow, that's a bummer. But like you said, accidents happen.

If he's a good guy, he might try to make it right (as much as possible) on his own.  It's still early, see what he says/does.  And I say "as much as possible" because college kid likely doesn't have a lot of extra $ to help out.

Give it a day or two, see what he does on his own.  He might try to at least help with labor if he has abilities.

(I was thinking more of when I hit my Lil Red Express truck with my Camaro trying to get up an apartment parking lot in the snow/ice.  A lady came out and I said don't worry, they're both mine.)

If he turns it in to insurance, it will total. So, how bad do you want to keep it? At a minimum, I'd want compensated for the parts, which will be tough to find.

Tough one. 

I've done more dumb E36 M3 like that than is worth the time to type out, so I empathize with him. I'm sure he feels 5 kinds of terrible, embarrassed, worried, etc. 

On the flip you didn't wreck your car, so would suck for the expectation to be it's totally yours to fix. 

Good news, aside from parts availability concerns (which I know nothing of, just gathering that as fact from y'all's posts above), sure looks "fixable" to me. He a serious enough boyfriend that it's worth making the repair into a mandatory project with a potential future son in law?

Is he capable of helping you fix it?

That sucks, but you're handling it well so far.

Look on the bright side - I thought from the picture in the wagon thread that he had hit the back end. I have to think it's easier to fix the front, which is common to all Vegas of that year range.

Good luck with all aspects of this!

Some thoughts after having a sleep on it:

He's not a car guy, but he's capable of helping. He goes to school ~ four hours away and offered to help before he leaves in a few days. The car got pushed back over a railroad tie - I may engage him to help get it back in the driveway. I don't really need the help, but it'll get him involved right from the start.

He typically leaves around 8:00 PM when he's over at the house. It's kind of a running joke that he goes to bed at 8:30. Last night, knowing that we'd be home late I suggested that my daughter take him home, or that he just take her car home. He insisted on staying so that he could speak to me personally when we got home. I can appreciate that. 

I'd prefer that he didn't have to use insurance. Aside from the likely total, I'd rather help him avoid the rate increase. If it were a stranger, things would be different. I had been considering selling the car. 

Parts should be relatively easy to find. I put the feelers out in a Vega group last night and had two fairly local options pop up. Who knows if they are viable but it's encouraging. The front end already needed paint work. I can't in good conscience make that his problem. 

Ideally, he'll cover the cost of the parts and help with the repairs. He's been around for almost two years at this point. I think it's worth the investment to get him involved. I don't want him to dodge responsibility, but I am sympathetic to his financial situation. His folks are good people and may offer to step in. That's on them, of course, but I'd like to see him own it. 

I'm not in a rush to fix it but I don't want to wait so long that it never gets done. I had a few other things on deck to do  with the Vega - I may use this as the kick in the pants to get moving on that stuff. 

He and his father installed that big ass bumper on the front of his truck last winter when he slid into a tree - in his driveway! The stock bumper would have been a better deal in this situation. 

Always something!

In reply to Motojunky :

He sounds like a stand up guy. Like Spearfishin said, I'm sure he feels terrible right now. 

I went looking for parts here in Michigan....not cheap, but there is some stuff around. Found this...Marketplace - 74 vega stock front end parts | Facebook

Years ago a friend backed into my car in the church parking lot.  Smashed in the driver's side doors. 
 

I chose to overlook the incident because he was my friend.  The car was no cream puff, so I figured my loss wasn't that great.  Besides... we were at church. 🙄

The problem is that by overlooking the incident, I took from him any ability to make it right.  He could have simply called his insurance company, but instead he had to look at the damage he did to my car every time he went to church. 
 

I think he felt  guilty about it. He stopped talking to me. I lost a friendship that day. 
 

Try to find the balance between giving forgiveness and offering him a way to make it right.

You have an excellent opportunity to form a relationship with him as you repair the car together - you providing skill( presumably) and him providing parts and labor, ( also presumably)

This picture lifted for The Wagon Appreciation thread to provide context...

Before:

Present:

I think your looking at most of a front-clip-ectomy.  Sure, original to 1974 is one thing but also, if parts availability dictates, you also have the option of the Monza Wagon version.  

Have him help with the labor.  Take him with you to pick up the parts if possible so he knows how hard it is to acquire them.  Hopefully through your efforts this won't happen a third time.

Motojunky said:

He typically leaves around 8:00 PM when he's over at the house. It's kind of a running joke that he goes to bed at 8:30. Last night, knowing that we'd be home late I suggested that my daughter take him home, or that he just take her car home. He insisted on staying so that he could speak to me personally when we got home. I can appreciate that.

I think you're off to a good start.

Sounds like a good kid , I bet he would feel better helping fix it , 

then he will not feel so bad that he "Owes you" for what he did , 

Time to back date that to the much better looking Camaro type front end. 

ddavidv said:

Time to back date that to the much better looking Camaro type front end. 

My first two Vegas were 70-73 with the "better" front end. To my surprise, the later style has grown on me in recent years. That said, I am considering it. 

John Welsh said:

I think your looking at most of a front-clip-ectomy.  Sure, original to 1974 is one thing but also, if parts availability dictates, you also have the option of the Monza Wagon version.  

This being a V8 conversion car and not a perfect example, I'm not too worried about originality. I'm not particularly fond of that Monza front end. I do like this one though. 

I also find the Pontiac Astre front end appealing. 

I think the "being nice" option would be paying for whatever (used) parts it takes to fix it.

Tk8398 said:

I think the "being nice" option would be paying for whatever (used) parts it takes to fix it.

Depends. Fair is previous value - salvage value. You can easily spend more than that fixing it. I wouldn't just dump that expectation on the kid without understanding what insurance would pay out.

theruleslawyer said:

Tk8398 said:

I think the "being nice" option would be paying for whatever (used) parts it takes to fix it.

Depends. Fair is previous value - salvage value. You can easily spend more than that fixing it. I wouldn't just dump that expectation on the kid without understanding what insurance would pay out.

For sure. I'm thinking under $1k in parts - hopefully well under. I wouldn't expect him to pay for labor, paint work, etc. There are no new parts available so it's all gonna be used. With any luck, we'll be able to find a parts car.