strange car damage

[stevepaa]

My son dumps his dirt bike last week and bruises himself pretty darn well. Thought his pelvis was broken but x-rays are okay.

He comes over to the house on Saturday to relax. AT night he asks to use the 1995 BMW 325 to go back to school as he is sore and it is hard to climb up into his raised 4x4 with his injuries.

It’s raining and he slides the car into a cement island. Pax side wheels slightly damaged, pax side foglight popped out and two small creases in bottom of lower side sill. But if you look carefully and although the pax doors work fine, you can slip your fingers between the tops of the doors and the inside of the car. Somehow the B pillar got shoved up 1/4-1/2 inch. This is weird.

Goes to body shop for estimate tomorrow.

[klaucke]

Just be glad your son is ok. I ride dirtbikes, and I've had a broken pelvis (unrelated to dirtbikes). Its no fun, and no fun for 12 weeks when you can't walk. The car is fixable and easily replaced.

[stevepaa]

Yeah, cars are just cars. He is irreplaceable.

About four years ago, he decided to ride his dirt bicycle off the roof onto a homemade ramp. Lucky he did not hurt himself. A friend of his lost a spleen doing some stuff like that.

[djmcmath]

Friend of mine rode a dirtbike into a tree once, facefirst. Plastic surgery really is incredible. There were a few small scars, but if you didn't already know he had stopped himself with his face, you'd never guess.

[stevepaa]

I was just up in Silverdale last week for work at subase. Do you work there?

[stevepaa]

here's the gap



probably will total the car which means I need to finish rebuilding ny engine soon

[CJFusco]

um.

Don't let him drive the Porsche without you in it. Most of these kinds of things happen because he was driving much faster than he should have been. Trust me, this coming from a kid that crashed his 944 in the rain when he was 20.

[djmcmath]

My parents were smart enough to get me a junker ("junker, n: vehicle which once served a useful purpose, intercepted on its way to the junkyard for one last service.") which I promptly put in the ditch on a snowy day, because I wasn't smart enough to recognize that snowy gravel gives less traction than dry gravel. (sigh)

Yes, I work at the base formerly known as subase, now Naval Base Kitsap - Bangor, thanks to BRAC. What, pray tell, were you doing on NBK-B?


Dan

[stevepaa]

I am old rocket engineer for LMMS, come up to watch assembly of missiles, offer knowledge, sometimes insight.

[stevepaa]

His first car was a 69 FJ40, which he is prepping to sell. I need to send him and my girls to a track to learn about skidding.

[stevepaa]

Body shop took one look at car and said it was most likely totalled. Gave me his card and told me to tell insurance company his impression.

Submitted report, we'll see what happens.

[CarpetCityCobra]

Creases in lower sill are indicators of much more substantial damage. The bottoms of the doors are in a proportional amount of the distance the gaps are at the top, using the hinges/strikers as a fulcrum.

Highly unlikely on a late model BMW...but if the hinges had enough adjustment he pushed all the adjustment in on the lower hinge and pulled all the adjustment out on the top one with the striker acting as the fulcrum.

[stevepaa]

Well, about $8k for repair. Insurance company totalled it for $9500.
Will cost my son $1000 for the deductible. Probably a good lesson.

[addictionMS]

interesting, here is a photo of my M3, it was $7200 to fix....guessing that it hit the curb pretty hard

[Joeaksa]

I can tell right away that Bush is responsible for this, no doubt! Damage is on the left side!

JoeA

[jyl]

He learned a lesson, but it is a lesson we all learn the same way, so don't be too hard on him. Most of us crashed a car when we were young, or if we didn't it was by sheer luck.

[stevepaa]

Yeah, I spun my corvair a couple of times. Lucky the road was deserted.