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God Nooooooooooooooooo!

cjcrazy8

cjcrazy8

Basic User
City
Cincinnati
State
oh
I did not know whether to post this here or in Gen chit chat, but here it goes anyway.

I have been lurking around this website for quite a few years now. Put in a few words every now and then, but try to absorb as much info as I can.

Over the past 2+ years I have been building my 83 jeep scrambler from the ground up. (I have not been wheeling in my own vehicle in 2+years). It was beautiful. A blue powdercoated aluminum body. A LS1 Motor that ran great and sounded better with the flowmasters on it. The wilwood clutch cylinders worked seamlessly and allowed easy shifting. I had put a personal touch to everything I did. I left nothing untouched. This last weekend I was putting the final touches on it, checking everything over. My buddy and I had taken it down the street under it's own power for the very first time in 2+ years to fine tune the steering linkage in a local HS parking lot. It had so much power, insane acceleration, and never got above 1/4 throttle. I was making my final pass down in a small hill to a lower parking area that was a dead end. I went to brake to turn around but the pedal went to the floor. I had 3 options. 1. cut it hard and try to make the turn, But I realized that my buddy was not belted because he had just gotten back in the jeep from adjusting the tie rod, I feared he would be thrown and killed if we rolled. 2 put the driver side tires into a block retaining wall but it was a stepped wall and I feared that the jeep would climb it and roll. 3. Straigten her out, brace for impact, and hope for the best. I chose 3. It is amazing how long that short amount of time took, how much thought went through my head. After getting back from the hospital my fears were realized. This hurts to type. The jeep is almost a total loss. The frame is destroyed all the way past the front seats. The grille, radiator, steering shaft, steering column, springs, shocks, tube fenders, dash, steering wheel, steering box, psp, wp, alt bracket, destroyed. The aluminum body faired pretty well except for the tube fender mount area. The rock sliders caved the frame in when the body shifted forward. The really sad part is that I was supposed to load this on a trailer for my first trip to Moab in 2 weeks. All in all, I am thankful to God that I have my life and health, that my buddy was not hurt at all, that I did not hurt someone else or damage someone elses property, that the brake failure did not occur on the trail or in traffic.

Well thanks for listening/reading. Any encouragement/help/advice would be great.



p.s. I need a scrambler frame
 
Man, I am really sorry to hear this. I've watched your build. Like you said, thank God you were not hurt.

Think of all you learned putting it together. Will make the rebuild faster and better...


Truck
 
Wow. Horrible story, but at least nobody was seriously hurt. Sorry to hear about the cj8.
 
Now that's a bad day!!

Sorry to hear about such a huge loss, good thinking though. YEs that slow motion thing during quick evens is amazing, it's like in the Matrix dodging bullets.
:D

My vote is to take what is functioning and make a wheeler out of it.

I have problems with my brakes as well. I've learned to NOT rely on them, if I need them I have to pump them up. BUt of course I know that and it sounds like you just found out about yours.

Get well, we're all pulling for you !

Mark
 
more bad news. The insurance rep said I had covereage for everything but collision. I just dont know what to do.

Thanks for the support
 
Holy crap, that's painful to read, very glad that you and your friend are ok though. Jeeps can be rebuilt/replaced.

With that much damage, it might be worth getting a lawyer to look over your policy before you take the insurance company at their word or say anything more to them. Could pay for itself in short order and maybe you could find one willing to give you a free review of the case. I'd also start on pulling together receipts for anything you can find. Even in my minor (compared to this) accident, I had to defend every value on every part I wanted covered or they were going to just look at it as a 20 year old CJ for valuation.

So sorry to hear about all this, best of luck to you with everything.
 
Before pics

Nice looking ride.

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Sorry to hear about your jeep. The good thing is you and your friend walked away. Did you try the E brake? Pat
 
bigwalton said:
With that much damage, it might be worth getting a lawyer to look over your policy .
Click to expand...
I wouldn't think a lawyer would be needed to tell him what coverages he has then possibly charge a fee to do it...he just needs to look at his last renewal. Most Insurance Companies make it pretty easy to read about your coverages just to try to keep misunderstandings or miscommunication at a minimal. He can always get a lawyer involved if needed. Just my 2c worth(but it won't buy ya much!).:D
 
Wow...glad you and your buddy are ok, but that sucks about the Scrambler. No matter how much we all say "You can rebuild it", that doesn't fix the feeling of loss, or the disappointment after so much love and work was put into it. Just don't get discouraged, don't give up- and we're all here to help in any way we can.
 
CJCrazy8,
You called me yesterday looking for a frame. I found the phone number of a fellow who I sold two frames to last Fall / Winter. I sold him some more stuff here a month ago and he hadn't touched em yet.

He lives in the Cinci area..name is John...good guy Phone number 513-313-3219

Good luck,
Rudy
 
Not that it makes you feel any better, but a friend of mine had something very similar happen to him. He parked his jeep on a hillside and went inside to do something. Left it running with the parking brake engaged. When he came out it had just started rolling and for a brief moment he thought about trying to catch it, but better judgment prevailed. I think his exact words were "this is going to hit something hard" so he let it go. Went almost perfectly straight into a tree and everything lurched forward several inches.

I don't know who he had it insured through, but they paid him full price for what he had in it. And then offered to "resell" him the remains for something like $4800. Trust me, there was nowhere near that much left in his 8.

Tough luck, but if you can try to rebuild her from the ashes.
 
Thank you all very much for your words of encouragment and help.

I emailed Bigwalton the after pics to post.

I am working on finding another frame.
Gravelrama swap meet is this weekend, hopefully I can find some parts I need.


Let project "Blue Phoenix" begin.
 
You're in OH, you need to connect with Mr. Beep on here. Toby should have some of the parts that you'll be needing and he's not too far away from you.
 
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