HELP!! INFO NEEDED. X Guru's come forth

[X-Phile]

My baby and I were rear ended tonight by a drunk driver on the way home. I want to take this opportunity to use the insurance money that I get for the damages from this prick to do instant offroad upgrades to her. Her rear bumper is a total loss, as is the hatch, drivers side rear quarter and muffler. Not to mention other things that I didnt get to see im sure.

I know that the rear bumper assembly for an 03 X is going to be in excess of the cost of both front and rear ARB bumpers, but I have no idea where to get them on such short notice as I am going to have to do this.

Yes I AM going to look into this further tonight, but id definately like to have some solid info on this by the time that I go to the body shop where they towed her tomorrow afternoon.

If you have any info, pleaseeee pass it on to me.

Id also like to say that I now have a totally re-enforced high opinion of my X and of Nissan. She is still TOTALLY drivable. He didnt even come close to pushing the rear into the tires, BUT his sedan is most definately totalled.

Help if you can.

Thanks.

[OffroadX]

Bummer, sorry to hear about your X man. Glad it wasn't worse.

There is no such thing as a rear ARB bumper, at least not for the Xterra. There are a few others though, namely the Calmini and Skidplates.com rear bumper and tire carriers. I don't know about the immediate availability of either, but check with Calmini (purenissan.com) and Skid Row (skidplates.com) to see which you like and how soon one can get to you. Skid Row is just west of Harrisburg, you could save a ton on shipping and drive up and get one from them in person.

FYI, the factory rear bumper (steel center, plastic top, 2 plastic corners, and hardware) is around $300, $400 at most, plus labor.

For a front ARB, they are not available right now. ARB is finishing up their redesign of the bumper that will properly fit the 2002+ Xterra, but it might not be until late this year or early next year before they are available if I recall correctly. You can go with Calmini or a TJM if you're in a hurry. The TJM T17 like I have is the least expensive, about $450, then the Calmini, then the TJM T15 at the top end.

Brent

[Schludwiller]

Don't forget a new muffler. Gibson, Calmini, Nissan, etc.

If you drove up to SkidRow they'd probably put the bumper on for you.

Make sure the frame is in good shape and if the leafs on one side are damaged you could argue that both be replaced because of wear. Then you could get a 10-leaf pack, or new Nissan ones and 3-leaf AAL from spencerlowracing.com

What about the rear shock? Bilsteins

[warmonger]

X_phile,

One important question I have to ask because it will have a direct bearing on what you can do with your truck. Do you have a lien? If you have a lien on the truck, odds are the insurance company will write the check to the body shop doing the work. This is SOP to insure that the bank's investment is protected.

If you own the vehicle, you can do what I did when I got hit. I knew both the body shop where the work was being done and the adjustor for the insurance company. I packed the estimate enough to cover all the replacement parts I knew I would need inluding a CalMini rear bumper. I then did the work myself, cutting labor costs. You unfortunately have some body damage. But if you have a trailer hitch like I did, you can make the insurance company cover the cost of that, the harness that the trailer attached to, the hitch and ball mount and hitch pin as well a the rear bumper and plastic end caps. By doing that and factoring in labor it will pack in enough to cover the CalMini rear bumper (shipping included) and the new bumper ends. Sub the body work to a reputable shop and you get what you want.

But if you have a lien on it, it is a whole lot more difficult. You would have to find a body shop that would be willing to risk it because doing this can put the body shop at insurance fraud risk because it requires them to do what YOU ask with the insurance money, not what the insurance company or bank asks. Most won't do it unless you have an in.

[xterra2k]

I had a large tree branch fall on my X with the first year. My State Farm adjustor sent out a field estimator and wrote me the check.
I dislike State Farm because to me them seem to try harder to get out of paying claims and usually you have to fight to get them to recognized current competitive prices, but this field estimator was very detailed in finding all the damages.
I went to my regular body shop and dealt with them directly. I used the extra cash to buy tires, a hitch and Nissan seats covers.

I am sure each insurance company has their own standard operating procedure.

[Schludwiller]

I like State Farm. They've always given me good service. A dog ran out in front of our car one night (Rotweiler that hit the passenger corner coming out of the bush) and dented the bumper, broke a turn indicator and fog light.

Drove into State Farms garage, went inside, had some coffee and 10 minutes later the guy cut me a check for $1200. If you use one of the shops in their list, they will adjust your claim without question if the body shop says it's higher than what you got. If you use your own shop they send out an adjuster to check it out. Luckilly where I live, a shop that does all the Ferrari's, Porshe's and is the certified Audi repair shop costs the same as everyone else (don't know what that's about, maybe insurance companies stabilizing the repair market), so I get great work everytime (used the same guys when a tree attacked my trucks door. )

I had new aftermarket projector lights and a aftermarket grill put in at the shop along with my other repairs.

[X-Phile]

New info.

First of all, the deadbeat that hit me has no insurance. The tags on the vehicle he was driving were also stolen. This is going to go under the uninsured motorists part of my own insurance, but fortunately it wont be chargable to me as an accident.

I had the vehicle towed to a bodyshop where I know the guys who run the place so they'll work with me to do the bumper upgrade. I'll definately look into the leaves and if the left side is damaged ill definately TRY to con a set out of them, but if I cant get em ill at least have tried. If they agree to replace the entire muffler assembly, it really shouldnt be an issue to go with whatever name brand i want since a muffler is a muffler to them and the price wont be that much of a difference between brands.

Im gonna look into the different bumper comps you guys posted tonight and try to get ahold of them tomorrow. Its a shame ARB has nothing for me right now, and Calmini seems to be of short supply ATM. As it stands now it looks like the damage is just under 4k, and im gonna have to get a rental for at least 10 days or so.

If any of the parts I want are in excess of what the adjustor allots for them, I could just pay the difference hopefully. Id have no problems having to foot a little of the bill. I was going to do the upgrades anyway.



BTW- I have the pics of my X and the POS that the POS who hit me was driving AS WELL AS his long as hell skid marks before and after he hit me. Im gonna upload them later tonight. They should definately be worth a chuckle if you wanna see how badly an X can chew up the front of a Mercury unfortunate enough to slide under it at 60.

[X-Phile]

OHH!! This should also give me a bunch of new parts numbers to post for future reference as well.

More to come.

[evergreen]

i thought you could just trim the front grill a little to fit an arb on the 02-03's
hell, they did it in 4wheeler mag and i have seen more than a few round headlight x's with arb's.