Here is my predicament.

Took my Disco to my wife's company Xmas party at a high end hotel here in Houston. Her company covered the valet parking and I have had it valet parked there without issue in the past. Reminded the valet it had a high clearance and he said he would put it in the oversize lot instead of the garage. Got it back afterwards and that night I noticed that my kayak mounts on the passenger side were bent over and jammed down against the basket, they were pretty scratched up and the basket tubing is dented. Also the Yakima gutter mounts on that side are damaged and missing some parts. The OEM plastic gutter trim is broken in a few places.

Called them up and they reviewed security footage and agreed the driver tried to put it in the garage and it got stuck and they were liable. Sent me a request for vehicle info and some pictures. So I took several pictures and even noted on each image the damage. Sent it back to the valet service who forwarded it to their HQ in Delaware. Got a request from the HQ to get an estimate...

So this is my problem: My roof rack is not a LR part and is custom made. Other then the plastic gutter trim from LR that is torn up that is. I probably put about $600 into the rack when I built it and the trim sells for $300 or so from LR. Hoping I could get a check from the insurance company and just upgrade to a Baja rack or other full length solid rack.

Any ideas how I could get an estimate that would float? It's been years since I have had to get an estimate for insurance repairs but don't they typically go by some kind of estimate software program? How does an aftermarket part work into that?

 

so you built the rack? I would make a fabrication invoice. I've had to do this on trailers (mine get stolen a lot) they take the itemized invoice, figure in depreciation from an already lessened value.

 

Take it to a fab shop and get them to do a quote on building a replacement of the rack. A simple body shop quote should handle the rest like trim

 

Well mine was made up of parts from different manufactures, it was my first attempt at a roof rack and if I was to do it again I would just buy a nice full frame ready made one. I used Yakima mounts and towers and cross bars, Yakima kayak brackets and the tubular basket frame was from some other company that I've forgotten about but it's similar to the Brownchurch sold at Rover's North. I think in the end it was about $800.

Are you saying that I make up my own fabrication invoice just estimating what I put into the rack, type it up on my letterhead or whatever and submit it?

There is a place up the highway from where I live called "Poor Boy's Offroad", kind of a back country shop that has mostly home made rock crawlers, Fords and the like out in the front. I thought about going by and explaining my needs and offering them $50 to do up an estimate that would cover a nice new rack that would run $1200-$1300 or so.

Haven't gotten an estimate on the plastic gutter trim but Miami British sells the complete set for $200 I think on Ebay.

 

well that is what I do. itemized production expenses. my claims guy said that it was fine.. the poor boy option is good too. they could give you an estimate to build it or something similar. at least they will have labor included

 

this is the one time i would tell someone to go to the dealer.
Have them price all the repairs using new land rover parts that includes removal and installation.
You will get more than enough money to replace it with whatever you want

 

I finally got around to getting a couple of estimates, the valet parking service just wanted one but I'm trying to see what the possibilities are and will also probably go to the LR dealer tomorrow to see how much they would charge.

The rack itself as mentioned is home made so neither body shop could put a price on it but both left an empty line for me to add it in. Both shops found that the factory installed OEM luggage rack tubes had scrapes on them and when my roof rack was dislodged it dented the roof panel just in front of one of the Alpine windows. Both shops included new gutter trim all around, luggage rack tubes and fixing the dent and painting the entire roof to match.

First estimate was around $1700 and the second was at $2400. Not sure why the big difference but the first place is a national chain and the second a local independent shop. The second shop also priced for removing and reinstalling the headliner to fix the dent and removing the Alpine windows for properly painting the roof.

Going to get an estimate from LR tomorrow and send in the highest priced one.