It's actually rather nice! As long as the sun is out I have this minute valley thing that opens up out towards the Puget Sound. Across from there is lovely Tacoma, Wa. Wait. Do you see that? Down at the edge of the ravine, center of the picture, there seems to be something there? What is it? Let me take another shot...



Oh I think I know. That seems to be a rare breed of bird! A Phoenix!



Shat. It is. :cry: :cry: :cry:

So, the story goes like this. I awaken this morning to find the gate at the end of my driveway to be nonfunctional. I had to get out of the car and slide it open. No big deal. I have no e-brake (lesson learned!) and so I had to stop the car, shut it off, open the gate, roll my car through, stop the car, and close the gate.

Well I guess I should've made sure the key was ALL the way off. I turned it back far enough that the car shut off, put the car in gear, open the gate, just pushed in the clutch and let it coast out to the other side of the gate without starting it. Well, that section of my driveway is on a slight incline. And I really mean slight. Like, Milla Jovovich breasts slight. I got back out and closed the gate and heard a sickening noise. The car lurched forward once and roll started itself. One of these most terrifying moments of my life was just occurring. When my car is restarted in motion it likes to idle at ~1100rpm until it sits still for a second and the idle creeps back down to normal. Well, I didn't have that second this time. It lept forward and sprang to life. Running down the end of my driveway and across the street. I was confused. Seriously. There was no one in my car, what was happening? ****. Off it goes. By the time it reached the other side of the street my flip flops were spinning in the air like some old Looney Tunes cartoon and I was sprinting after my redheaded vixen. It crashed right through a 4x6 treated piece of lumber holding up the neighbors power box and leapt off the embankment. I can't tell you how far my bare feet pushed me off that hillside but by this time my car was suicidally barreling down the ravine. I screamed so hard my throat ached. The car was just speeding up and I was just falling behind. It bound over bushed, tore through grass, and bounced noisily up and over ruts and small holes. It shook and shuttered like a 10.0 quake. Luckily near the bottom of the incline the compression of the motor slowed the beast and it slammed itself into a patch of sticker bushes.

By this time my heart was racing like an F1 car. It was screaming. I can't believe this just happened. Holy hell. This happened to me? No...yes.






I grabbed my step dad's truck and started winching.



Of course my trusty sidekick Dirty Steve comes to help steer. I finally let him in the driver seat. I think because the car isn't moving on it's own.





What's left of my mandrel bent stainless steel catback. Yeah, that shouldn't be folded...

 

All in all, the damage is a lot less that what I was expecting. I'm pretty good friends with the body shop right below my work so they're hooking me up but I'm almost guarantee my insurance company is going to try and total it. If you guys happen to see ads for any 'verts in decent shape, forward them to me for proof of the value.

I'm distraught. :cry:

Although Steve's already found a couple replacement chassis' if this ends up worse than I think. One is yellow.

 

And just for good measure, some random shots of previous destructions...

 

HOLY CRAP that's aweful! i hope the insurance company pays to have it repaired, because that's one of, if not the nicest 91/92 bird verts on the planet. shame that happened, best of luck getting it fixed.

stupid car driving ghost....

 

at first i was totally like, why the hell is this guy posting up a view from his house on thirdgen?? That sucks man, but with the condition of the car, i hope to god its not totaled, i think that is the nicest vert i have seen. It looks like its pretty much all sheet metal. Hopefully there is no bent frame under there. And it had such a nice paint job. Sad day, sad day.

 

Dang... That REALLY SUCKS. I would be very upset if that happened to me. I remember seeing your build thread. Was a very nice cars, one of the nicest Verts on Thirdgen.org. Hopefully all you need is a few fenders, nose, and GFX. If you dont mind me asking, what MPG were you getting with a T56 and 3.23 gears?

 

I hope it'll be back on the road soon. Maybe this will give me time to do some much needed improvements...

19/27 city/highway

 

Theres someone selling their bird on here, in the classifieds exact same color. it doesn't look that bad, I doubt theres any frame damage, maybe a bent rad support. Now you can install that E-brake. Atleast no one got hurt, thats the main thing. Good Luck on the Re-born of the Pheonix.

 

Damn reminded me of Ferris Buellers day off when the Ferrari ran off into the woods. But this is worse cause its a nice thirdgen

 

Yeah at first I'm like okay nice view; is this one of those where is waldo/thirdgen pictures? Then there it is your awesome firebird sitting in some bushes!! Man I feel bad for you. Guess you could say it has some character now....The auto body shop better fix that mean machine!! I mean really who else drives around in a MINT convertible firebird with a nice set of corvette wheels and gran sport stripes? I like your narrating, very well written.

Post some pictures if the auto body shop fixes it!!

 

wow, such unfortunate luck with such a beautiful car (that drivers side fender has been through alot!)

At least it made it out in one piece though - you have quite the landscape around you to enjoy that ride, I hope she gets repaired soon!

 

A moment of silence for the fallen.. You should add some pics to badassiroc.com man! ( cough cough )

 

after seeing the first couple pictures I thought you were going to say that is where you found your car after some car thieves stole it and took it for a joy ride!

as long as the frame isn't tweaked, she'll be ok...

 

Sorry to hear about what happened, but I have to say your description of the incident made for a very entertaining read! I got a great visual picture. LOL

 

wow, it was headed straight for that house! I could have been alot worse, and not just for the car. I hope it all gets taken care of soon...good luck.

 

hey man, im sorry to see the unforunate damage. Doesn't seem to bad thank god. that car is beautiful man. I hope it gets fixed soon. Poor Beautiful bird. Soon ull be a beauty again. -Matt

 

Damn man! I was not expecting to see that! I'm so sorry to see that happened to your car. That crunch sound is always the worst, luckily of the 5 accidents my car has been in I was only driving it 2 of them and they weren't nearly as bad as that! Hopefully the damage is only cosmetic.

 

Dang That hurts me.

 

holy crap!! sorry to hear it bud, definitely a nice third gen vert make sure to get her fixed asap!!

 

that right there made the story, deserves an award or something, anyway holy crap man id still be crying reading this is kind of unreal its like one of those things that are so horrible and unexpected that you think it would never happen, i hope she can be repaired cuz that looks like it was beautiful
edit: slightly to the right of your car it looks like a drop off so im thinkin you got kinda lucky

 

I've gotta ask...Why no e-brake?

I bet it gets hooked up NOW!

 

OH NO! That suuuuuuucks! I cringed seeing the back end sticking out of the bushes. Hope she gets fixed up!

 

Damn, you have a nice view.

 

holy **** dude!!!

I can say that i know the feeling of absolute terror when chasing your car as its rolling away, same thing happened to me earlier this year, though it was stopped abruptly by a guard rail before it could go down in the ravine and cause any major damage. All caused by not having a parking brake myself at the time. Lesson learned and now i have a brake.

Body damage sucks!, that thing was one of my favorite on this board and i hate to see it banged up like that.

 

Try having a co-worker come tell you, that your had rolled into another in the parking. And you know perfectly well, that your car was parked on the downhill side, along the building!

Yes...It rolled UPHILL!

Battery leaked...Acid dripped..Hit the starter wire & a main power cable. Energized the starter circuit...Manual transmission....And the starter proceeded to creep the car UPHILL into another car!

Sitting there...surge...surge...surge...Trying to drive itself into another car. People looking at me funny...."My keys are right here." jingle jingle....

Talk about a strange day!

 

------Edit------
I can just see this. The birds are chirping, nice breeze, it a great day to just take in nature and then here comes a driverless firebird rumbling down the road.
That does suck tho, that was a beautiful ride. Hope you get it fixed quick.

 

wow, strange day, a driverless camaro and a driverless bird passing each other in teh early morning hours

 

lol hahaha i mean firebird. To use to typing camaro

 

Thanks for the well-wishers. The insurance guy looked at it today and I guess I'll hear back from them tomorrow. I haven't decided whether I'm going to rebuild, or replace with another chassis. (of course a vert).

No e-brake because I'm still running a 4thgen axle and haven't modded cables to fit. My neglegence.

 

wow... bet ya twenty bucks i use my e-brake more often! well, other than to slide around sharp corners

 

I can feel your pain. I had a similar experience with my camaro because of a B&M shifter that was out of adjustment. It was so far out the car started in reverse with me standing next to it with the door open. It backed out of the garage and the door caught on a pole destroying the door. Luckily I managed to get in and stop it before it went further and hit another car.

I hope the damage is only the panels and can be easily fixed. That was a very nice car.

 

If it still had TPI you would have caught it

 

Holy crap! That sucks so bad...I cannot believe something like that could happen to your car.


If the insurance company tries totalling it let me know. I can fax them a copy of my appraisal from my Z28 to show them what a nice convertible is really worth. And yours has even more money in it than mine. Just an idea, you don't have to if you don't want. I just thought it might help. My appraisal was for $12,000.

 

yea FIGHT the ins company to hell and back!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

you can also take the most they will allow to fix it w/o totaling it, then use that money toward the total cost, its a little out of pocket but better than having it totaled

 

Wow. Thats simply amazing. Atleast it stopped eventually.

Good luck getting her fized up.

 

My friend put his Vette in the ditch only he was in it at the time. I told him he should put 4 wheel drive in it. Maybe you should too Just kidding.


That really sucks about your car, you have one of the nicest third gens on the site!

 

Wow.. that really sucks.

I read this story and walked away with this.

1. Never park my stick-shifted car on a hill in gear without the parking break and with the ignition in the run position.
2. Live in a flat neighborhood.
3. Don’t own a gate unless I have a remote.
4. Never where flip-flops outside of the beach.

The license plate totally goes with the pictures though.


Still this all sucks, but you just made a memory that you will recall forever.

Good luck on the repairs.

 

It is horrible just thinking about something like that happening. Glad you are ok. The car doesn't look as bad as I thought it would.

 

what did the insurance compay say about it?

 

Did that appraisal I sent you help out any?

 

Yeah, it did. They're going to total it no matter what I do. However, first they only wanted ot give me $5700 for the car. I laughed. Seriously I laughed because I thought she was joking with me. I thought she meant I had 5700 to fix the car with before it would be totalled. Wow. I know people thing thirdgens are worthless but I had to question what they based that estimate off of. I sent her your appraisal along with ads for almost 10 thirdgen bird 'verts worth over 10k each. I still could only get 9500 out of them. Bastards. I'm distraught because the car will now have a rebuilt title. But, the car will be back. I'm actually flabergasted by the corn that is spewing from my next statement. This bird will actually live up to the Pheonix persona. It will rise from the ashes, err bushes.

I signed the paperwork and they're mailing out a check right now. I've already ordered my LS1.

Something good will come of this. And I think it's my new light weight wallet.

 

Wow they are giving you a value high and they're still totalling it? It doesn't even look all that bad. Is the frame messed up or something?At least I was able to help you get an extra few thousand dollars out of 'em. . I'm happy to see she is being rebuilt!

 

man thats nothing its fixable and not for 9500 lol alot cheaper. you could get that fixed easy. That is Bullsh*t. Man i really feel for ya. BRING THAT BIRD BACK!

 

That really sucks about the rebuilt title, but at long as you don't sell the car it won't matter too much. What was the buyback cost?

 

Shop says they're looking to get it done for around 3k. Hopefully, I'll need all the money I can get ahold of to get the LSx in there.

Yeah, thank you so much. I really appreciate it. The guys at the body shop say the frame, front subframe, core support and the like are all good. I don't understand why it's being totaled.

$218 I'd be absolutely stupid NOT to buy it back.

 

Well shoot man, you're in a tough situation then. Either fight the insurance company to NOT total it out, claiming that there isn't $9,500 worth of damage done (because it's really only around $3,000), and then you'd only get a $3,000 check. Or, let them total it, take the $9,500, fix the car for $3,000 spend the rest on an LSX swap, but the downer is a salvage title. I'm not sure which I would prefer, a clean title or an LSX.

 

Buy a beater vert bird & swap vins...lol, If there is no frame damage,the car shouldn't be totaled. What is their reason for totaling her?

 

Because as far as they're concerned it's a 1991 POS. I know if I ever get in an accident that's not my fault (no full coverage) and make a claim against another insurance company, they'll total it. They don't care how nice it really is, all it is to them is a POS 1991 Camaro with a V6.

Wow, $218?! That'll really show you they think these cars are worthless.

 

Yeah, it's a hard decision. Here in Wa I'll end up with a "Rebuilt" title instead of salvage which I guess is better but still a marked car. And if I ever get in a fender bender again I'll be wrestling with the ins to get money out of them. Realistically I don't ever plan on selling it. I'm a little messed up in the head that way. I've gotten all sorts of people telling me to cut my losses and go with something newer/nicer. But my tastes are too much, I'd want a c6 or something equivalent.

 

now im convinced, third gen f bodies are truely haunted!!!

look on the bright side it could have went down in that lake. thats really a bummer man im sure youll have it in tip top shape again real soon. dont stress out to bad about it. when i smacked my iroc into a speed limit sign my world came crashing down, now a year and a half later i look back on it and just laugh. this will definitly be a story youll be telling for years lol.