My SPI single stage white El Camino hail damage questions.

Jim Grundy is the President of Grundy Insurance.

His Linkedin page:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/jim-grundy-a0274b44/ ( I don't have premium so I can't send a message to him directly)

Grundy Facebook page:

Grundy Insurance phone number (866) 338-4006 (they are a smallish company so getting a message or speaking to Mr Grundy should be possible.)

Article where Grundy is singing the praises of his Company.


Doubt the following is a direct line but it's worth a try.

James A. Grundy Agency, Inc.
400 Horsham Rd
Horsham, PA 19044


Contact:Jim Grundy Jr
Title:President
Phone:(215) 674-1856
Website: www.grundy.com
 
I PMed the 3 of you with a copy of my quote. It had my personal info on it so I didn't want to post it in an open forum.
The adjuster was clear that if I took my car to a shop and got a higher quote, they would have adjusted it. I didn't want to take the time and do that especially Covid spreading rampant here right now.. I was honest to the adjuster when he asked me if I intended to do the job myself and I wouldn't have held it back to a local shop either.
I figured I could do better but I don't even know of any custom painters around here and would have had to take it to a collision shop.
I chose the easy route and was fine with what I got.
Grundy Worldwide has a good reputation. I bet if you had a customer with them, you could get an adjustment to satisfy you. At least I hope so.
Btw, there are 2 companies that use the Grundy name. Mine is Grundy Worldwide and is underwritten by Philadelphia Insurance Companies.
The 2 companies are affiliated but I'm not sure exactly how.
 
PM'ed you back Roger. You are a better man than I.
The adjusters who wrote your policy are the same ones writing collision repair policies. An appraisal service. Appraisal service adjusters are the biggest scumbags of all the adjusters. Had one try to write a literally brand new car (less than a 1000 miles and current model year, at the time) for a complete aftermarket front end. He and I almost came to blows, because I would not let them do that to our Customer who had no idea. That's just one time, there were many others. They have basically zero knowledge of anything but how to input numbers into their laptops. I just get tired of seeing them ripoff people. And companies like Grundy giving that marketing BS in that article I posted a link to. When in reality it's no different than if you had insured it with any of the Majors.
True Customer Service for car guys would be employing dedicated adjusters with experience in older classic cars, who would write fair and honest estimates that reflect the damage and pay what is necessary to truly restore your car to pre-accident condition.

I know I myself would pay more for coverage like that. I'm sure plenty of others would too.
 
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The adjuster was clear that if I took my car to a shop and got a higher quote, they would have adjusted it.
That says he knew they were ripping you off. Why not write an honest appraisal to begin with? An independent will get black balled or fired. The companies that hire them set the rules, and they follow or else. There was a time many, many years ago, that appraisers were ex- bodymen and painters. Not anymore. Most are hired right out of college and indoctrinated to the ways of paying as little as possible to get the repair done. They will argue with someone with decades of repairing accidents about how a repair should be done, and can't even change their own oil. Now, any way they can think of to cut labor out, they will, especially paint time. Paint time cost them labor+ material, so every hour they cut saves them $86 instead of $48 body labor. Body repair (dents) used to be even numbers, now it is .5, 1.5, 2.5, etc. And believe me, the .5 is not being added, but subtracted from the time it should pay.
 
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roger1 told us all along he could have gotten more. He is satisfied and I don’t think we should make him defend himself. If he got what he wanted then I am glad he doesn’t feel cheated. The important thing is he is going to get his Camino back as it was.

Hopefully he will post some pictures along the way.

John
 
roger1 told us all along he could have gotten more. He is satisfied and I don’t think we should make him defend himself. If he got what he wanted then I am glad he doesn’t feel cheated. The important thing is he is going to get his Camino back as it was.
Hopefully he will post some pictures along the way.
John
Naw, not feeling like I need to defend at all. I've got a totally different prospective than you pros do. If it had felt unfair to me, I would have told the adjuster so. Bottom line to me is that it covered my expenses, bought me a tool and put money in my pocket for my trouble. Since it did that it wasn't worth any additional effort on my part to do any better. I hear what you guys are saying but it still isn't worth me putting any more effort into at this point. It is interesting hearing the pro's perspective on this though.
Only thing I might do different next time is the part about collision vs. custom paint job time and rates. I'll keep this in mind for the next time I have to make a claim. But of course I hope there isn't a next time.

And yes, I will follow up with more photos and how I think that blend worked out. I got the quarter panel all blocked out today. I might wait for a time to paint when this hot spell is over though. I also will show my unorthodox method for the cut and buff process.
 
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You might be able to hand write your own supplement based on the information you are obtaining here. There's not anything to lose but a bit of time.
 
I've had a lot of things going on lately so I wasn't able to finish this until now. I finished prepping everything this evening and will shoot the paint first thing in the AM when the temperatures will be cooler.
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So everything went pretty well with the painting. I did 3 coats 30 minutes apart. One small area mottled a little bit with my first coat. Not sure what caused it but maybe I didn't wait long enough after wiping down after the W&G remover. It was probably at least 20 minutes. It will come out with my color sanding just fine I think though. I did spray just that area with an extra coat between coat 2 and coat 3 just for a little extra thickness for color sanding a little more if needed.
My makeshift spraybooth worked well. I only noticed one piece of dust on the entire job.

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I didn't too well with the blending solvent. Practice would have helped. I used my Iwata LPH-101 touch-up gun but had the fluid knob the same as for paint. I should have cut it down as I sprayed it too heavy and it sagged on me a little. It formed a little edge that you can see and a little run at the end.
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I plan to color sand this edge and run with my sandpaper wrapped around a paint stick and try not to get above it into the blend area. Hopefully it will come out OK.
 
If you have to try that again, stay farther down away from the masking paper. Your blend should all be in the open area, with the fancy masking to serve simply as a way to prevent heavy overspray in the area not being painted. Use a little blender after each coat, carefully melting the overspray in a little at a time. The first coat should be very low on the sail panel, each subsequent coat a couple inches higher.

You got a fair result for a first-timer. It's not an easy technique.
 
If you have to try that again, stay farther down away from the masking paper. Your blend should all be in the open area, with the fancy masking to serve simply as a way to prevent heavy overspray in the area not being painted. Use a little blender after each coat, carefully melting the overspray in a little at a time. The first coat should be very low on the sail panel, each subsequent coat a couple inches higher.
You got a fair result for a first-timer. It's not an easy technique.
Thanks for the advice Crash.
After my post I went back out and pulled a little more paper back and could tell that it wasn't spraying the blending solvent too heavy that was the problem but like you say, I went too far up with it. Since there wasn't any fresh paint up there for it to blend into, it just kind of came down in a little sheet until it hit the fresh paint and caused the edge and run. I think I might have gotten away with that mistake on a horizontal surface. I really think if I'm careful color sanding, it will be fine in the end.
 
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