Well its been a couple of days and I have started to cool off about the whole thing now.
Spoke to the insurance company today and with the panel shop declaring the car a total loss I have to take the truck back down on Wednesday and leave it for the day for the insurance companies assessor to reassess it , value it and see where we will head with it all.
Basically the way its looking at the moment and the way it was explained to me is I will be keeping the salvage of the vehicle and once I agree to the payout and sign the paperwork I will be sent a cheque and the RTA will be notified and the vehicle will be listed as a repairable write off.
The RTA will then either cancel the rego or suspend it and I will have to repair the old girl , take her down for a WIV report , do a blueslip and all going well she will be re registered and back on the road.
My insurance company has agreed to reinsure the truck full comp as it is now with no extra premium , conditions or loss of value with it being a repaired write off. Thats a bonus.
The 2 things that suck is that my claim and cheque will be held back until the person at fault in the accident has paid their excess. Not much I can do. The second thing is I cannot start to organise and start the repairs until it has been assessed on Wednesday so Im still without a car.

Have decided that no matter what or how much work it is the Mav WILL be going back on the road so started to hunt down the parts to sort it out.
Managed to get an entire front clip off ebay (both guards , bonnet , grille) along with two new front doors and a set of side steps for a pretty good price. So tomorrow afternoon as soon as I knock off work Im stealing Donnas 4 runner and my brothers trailer and heading on a roadtrip to Bathurst to pick it all up.
The guy also has a winch bar available so I will be checking that out too.
At least I can have the parts sitting here ready to go and when I get the ok to start working out some repairs I can smash into it and hopefully have it back on the road within a week or so. It wont be pretty or finished but it will be drivable hopefully. Then I can get back onto sorting the ute.
Once the ute is sorted I will either do the 4 runner for Donna as I have been promising or just get stuck back into the Mav and do it for once and for all. Basically once its all sorted it will get resprayed and a few things that have been bugging me finally done and dusted.
Biggest thing that has been bugging me is the rear roof and windows. I think they really have to go...................
It all depends on the payout amount and what needs to be spent to get the truck back on the road as to when it gets done but my crystal ball is seeing a style side twin cab ute in the Mavs future......................

LONG LIVE THE MAV. I know I will regret doing it but I cant let the poor old girl die.

Thats what I was thinking but the blue slip guy reckons the RTA can just get bored and call it in if they wish. If they dont it will be a bonus as thats 5 hunj I can spend elsewhere. I will budget for it but just in case.
Hopefully will have some concrete answers late next week. I will take it to the blue slip guy on Thursday once the insurance company is finished with it for him to give it the once over and Ill explain to him how it will be fixed just to make life easier at blue slip time.

Well after talking to the blue slip guy more about the whole saga on the Weekend it was worked out that the chances of the Mav passing a blue slip due to the amount of changes to it are not good.
It is no issue with a pink slip as everything is safe and legal from that side of things but seeing as though technically I cant show complaince with ADR's with the new brake lines , fuel lines , rear bar blah blah blah it could turn into a bit of a pickle.
The advice from him was to get another truck that is already registered and swap everything over.
That has its good and bad points. Good points are that I can build a better truck by getting a better base vehicle to start with and I can have a vehicle on the road while I finish off the ute and swap everything over at my lesure.
Bad bit is its just more work to get back to where I started.
So instead of sitting around in the rain b**ch about it like I have the last couple of days I put today to some sort of good use and went looking at some trucks.
I found a couple that will be rather worthy replacements to start again from , with one in particular well in my sights.
Just need to play the waiting game now , take it in for assessment on Wednesday and see what happens. Hopefully I get some concrete answers by the end of the week including what my payout will be and hopefully the vehicles are still on the market and dont sell in the mean time.
Weather permitting I will be snapping into the ute tomorrow and cleaning the truck up to get it ready for its date with destiny on Wednesday..........................

Yeah pretty much Ash. Different year models and different spec levels but all the good parts will still swap between the two.
This one is the top of the list so far
http://www.tradingpost.com.au/Automotiv ... esult=true

I have been looking at a couple of short wheel base ones as well , but am not convinced.
They will be heaps of fun with the V8 in them and would be unstopable and a heap more nimble around the tracks but the lack of room inside will be an issue. I know when we go away in the LWB we have it pretty well jam packed and the shorty just has that much less room.
Dunno yet.
Here is a shorty that is really making me think.
http://www.tradingpost.com.au/Automotiv ... esult=true

Matt,

You will find out how nimble(quick) the SWB can be, but as Ash said the lack of space can be a pain. I pack my 5 X 8 Trailer chockers. Only bags of clothes and sleeping gear in the vehicle. If i decide i want more space, i will get a Falcon and do the Mav 4X4 conversion on it........

Cheers

Daz

Still no word.
Was assessed on Wednesday and the assessor wasnt too keen to write it off.
Was then quoted for the repair. The quote has been lodged with the assessor now and its a real borderline case.
So its now all in the hands of the assessor.
They wont go off my agreed value as its a third party claim but go off market value. Problem they are having but is putting a price on my vehicle as it is so unlike any of the others on the market.
So once they come up with a value and work out what they are going to do if they choose to write it off they then have to work out what the cars is worth as it is at the moment.
The market value - whats its worth now = What I will be paid out.

So another weekend of wondering what is going to happen.
This is total s**t.

You're right there. Could end up with two fifths of fu(k all as a payout........

I'm going to livo this evening after dinner. Ring me if you want to come.

Cheers

Daz

Thanks dude. I wont be going out tonight. The missus is sick and I have a real bad dose of the s**t.
At least if Im locked up at home I cant belt someone for sneezing near me which is the kind of mood Im in.

Just got the call from the insurance Assessor. The old girl is dead.
It has been deemed a write off so I will get a final payout figure tomorrow and a cheque shortly after that.
Then its off to the RTA to put the plates in and cancel the rego.
The end of an era has come.
Hopefully I get enough of a payout to buy a new truck and start again........................

Yeah it is a bummer. If the payout is good enough for me to get another truck I will just cut my losses and start again.
It shouldnt take too long this time as most of it will just be a cut and paste across and there are definately things I could do better if I do it again.
If the payout is not the best I might try and negotiate with the insurance company and see what we can do to keep it off the repairable write off list.

That sucks mate.

Might have to have a little sniff at that one mate. Just have to find out what dollars are coming first.
My luck I will chase it up , fall in love with it and then find out that not enough cash is coming my way to get it!
Thanks for the heads up but!

complete and utter bummer matey, sad to see her go - especially bad considering that it was all caused by some old bat stuffing up. Best of luck getting this all sorted out.....

Cheers guys.
It is definately worth checking out Ash and it seems like it could be a good thing.
100% correct I would swap my wheels and suspension over and sell the other stuff off unless I was lucky enough for the big lift and big wheels to be engineered then they would stay!
Must admit if I got a turbo diesel I owuld have to think long and hard as to if I would put the V8 in or keep it a TD. TD has a s**t load of advantages in a 4x4 and I will have my V8 play toy in the ute.
I could put a BIG exhaust on it and really upset the old couple up the street who report evey truck that drives into our area to the council.
With the turbo diesel and a big exhaust I could get it sounding like a prime mover! It would have their heads spinning big time!
Feeling better about this already...........LOL

Question for Ashcook!
How do you find out what prices damaged vehicles went for at auction recently?
They are waiting on tenders for a buy price from 2 places. One was St George something and the other one was Pickles.
It would be interesting to see what things sold for to get a bit of an idea on what they will pay because what they will pay for the car is removed from my payout price but it is a guaranteed offer from them if I was to sell the truck to the auction house.
Im actually hoping the auction house will just look at it as a s**t old Maverick with front end damaged and nearly 500000kms and price it accordingly.
I just looked at the pickles site and there is quite a few pootrols on their with pretty similar front end damage to mine. Dont take much to kill them now days.