Well, it would appear that Frankenstein will get a face lift,
compliments of an Excursion with a big hitch on it.

I get the call, "You need to come to the school. A guy just hit me and
it'll need a bumper, headlight, and hood." The story is, someone threw a
tennis ball at the lifted Excursion, and the driver threw the car into
reverse, skidded the tires and rammed the hitch into the bumper. I guess
the itty bitty Civic must've been in that huge blind spot I keep hearing
about.

My neighbor had a good point, there could be some serious frame bending
because of the size of the Excursion and the fact he was smokin' the
tires as he hit the car. Another thing, if the car was in drive and
being pushed back, should we have the tranny checked?

Parts needing replacement:

Impact bumper
bumper stiffeners
Bumper cover
Passenger light (the one I *just* had mounted last week!! Argh!!)
Hood
Fender wells, both sides. (Thankfully they didn't get to the new fender
I *just* had installed. <whew>)
grill and badge ($20. just yesterday... down the drain)The grill mounted
was a '98. Will be replaced with '99.

The silver lining is we will get the right year parts on the car free of
charge as the Excursion owner has accepted full liability. The mother is
an adjuster (homes) for All State. She wants to keep it off the records
and pay for the damages in cash. I'm not real savvy about this stuff, so
anyone with advice on how to protect my rights if I should decide to
keep the insurance companies out of it would be appreciated.

The first estimate I've received is for $3400. I plan to present her
with one more from a AAA approved local body shop. She would like us to
travel to Northridge (those of you in L.A., we live in Santa Clarita) to
a place called Yoshi's. Can anyone tell me if this is a good repair
shop? And, if I *do* respect her wishes by going there, should I be
compensated for the trouble it will be?

Thanks in advance for any feedback.