Steve, bottome line if they can't fix or replace to pre accident condition threaten to go to arbitration. the'll think twice. Insurance company's hate to go to arbitration if they know there wrong.

I may know a little about this
 

Body shop rates are about $48 a hour on average. The part that you are missing is this is for fixing new vehicles. They look in a book and it says 18 hours to replace a quarter and a good body man can do it in 8 hours...but they still charge the 18, because that is what is in the book. I know of many bodymen bill over 80 hrs on jobs they work for the week and only work 40 hours. Pretty much standard practice. So in reality they are working around $80 or so an hour

Mechanical work is completely different and rates are much higher.

Now to the problem at hand. Classic cars are completely different as you don't look in the book for hours for a job. It is based on the exact time taken..hence the $75 or whatever per hour. I am sure you will not have a problem once they understand (send build pics) of what they are dealing with.

You really need to be making a depreciated value claim as well Steve. Give me a call or shoot me an email and I will explain. It is going to be complicated to establish a value, but it can be negotiated

Steve, who do you use to insure your car? I was reading somewhere that it's hard to insure these cars because the insurance companies never want to be liable for more than standard blue book value.

I'm Lucky, I insure mine through my business and if they want my $200K a year, they do what I tell them to.

Rich

Give State Farm my number. I can fix it. I have the tools. I am a TV repair man.
I gotta charge ya $20 an hour though.

$48/hour would be a one man sole prop shop with no employee's or overhead to speak of.

insurance does not care how big the shop is period. whether it is a 20 man or 2 man or 1 man, in each state or city limits insurance has pay scales, here in maine it is 44 per hr for body labor, paint labor, 24 per painting hr for materials and 60 per hr for mechanical, like was said earlier, any good body man can do 2-1, and real good ones can do 3-1, meaning in a 40 hr week they can do 80-120 hrs worth of insurance work.
i think Steve has this in the bag, but it is going to be a battle, just don't give in...

$75-$80/hr in Oklahoma. I actually have a good buddy who does incredible bodywork, (no painting) for $20 an hour, but I buy all the primers, bondo, sanding pads, ect.

All the marbles are in my bag. I'm not going to give in. What I'm asking for isn't unreasonable and since I'm the wronged party I'm in a good spot.

Their job is to get out of this for the least amount of $$$$ as they can. I can't fault them (to a point) for trying. I'm confident, one way or another, that they will see the situation for what it is and my car will get fixed to the condition it was before the loss was incured.

Well, minus the diminished value Payton mentioned..

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