[tom406]

Your fears are valid but the path to getting coverage can be a little murky. You're basically looking for DIMINISHED VALUE coverage, to compensate you for the loss of value due to the repaint. Its essentially the same as if your new Corvette took a $10K whack in the front end and now is worth 20-30% less on the market or on trade now that it has that Scarlet Letter on its Carfax. Diminished value is becoming more common as a claim, but is being resisted by the insurance companies because if suddenly every significant collision is followed by a 25% diminished value check, their bottom line suffers greatly.

Talk to your agent about your concerns, and ask how the company would handle a claim on your car. Be prepared to state how much value you think your car would lose by being say, 20% repainted or 100% repainted. Also be prepared to demonstrate that with real world examples (ads, auctions, etc). If you have an appraisal done, see if your appraiser would like to tackle that argument in the appraisal document while he speaks about the value of original paint. Again, ask the agent what he and the underwriter think about all this. Its easier to spell it out beforehand rather than in court later.

Good luck.

Tom Breske
Vintage Viewpoint Vehicle Appraisals
Seattle, WA