A professional Car disaster in Pittsburgh...

Im not understanding why the cars are all for sale BEFORE the insurance company has had the opportunity to settle the claim. I presume the cars ARE insured and I would think that if they are a total loss, then he would get more for them thru the insurance process. If the cars are repairable, get them repaired, then sell them for top dollar. Just my thoughts based on what Im reading here.
 
what I gather is no place to put them. once they can get them out of the building there is no place to go with them. the neighborhood is not one you could leave a car out in and expect it not to be worse each day.
 
I have an agreed value policy, I just increased at renewal time the amounts of one vehicle up $1500 and the other an additional $2000 and my additional premium was $36.00...
Probably always a good idea to keep these values up to date.
 
Going to try and answer a couple of questions at once here...

First, Steve, thank you for posting the list. I have the same list here but you beat me to it. I just haven't had a lot of time to stop in and post it.

Danny Ryder said:
Was not able to email John at address supplied at vintage motors?
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Danny, I know that John had his computer and internet service at the garage. I do not know if he had other access to his e-mail or not. Maybe it was closed a couple of weeks ago when all this happened. I do know that Frank's e-mail is good and the number that I was given - 412-969-7240 - I believe is Frank's cell phone number. I know that a lot of people might want to contact John directly, but going through Frank might be the easiest way to get ahold of John at this point. Frank also has a vested interest in this because he also had cars stored in the garage. He and john are working very closely on this.

Rick Franklin said:
Im not understanding why the cars are all for sale BEFORE the insurance company has had the opportunity to settle the claim. I presume the cars ARE insured and I would think that if they are a total loss, then he would get more for them thru the insurance process. If the cars are repairable, get them repaired, then sell them for top dollar. Just my thoughts based on what Im reading here.
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John ED Renstrom said:
what I gather is no place to put them. once they can get them out of the building there is no place to go with them. the neighborhood is not one you could leave a car out in and expect it not to be worse each day.
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Rick, Yes, the cars have insurance on them. I do not know how much or what type of insurance John had and that isn't my place to know. I do know that Ed is 100% correct in the fact that storage is the problem at this point. Where the building is located, there is no place to put any cars. It is in the middle of the city with on street parking only and as was mentioned, the neighborhood is not the type that I would want to park anything at the curb let alone a collector car. John also does not have room at the house to park more than maybe one or two and that would be outside. What John would like to do is have a home in place for these as soon as he is able to get them out of the building. He doesn't want any of these cars siting around outside waiting for a new roof or new garage or for repairs.
 
WOW!!!
That is horrible and I can only guess how devastating this is to John!!
I knew John had a '76 Superior Buick Hearse (I own 2 of them myself) and had been wanting to talk to him for the last few years about his. I can see from the 3rd photo that this car must have taken a very bad hit!! (you can see the left taillight just in front of the gold Cadillac Flowercar??) and I'm sure the fiberglass roof would have caved in under all that weight.
This IS very bad however it is MUCH better than had the building burned!! The cars may be damaged but they are still there and may be possible to repair!!
I don't mean to be gruesome and do not mean to be disrespectful, but I hope more pictures are taken and posted as these cars are removed, I would find them interesting.

Dana Bennett.
 
Dana,
You are correct about seeing the Buick in the one picture. But let me think here... The 76 Buick that John had would not have had a fiberglass roof. It was a conversion of a clamshell wagon. The main modification (If I remember correctly) was that the rear side windows were removed and covered with vinyl. The roof and rear hatch were original to the Buick wagon.
 
Here's a quick update:

John has met with the insurance company who's jerking him around. He's met with a restoration specialist who's got a plan to lift the roof off the cars and extricate them from the mess without further damage. He's met with an attorney via the restoration guy to force the insurance company to move sooner than later.

Here's the rub... John and his soon to be future ex-wife are both on the deed for the garage. The Ex is in a word... uncooperative. She has indicated to John that she will not sign any checks or releases, so that work can begin.:(

This creates a more intense situation for everyone involved.

John is hopeful to have at least the cars located on the first floor removed. After that, he does not know how things will play out.

It's evident that the attorney believes the insurance company will cooperate. It's evident that the restoration guy will be able to fix the problem without doing further damage to the cars (under the collapsed roof) and rebuild the garage.

What's not evident is when and how much the insurance company will cooperate and when and if work can begin.

The last peice to this, is that IF Johns's Ex refuses to work anyone, he will have no choice but to let her handle everything. That would be a huge mistake and wil no doubt cancel any deals that would be made on the cars for sale.

Please have a good thought for everyone involved, that the best case scenario will prevail.

Also, please keep John in your thoughts and prayers!

Please call me or Frank Marasco if you have any questions or wish to offer assistance of any kind.

Sincerely,

Rick
Onward and Upward!
 
Thank you very much for the update Rick.
It brings a whole lot more to the table than what I was privy to.

I am sure that I speak for everyone here on the message boards and for the PCS as a whole in that John has everyone's thoughts and prayers coming his way. I sure hope that things come around and he can find something good at the end of all this. If nothing else, a new garage maybe!?
 
Charles E Snyder said:
Dana,
You are correct about seeing the Buick in the one picture. But let me think here... The 76 Buick that John had would not have had a fiberglass roof. It was a conversion of a clamshell wagon. The main modification (If I remember correctly) was that the rear side windows were removed and covered with vinyl. The roof and rear hatch were original to the Buick wagon.
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Charles,
well, I know it may not look like it but it is actually a fiberglass cap. The '76 Superior Buicks were a little more different than the other clam-shell conversions that were made. One of the '76 Superior Buicks that I own is in pretty rough shape and I removed the rear vinyl top (very bad shape-flapping in the wind) because I did not want the wind to catch it and damage the crown molding (probably a pretty diffcult piece to replace I would think!!) and it is unfinished fiberglass underneath. The roof is slightly higher and is flat where as a clamshell wagon has a "step-up" mid roof. Also my headliner is trashed and above the windshield you can see where the top of the steel roof was removed and unfortunately my car also has rust issues and you can see the where the metal patches are that attach the steel of the original roof to the fiberglass cap. While it does still retain the clamshell glass and mechanics I do not know how much other steel is still there. Plus, the other main modification was that the wagons were cut in half and extended 1 foot. I wish my car was in MUCH better shape but being that it is not allows you to kind of see HOW it was built!! I always find that pretty interesting!!! if this works I will link to a poor photo on my facebook album to kind of show my hearses roof. cut and paste??
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=30608689&l=6651296641&id=1186117691
Dana.
 
Procar disaster in pittsburgh

What a shame! I sincerely hope that the insurance company steps up to the plate and does the right thing by you john.my heart breaks just looking at the damage done to these great cars!
 
Thanks Rick for bringing us all up to speed. I feel very badly for John. Of course John's well-being is in my thoughts and prayers. Material things can usually be replaced, but the personal tragedies can really take a tole.

Please tell John that I am thinking of him and I wish him well. It has been over a year since he and I last spoke. Since then, I have not been able to reach him.
 
This is all really terrible for Frank, and especially for John because of the additional issues at work here. If I had some extra space in one of my garages, I would certainly offer it to John or Frank if they wanted a holding area until repair/sale could be worked out. I don't know how helpful that would be given the distance involved. As some of you know, I'm suffering a bit from "motor vehicle overload" at present! I join in with all good wishes for John and Frank that things will be quickly resolved for them! Having your business out in the open is certainly touchy, but if they're OK with it this tragedy helps us see the issues of car value, repairability, the claims process for collector vehicles. :stars:
 
Well, I'm really new here and I would like to pass on my well wishes to him. I'd also would like to convey to him that I would be interested in the 1968 Superior Cadillac Flower Car if it comes for sale.

best to us all.
buds
chuck
 
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