Thank you everyone for all your advice and input!

I just posted pictures of the actual damage, and the fixed final product in my original post so everyone can get an idea how ridiculous this whole ordeal was.

At least this story has a happy ending though: my VX has been fixed to better than original beautiful condition, still with a clean title and fully insured!

Just wanted to give everyone an update, and thank all of you again for being such a great community! This forum has been invaluable to me over the years for advice, information, or in this instance giving me a place to vent (haha).

Thank you...!