Cars X Girl

I wrote about my Miata’s little skirmish with a dump truck here, but I never followed it up with the final answer from the insurance company.

As I said, the adjuster was pretty cool. Maybe I shouldn’t have talked about the car so much, but he seemed genuinely interested in her and not like he was trying to screw me. Trying to screw me would have been hassling me about already fixing the tail light and how much I paid for a new one, not asking if the car’s actually raced. (As there’s nothing illegal in racing my car, and I don’t have comprehensive or collision coverage, I don’t see a huge issue. It wasn’t even my company here.)

The Pay Off

As I said, the guy was as nice as could be. He even showed me the software that they use to come up with the parts estimates, which was pretty cool. I always wondered how they did that! He had a couple of questions about the trim level of the car, and plugged in all the numbers. Mostly, it was a bit of confusion over my rear skirt; it wasn’t on the original trim level of the car, and I added it afterwards. I said it’d be no problem and to not worry about it, I didn’t tell him that I wasn’t planning on getting her fixed but I already knew that I wasn’t.

He told me that, according to the computer, the initial estimate was around $1,200. I was shocked. Now, this was with all OEM replacement parts, plus paint and labor. Apparently, they call around and see if they can’t find like-OEM parts to lessen the costs, so I figured that would bring the cost way down. After all, the rear finish panel is what most of the damage was from… That and repainting the entire rear bumper.

I figured he’d end up finding some other parts and knocking it down by a bunch. But nope! I got the check in the mail, for $1,107.01. Yikes! According to the estimate, replacement parts would comprise nearly $600 of that. For a rear finish panel and a new driver’s side tail light. Hardly… I’m on back order for the finish panel, but after I get it, my parts expense would only come to $240. It was like a mini payday to me.

Tough Decisions

The hardest part has been figuring out what to do with the money now that I have it. Honestly, the bumper isn’t so bad, I just want my new finish panel already… I have no clue when I’ll get it, though. I’ll be able to reimburse myself for the parts cost, which I don’t mind at all. That’s always a good thing.

It still left me with $900 though, with nothing imminent needing to be replaced. And then my husband pointed out that I could always spend the money on the 240SX…. Hehehe.

I haven’t done anything with it yet, but I’m thinking I’ll be purchasing a Bride seat in the very near future, the Zeta III. Authentic parts are just so sexy, no? What’s nice is not having to wait the four months it would otherwise take me to come up with the money for it, and my husband volunteered to pay for the rails.

Part of me wanted to just use it to pay off the car, but the driver’s seat needs to be replaced badly. The padding is all deformed, and it actually hurts my back if I drive the car too much. Yeah, not fun! I see it as an investment in my project car and in my own health, for my back’s sake. (I have scoliosis, so it’s rather sensitive sometimes.)

Of course, I’ll update whenever I move forward with the purchase. I figure that the car loan is something that needs to stick around for a little while, having one for six months doesn’t do too much for my credit. It’s more important that I can show good management of it over the long term than paying it off quickly. Wish that weren’t true sometimes, but nothing I can do.

My New Project Idea

While the Miata’s scratched bumper really doesn’t bother me all that much, I don’t want to have these big gashes in it either. The clear coat wasn’t in good shape before, but now it just looks rather sad. Something needs to be done.

I’ve seen some cars before with tons of stickers on them. One had stickers covering the entire trunk lid, the other a front lip. Totally badass, in my opinion.

So… Why not sticker the hell out of my rear bumper? I even know what I’d call the project — “Project Sticker me with Love,” harhar. (You know, instead of “shower me with love.” Okay, I tried, alright?)

It would be a vast undertaking, as my rear bumper is not small by any means. But it could potentially be very awesome… I’m not entirely sure yet. It would be fairly original, I can be assured of that. Perhaps not the first, but certainly not one of any type of majority.

I’m also talking all car-related stickers, none of those retarded bumper stickers. I have a couple of D1GP stickers, and a few others from iloveracing.com. I’d love to get my hands on more of the awesome stickers from Fatlace, since I *heart* those guys and would love to support them more openly. Then just collect various stickers from other sources to make up the only rear bumper I’d probably ever want to keep for good. It’d be a work of art in itself at that point.

So please, let me know what you think! Am I totally crazy? Or would it be awesome to see? It’s one of those “fine line” projects — it’s going to have to be put together very well for the right effect to be produced, but I think it would be cool. Opinions, please & thanks!

Meg

In 2007, Meg began learning about cars. Two years later, she had a very modified '97 Miata and a '90 240SX project car, as well as the Rookie of the Year autocross title. Life now completely revolves around cars and she wouldn't have it any other way. CarsxGirl is her way to encourage others to get into racing (it's not horribly expensive!), to document & share her car builds, an outlet to share & improve her automotive photography skills and to show that real car girls do exist!

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