I couldn't touch the car till after all the legal stuff was done. Insurance paid me Auction value at the time of the accident which was 19K. I guess I was happy because I had stated amount of 5K on the policy to start with 12 years prior.
Stated amount policy is what saved me. Even still, I had to pay back the salvage value to keep the car. They took 3000 out of the 19 and 16 is what I had to work with. At first I thought maybe i could buy a glass willys. I went to Willys Works and came out hanging my head with and estimate for 18000, without engine trans and center section, wheels and tires and paint, and no interior. Not much of a car for 18 grand.
That was when i looked at my coupe and said why not build my 1935 chevy into a nostalgia gasser tribute car. I can allocate so much for engine and trans, so much for tools i will need, and some for the body work. Not a bad idea.
I was new to the gasser rules and nostalgia, but I was bitten by the bug.
After a year of walking in pain due to lumbar disc problems I decided it was time to start especially after I received the check to start working.
I ripped apart all I could on the back of the body and pulled the rear end out.
I started with straightening the back frame where it was buckled from the weight of the renegade Poncho. I used an I beam vertically to hold the frame down and i floor jacked the end upward tapping gently on the buckle and it went back to normal height .