Repair or give up?

My 1996 3.8L 5-speed suffered some bizarre Malicious Destruction of Property yesterday. Body damage includes front and rear bumpers, taillights, rear fibreglass panel, and both rear fenders pinched in at the back. It has a little over 110K miles. Mechanically, I have a power steering leak, and a drivetrain "clunk" that might be the 2-piece driveshaft failing. I'm not sure at this point if there is additional mechanical damage.

I may have the option of getting it fixed. Maybe. In case I do, any advice on how to make the call?

[meissen]

Geez man, I hope whatever happened to you yesterday you get back at whoever did it! As for getting it fixed, I dunno, it sounds like quite a bit of body work that needs to be done. If you can get it fixed, I'd say go for it, if not try parting it out and getting another camaro, maybe even a v8.

[mister_grendel]

re: repair or give up?

Geez man, I hope whatever happened to you yesterday you get back at whoever did it! As for getting it fixed, I dunno, it sounds like quite a bit of body work that needs to be done. If you can get it fixed, I'd say go for it, if not try parting it out and getting another camaro, maybe even a v8.

The pitiable fool who did it already has more problems than he can deal with, believe me.

I really like the car, though, and after reading your article on forced induction for the 3.4 & 3.8 Litre engines, I don't feel quite so rabid about a V8. But the vehicle, at 110K+ miles, is about to go into high-maintenance mode. As much as I like the car, it's a base model with rear drum brakes, and a "fork lift upgrade" may be the more reasonable path to a high performance vehicle.

[meissen]

that's not my article, that was taken from another site because it had so much great information in it. Whatever you do, just make sure it's really what you want, either way it's a great decision.

[mister_grendel]

fix or give up?

Looks like I'm going to try and salvage it... stay tuned.

[ZeeVert]

I can't take it!

...must see pictures!

[mister_grendel]

repair or bail?

I can't take it! ...must see pictures!

It ain't pretty:

[greenmachine]

dam dude!! thats exsactly why i hate snow. i almost had the car do that last year and this year i had it jump up on a curb.

i hate winter

[ZeeVert]

Ouch! That had to involve alcohol or one really stupid bet.
Thanks for sharing!

[meissen]

How'd that happen? Was someone driving it and it got in that position or what?

[Orange Terror]

if it were me, and the insurance were to give you a good offer to total it, you can always buy it back (usually they want like $200 or something)and fix it, then just drive it. then you take the money that's left over and put a downpayment on an upgrade, even if its another v6, get a lil nicer and newer car.

Just an idea.

[greenmachine]

How'd that happen? Was someone driving it and it got in that position or what?

i almost had that happen to me last year, what hapend was i was going up the driveway and the back end kicked out and almost hit my house. i wasnt going up it fast or anything and i hit the breaks as soon as it started but it just kept sliding

[JoeliusZ28]

yea i almost hit a parked car with my truck doing that. luckily i stopped within about 4" of the car, and 4 wheel drive allowed me to pull forward without colliding.

[ZeeVert]

I can see what you mean about "fix or replace". It's not really bent, but there's a bunch of surface damage.

[SS4Matt]

WOW!!! i've seen some messed up shit in my life, but that's a new one!!... what happened? it looks like your car was parked in the driveway and a huge ass truck rearended it and pushed it all crooked?
i think that one might be checked off under "REPLACE" in my opinion... even if the car was fixed... it will still never be the same.