Birdman's Build

GetYourWheels

Love that honeycomb carbon! Drooool

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JARblue

That's pretty looking

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birdman71

Right? I ordered it yesterday, Birthday gift to myself I guess haha and hoping to have it before September ends
Someone wake me up when September ends (shotty Green Day pun)

Anyone wanting any of the Honeycomb Carbon just hit up Lohit at Fly1Motorsports and he'll be more than happy to help


The countdown begins...

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Birdman's Build:
Powerhouse Amuse/ Nismo/ Eibach/ ACT/ Tommy Kaira/ Avant Garde/ Fast Intentions/ Project Kics/ Fly 1 Motorsports/ EVO-R/ Z1 Motorsports/ Weber Sports/ Zoom/ Zele Japan

birdman71

Thank you Mr. Clifford,
I am very excited to get the new HoneyComb Carbon piece!

I have actually bought two more now

I will now have (2) 1 of 1 and (1) 2 of 2 HoneyComb Carbon Pieces for my Z, with a GIMUNGONORMOUS THANKS TO LOHIT @ FLY1 MOTORSPORTS AS WELL!!
I am also announcing that I am registered for the NissFest CarShow 2016 with the Birdman Weber Sports 370z!
....Cooolllest part is... allll the Honeycomb Carbon pieces will be done and installed for the Show

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Birdman's Build:
Powerhouse Amuse/ Nismo/ Eibach/ ACT/ Tommy Kaira/ Avant Garde/ Fast Intentions/ Project Kics/ Fly 1 Motorsports/ EVO-R/ Z1 Motorsports/ Weber Sports/ Zoom/ Zele Japan

birdman71

Well, Much has happened since the last time I posted on my build.... Nothing good..

It all begins on 9/3/16 when I was headed down the 91E near Buena Park and experienced some Final Destination type crap.
Traffic was moderate and many cars that were around one another. We were all moving roughly 65mph and in front of me is an older model Pickup Truck that had scrap metal, junk and three rolled rugs on top of that scrap/junk. I don't know whether or not the rugs were even tied down, but if they were they were tied down with dental floss.

The trunk in front of me hits a nice big bump on the freeway, where the road has tried to be fixed but makes it worse, and I see one of the rugs jump off this guys truck bed and take flight.

Now... bring traffic into play. There is no where around me for me to move. There is a car behind me of course and the quickest reactionary look in each mirror/out each window showed me that I have no where to go in regards to avoiding this flying object.

Sure enough... cracked my Z square in the face.

After it made direct impact with my front bumper, movement took it under the car and was forced to run it over in which made my Z catch a tad bit of air and then had to control the car meticulously enough to where we wouldn't over pursue a drift, spin out, or in general smash into another vehicle within 5-10 ft of either side of my car.

I pulled off to the side of the freeway;
The Front bumper was spiderweb cracked almost everywhere. One Huge break on each side of the front bumper. Chunk broken out of the front. Passenger side break went half way through the bumper if not more. RS1 Passenger Fender brackets were broken. Both Side Skirts and side splitters were spiderwebbed and broken. My carbon fiber front lip was broken and two and dragged under the car until I pulled off to the side of the freeway

Pretty much everything except the back bumper was spiderweb cracked and had major paint damage.

After all this I always am asked the now infamous questions, "did you get his plates"
Well, I figured that controlling my car was the better thing to focus on in the moment, that way I don't cause any other damage to my car or others. My friend riding passenger tried to get a picture before it was too late and he tried grabbing his phone as I controlled the sporadic vehicle. Sadly, with how traffic is in California, as soon as you slow down enough for other vehicles to get in front of you, they will bounce right over into your lane.

By the time my friends camera was ready, 3 vehicles had moved into the lane that I almost just lost control of my car. Needless to say we didn't get the photo.

The kit lasted 1 day under two months old. 7/4/16-9/3/16

When I got back to my place, I hit Lohit up and got all new parts on order to be able to get the Z back into the same shape it was before the accident.
I got all the parts ordered and paid out another nice chunk of money. Lohit is still the man!

From 9/16/16 onward to only a couple days ago, was one entire Sh|t show with my insurance company...

Throughout this entire claim I did not mention that I am a licensed insurance professional myself and know all the same rules and regulations set by the Department of Insurance of CA that they have to abide by too regardless of company. I work for State Farm and am insured by USAA.

You'd think USAA would be a bit better towards customers in general if they are going to preach they are the US and Military's insurance company, that it should be represented not just spoken.

Working in the business I know what good customer service is and bad customer service is. I'm not one to vocal about issues like this randomly like this because it isn't accomplishing anything except me venting a bit.

But this customer service that I received from their claims department was pathetic to say the least. There was only one person the entire time that possibly helped the claim move forward in a positive manner and that was when I had escalated the claim 4 or 5 tiers up from a normal Claim Adjuster. That person was the Claims Specialty Standards Superintendent Manager (CSSSM).

After many hours of back and forth on semantics of policy language, coverage and definitions, the CSSSM decided that it would be best if he went out and saw the damage to the car to make any supplemental payments to the original "repair costs" payment.
Once my car had been inspected by the CSSSM he approved one more payment but still was only 2/3 of the estimate that was handed to them.

I decided to just leave it at that and be happy with what I got out of it. The entire reason behind why my insurance company gave me so many issues was that it was aftermarket parts.

I know though that having the previous paid invoices and having both body shop and vendor in business to verify, Aftermarket parts are covered.

NO INSURANCE COMPANY WILL WANT TO PAY OUT ON AFTERMARKET PARTS THOUGH NO MATTER WHAT.
You can have a policy in a state with a literal coverage for Aftermarket parts and still have every issue imaginable to try and get a payment.

After all is said and done with my insurance company, parts were finally removed from my Z on 10/18/16...
Because of the insurance company running me around and giving me BS excuses, while telling me one thing on the phone and telling my shop another thing, My Z LITERALLY SAT AT THE SHOP GATHERING DUST FOR OVER A MONTH.

Normally that wouldn't be a big issue, but 3 days after taking my car into the shop, I was T-boned in my VW Passat on 9/19/16 and then that one went into the shop as well.

As of 10/21/16, I got the VW Passat back first rather than my Z. My Z is not estimated to be ready until this first week of November.


Gotta love it right?

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Birdman's Build:
Powerhouse Amuse/ Nismo/ Eibach/ ACT/ Tommy Kaira/ Avant Garde/ Fast Intentions/ Project Kics/ Fly 1 Motorsports/ EVO-R/ Z1 Motorsports/ Weber Sports/ Zoom/ Zele Japan

JARblue

Holy $hit, Gavin ...

Hope I wasn't too pushy about that OEM exhaust a few weeks back - sounds like that was all in the middle of this fiasco Hope you get everything sorted out asap.


I would like to mention, however, that Nationwide gave me absolutely zero hassle about covering my aftermarket exhaust when I ran over a large chunk of concrete back in July. The adjuster wrote me an initial check at the time of the inspection that only included the OEM exhaust cost, but he sent out a supplementary check for the additional cost as soon as I sent him a copy of my Fast Intentions invoice. They even covered the shipping cost.

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cigarclifford

Greeting's Mr Gavin two comments. First one, So happy to read that you did not get hurt. Second comment your knowledge in automobile insurance shared here over the years was well applied in your own situation.

Best of luck Sir

-Clifford

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-Clifford

axmea?

Hey Gavin, What a mess. Sorry about all your troubles. At least you and your passenger was ok. Also, interesting how aftermarket was not covered in your case because I know insurance companies pay for them. Hope all works out for you.

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cv129

That's some bad luck. Sorry to hear.

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Setrab | RE-71 | SPL | JRZ | Nismo | ARK | Whiteline | RacingBrake | CJM Oil Pan | Ti shield

GetYourWheels

So sad to hear! The car came such a long way since you started the build.
Surprised insurance even agreed to cover 2/3 of the aftermarket parts, were you paying additional for aftermarket insruance on the parts?

When my last car got totaled (by a drunk driver with no insurance/license) I gave my insurance company (Mercury) a list of parts & receipts worth $10k+, they offered me.... $500

Good luck with the rebuild!

Any pics of how bad the damage was after the accident?

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JARblue

I have a warranty through Mercury. Those guys are crooks IMO

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NorthStyle

I feel you with USAA not wanting to take care of aftermarket parts. I was on the receiving end of that shaft when my Daytona 675 got stolen while I was deployed to Afghanistan while stationed in the UK... At least you got 2/3rds back, I got about 1/5th ugh. After that I switched to Geico.

birdman71

Hey Raf, Thanks I am happy we are okay too. And for aftermarket parts, it honestly depends on who your adjuster is and how they act about it. Most adjusters will be stubborn and say no coverage hoping you'll go away and no escalate the situation. But if you escalate the situation with the correct facts usually you can have coverage applied. Very Rarely do they pay out the full estimate cost unless you have upgrades to a newer nismo kit for example. Still oem but aftermarket to the vehicle owner.

When all is said it done the Z will look better than before

Yeah we all get it every once and a while. Thanks brotha, hope to back on the road in the first few weeks of November

Hey James
It has been a big delay in why I have not been able to get that over to you my friend yeahh.. I have had no car and was ubering it everywhere from the 19th of September until the 17 of October. Needless to say I should be Ubers #1 customer by friggin now. I just also haven't been able to find a box or transport it yet. I do have my brothers VW back now and I will see about going by Home Depot here if you still need the exhaust.

Text me if you do brotha, I got a new phone and not sure if I have your number any more



Thank you Mr. Clifford, much appreciated I hope all has been well for you too!

It definitely has been a long way and almost two years before anything negative like this happened. No additional aftermarket parts coverage is available from USAA and I don't think any of the Tier 1 insurers actually offer that coverage. It is a non-discussed rule in CA rules and regulations that if you keep Receipts and Paid Invoices from the shop building the car and vendor from which the parts are purchased and both are still in business, aftermarket parts can be covered up to the insurance companies policy language. If the policy language specifically excludes any and all aftermarket parts (like AAA) then you are SOL.

I got the insurance to cover 2/3rds of it, luckily, because of being in the insurance industry and knowing the same Rules and Regulations that USAA has to follow like State Farm does. I just had to read through the entire fine print policy language to grasp how USAA runs their policies. Multiple Places it stated that Aftermarket parts are considered Non-OEM parts of which is included in their Qualified Replacement Parts Program (QRPP). Still took a month to fight with them on it though and a lot of prior knowledge of how to handle an adjuster.

Their issue and why they didn't pay out the full estimate is because by their appraisers standards the parts are repairable. By My standards and how the parts were broken they are not repairable and should be replaced.

In the end USAA didn't pay $1400 of the $8800 estimate total I handed them.

I'll put up some of the pictures after this post for all to see as well


I hear nothing but Problems with Mercury's claim department and how they run things in CA, I don't know how things are in TX, but hopefully better.

Damn that sucks especially since it was a classic. Shows how they truly are by how they treat military members which is pathetic since that is the marketing foundation.

I would switch to another company, being State Farm so I have the leisure to service and do my own policy changes, but for the age of 22 and having this type of car, even with all the discounts available, it would still be close to $60 more per month of which I'd rather not pay each month. Of course when I gain Loyalty Discounts my premium will go down and as my years licensed go up premium will go down, but until I'm passed 9 years licensed it'll be $220+ anywhere else I go.

Hope Geico has been good to you so far though with any claims.

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Birdman's Build:
Powerhouse Amuse/ Nismo/ Eibach/ ACT/ Tommy Kaira/ Avant Garde/ Fast Intentions/ Project Kics/ Fly 1 Motorsports/ EVO-R/ Z1 Motorsports/ Weber Sports/ Zoom/ Zele Japan

JARblue

No worries, Gavin. I am all set on the exhaust front. I'll text you later today just to make sure you've got my number

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birdman71

Sounds Good with me my friend! I may have some parts for sale here coming up that you just may be interested in as well

During this whole ordeal I had my shop put on all my HoneyComb CF parts, so It will definitely be an excitement when I pick it up...

Did I mention that I am picking it up EDIT:TOMORROW???

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Birdman's Build:
Powerhouse Amuse/ Nismo/ Eibach/ ACT/ Tommy Kaira/ Avant Garde/ Fast Intentions/ Project Kics/ Fly 1 Motorsports/ EVO-R/ Z1 Motorsports/ Weber Sports/ Zoom/ Zele Japan