Here is a hint, Fred. You live in California and unless CA law has changed since I retired, every insurer doing business there must offer you the ability to buy UM (uninsured motorists) coverage, and you have the added benefit of being able to buy UM as bodily injury and property damage. Buy as large of a limit as you possibly can...and I think you can also be covered under UIM (underinsured motorists coverage) for bodily injury and property damage. UM/UIM is much less expensive than buying one of the hot rod policies and there are no limitations on use of your vehicle or the age of it or anything. None at all. And like physical damage, this is first party coverage...meaning you collect from your insurer after a loss. So my suggestion is this: buy UM and UIM, insure your truck under your family auto policy for the same liability limit as you insure your family auto. Then increase the liability limit under your homeowner's policy to $500,000 (this is cheap coverage) and buy a personal umbrella for $1,000,000, $3,000,000, $5,000,000 or whatever limit you want. Here is another bonus you have: in California your personal umbrella coverage can include UM and UIM. When you've done all this you will have (1) spent less money and (2) you'll be able to sleep like a baby because you'll be well covered for almost any possibility. And the neat thing about your truck is you will in effect have physical damage cover (except for hail, flood, acts of God, theft). If some crazy hits you...even if that crazy has no insurance or only the state minimum limits, you have coverage and it will pay for loss to your truck. My experience has been these vehicles are almost never stolen if the owner takes reasonable care. Especially today. My experience has also been they're almost never damaged by hail nor flood or does one spontaneously burn. Damage from falling objects is also very uncommon. If your vehicle burns up because your garage or house caught fire, it will be covered as long as you've made your insurer aware you have a special interest vehicle so the proper limit can be available. And if you took your wife to dinner, parked in a parking lot or garage and something happened, that's liability of the owner of the garage or lot, the restaurant, lessor, somebody. I hope this is helpful. There really are ways around the challenge of insuring vintage vehicles. My liability coverage is with GEICO and they don't mind covering them at all. They would prefer you limit your mileage to 6000 miles a year, and that is because they're giving you a break (discount) on your liability rates. If you plan to drive more than 6000 miles a year (which I do), just tell them. They may increase your rates or they may not if you've been a customer for a while. USAA, Progressive, Hartford and other insurers do the same thing. From their standpoint, the fewer miles you drive, the fewer are the chances you're going to hit somebody. Jerry is 100% correct in what he said, by the way. The last thing you need is some attorney in some courtroom trying to take away your assets...and they can. Or...even worse...you don't want some attorney deciding the modification you made to your vehicle constitutes what is called vehicular negligence which in turn led to vehicular homicide. Good luck. I'd find a really good insurance agent. Preferably one with some white hair who has been doing this long enough to know the ropes.
