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I feel your pain. Hopefully my accident story may shed a little light on the insurance question.
A few months back I got rear ended while driving my '92 Mazda 626. Fortunately, I was hit by a Geo and the damage didn't look too bad and the trunk and doors still worked (though tight). The estimates came in at $1800 and since it was clearly his fault, it was his insurance company's responsibility to pay. They wanted to total it and give me $1640. Since it was still very driveable I asked what they would give me if I kept it. They first said $1000, but when I questioned it, they immediately offered $1200 (supposedly book value minus scrap value). So I took the $1200, sold the car for what I had paid for it a year before ($1800) with buyer fully aware of the damage. Then took my $3000 and bought a '91 740 wagon with 183k mi AND an '89 240 with 132K mi (and some issues). So it works out well sometimes.
The bottom line, is that if the car is "totalled" the insurance company would rather not deal with scrapping it and you shouldn't be afraid to negotiate with them on it after the adjuster has had a look at it. Also, if you can document any recent work done to improve the car, that may increase it's value so show the adjuster that. Even if you don't want to deal with fixing it up (but bless you, it sure sounds like you do because you love it), it may be worth more in the end to you to take a settlement and sell the car damaged.
The best of luck, Andy, St. Paul, MN.
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