Having dealt with this before on a couple of classic cars, there is a reason why I tell people to never, ever have any classic car repair orchestrated through an insurance company. Get accurate, detailed estimates from multiple shops for the damage, get a good appraisal done of the car to establish its value pre-damage, find examples of comparable cars for sale to establish its replacement value, and learn how to argue with insurance companies when it comes to post-damage value adjustments, as well as demanding rental car and other compensation. Use all of that to get a settlement from them that will absolutely cover whatever it costs to repair it PROPERLY, then take the money and handle it yourself. You will be much happier in the long run and you will be far less likely to end up in situations like this where the body shop jerks you around forever.
I dealt with this on a '70 Cadillac convertible that I had that was smashed up good by a moving truck. Took five months of back and forth with their insurance company, but in the end I got a check from them that was about equal to the value of the car pre-damage and was plenty to properly repair it, and I got to keep the car and figure out exactly how to handle it myself. When you're a cash paying customer and the only person involved that they have to answer to, it is MUCH easier to get body shops in line and get your car done. Of course you still have to keep pressure on them though. You can't just let months go by without contact, you have to get them to agree to deadlines and you have to hold them to it. If they won't agree to reasonable and realistic deadlines, find someone who will. But once you establish that you're just going to let them take forever without keeping pressure on them, you're screwed, you'll never be effective at putting pressure on later because the precedent has been set.
Obviously this is all too late for your current situation, but it's not too late to put serious pressure on everyone involved and make something happen. Whether it be getting the car done, getting the insurance company to take it to another shop, or simply getting a payout on the car instead and letting them keep it.. you may very well have zero intention of exercising that third option, but you can certainly play the bluffing game to force them into action.
But, the very last thing you should do is sit back and wait for something to happen. The precedent has been set. You MUST put pressure on them, continuously, or this will continue on forever.
Edit: And when I talk about post-damage value adjustment, I mean getting compensated for the fact that your car has obviously been repaired, and that will affect resale down the road, so you must be compensated for it. Few people have ever even thought about this, nor understand that it is something that you will get from insurance companies when you establish your case. In my case, I had a car with a very nice older enamel paint job in a bright color, and there wasn't a body shop in the world that could match the color and finish on the quarter panel repair to the rest of the panels on the car. Thus, you either need to paint the whole car, or you need to compensate me for the end result of just repairing the quarter, being that it will be obviously that it had been repainted to anybody who looks even remotely closely at it. Thus, if your GTO has an older enamel paint job on it, you have a prime case for arguing for a value adjustment, as the repair will be obvious when all is said and done. That's what made the difference in my case, the extra 30% they added on to finally cut a check that I would sign off on. Plus three weeks(15 days) worth of rental car compensation. You have to argue for every little bit, but when you do, you'll be surprised what you can get if you do it right.
Last edited by Fullsize455; 06-28-2018 at 12:31 PM.
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