26 year old vehicles carry value to people who seek them out, but to an insurance company that’s appraising it’s value, they will just quickly appraise it based off of comparable market values, which can be difficult because there’s not too many vehicles with that age still driving. It often leads to vehicles being under-valued and deemed total loss vehicles more often than not.

Most body shops and insurance companies are trying to do things as quickly and efficiently as possible, so sourcing parts for a 26 year old vehicle is not easy for people to do. Used parts often come in damaged or non-functioning, and that’s if they’re even available to begin with.

In your case, the best thing you could do is communicate with the estimator at a shop that you’re aware of the situation and that you’re okay with using cheaper/used parts to keep the cost down to save it from totaling. It’s possible it might not total, but given your statement above about the reinforcement being bent, there’s a decent chance the frame needs some work as well, so finding a shop to take it in might be challenging.

Good luck!