Some guys have all the luck...then there's me

[FrankF]

I'm sick. I'm absolutely sick over what I'm about to tell you.

One week ago, marked the FIRST of the accidents involving my '79 SC. I was on the way to work at around 8:00am. Traffic was thick as usual, but moving. I was in the left lane of a two-lane road attempting to merge into the right lane. As I was merging, I was looking in my rearview to ensure I was clear. At that point, the car in front of the minivan I was merging behind stopped without warning - I believe to keep from hitting another car that was entering the road from a side road. That's what the other driver said at least. So, the minivan hit his brakes to avoid the car in front of him...but I didn't. Ended up partially under his back bumper, slightly denting the trunk lid and mashing the driver's side cap and headlight. Also lost the driver's headlight washer and got a nasty scrape on the front bumper. Luckily, no damage to the body, but that fact didn't lessen the sting a whole lot.

So, I've been pretty upset with myself for the last week over this, but today I was starting to heal a bit. I had a productive day at work and generally felt a little less foolish. In fact, this afternoon I was to drop off the SC for the repairs. I was thinking to myself how glad I would be once this whole thing was behind me. So I left work, heading to the body shop, but had to make some time, since I was leaving Tallahassee at 4:35 and had to be north of Thomasville, Ga no later than 5:30 - ambitious, but not unreasonable. So I was almost through Thomasville, bound to make it on time when the car in the southbound lane decided to try to make his turn - into my path. We were both trying to make the yellow light, but I had the right of way. In retrospect, I should have slowed for the light, rather than trying it....but I didn't. He almost made it. Now the front passenger's side headlight matches the driver's side. I nearly knocked the back bumper off of that car. It happened very quickly. I can still smell the smoke from my tires as I tried to brake. We were all shaken, but fortunately not hurt. Though my will to keep my car has taken a blow.

The accident was ruled the fault of the other driver. That doesn't make me feel much better though. All in all, it's been a bittersweet day. I think I'm getting my appetite back, so I'm going to eat dinner now.
Frank

[JonT]

Wow that really sucks Frank! Glad to hear they were not serious accidents. Hope your insurance takes care of you.

[Paulporsche]

Sorry to hear about that. Let us know what happens regarding your car.

[jeffgrant]

Sorry to hear it... I had a bit of a double whammy the other day myself... got hit by a deer at the same time that my wife "merged" with a car in an intersection 800 miles away.

I felt sick, but it worked its way through... car's still in the shop, get it back sometime next week.

Hang in there... it'll only get better from here!

[cbeers]

Now that you have had time to look it over, I wonder if the first accident had little to no damage while this latest one was horrible, taking out both headlights, damaging the bumper and hood..........


glad you are OK.

-Chris

[vash]

i think you are "good" for the rest of you life. get the car fixed frank and never look back.

sorry it happened.

[Jgordon]

Sucks that you damaged both headlights and fenders in one accident. At least it was the other guy's fault....

[Rick V]

At least you still have the ability to feel bad about the whole thing. Cars fix easier than people.


My wife and I broke down a few months back and I bought her the Mercedes she has been eyeballing for a while. 18hours later she tried to use the rear bumper and decklid to push a surburban.(blonde female bad combo)
I was as you are right now but I assure you it WILL get better.

[FrankF]

Thanks to everyone for the supportive comments. I took the car for the new estimate this morning. Don't know how much $$ it's going to run yet.

Here are some pics of the first accident:

[Dan in Pasadena]

Ouch! That's really tough luck. Good luck to you on the repairs, maybe it'll come back better than new?!

My luck is so bad I sometimes I think if they cut a woman in half they'd give the half that eats!

[JTL]

Sorry to hear about your misfortune; however, look at it from the bright side. You now have a perfect excuse to upgrade the headlights to h4's!

jt
-84 targa

[xlr8]

I did the H4 headlight upgrade this summer. It was a fast and easy project with much improved lighting.

[ChrisBennet]

On the upside, at least you had the 2nd incident before you got to the bodyshop. It would doubly suck to have after you got it back.
-Chris

[fred cook]

Frank,

I did almost the exact same thing years ago in a Fiat 124 spider. I was watching a very curvy young lady walk down the sidewalk and the car in front of me (Chey Caprice) suddenly slammed on the brakes causing the rear bumper to go skyward. The upward movement of the Chevy got my attention and I stood on my brakes and stopped....sort of. The Chevy's bumper came down in what seemed like slow motion and "sat" on the hood of my Fiat leaving a large dent and scraped paint. I wound up having to buy a new hood and have it repainted at a cost of about $200 or so. The worst part was that by the time all this had happened, the curvy young lady had disappeared! Some days you just can't win!

[Zeke]

Please keep your chin up and get the car fixed. 2 in a row can be frighteningly intimidating, but the car itself did not suffer terminal damage. Once the car is fixed, do something nice for yourself and the car. Buy something neat and sporty that you have had your eye on. Re-bond with the car and you will enjoy it for years to come.

That's what we all have to do now and then. Get something new for the car and the psyche.

[FrankF]

Thanks again fellas. I have to admit that I'm fighting with owner's guilt right now - I feel like I've not been a very good steward of my 911. So far, I've done all my own maintenance and generally have tried to improve upon the car where I could. Now this happens and I feel like I don't deserve the car for letting it get damaged. I'm sure this feeling will diminish in time, but right now I'm still sick about the whole thing. I do appreciate all the positive remarks though. As I've said before, this is by far one of the best boards I've participated on.

Fred,

I'm using Pro Body in Thomasville. It's been my experience that they do very good work, but they are not foreign car specialists or anything like that. Have you had any body work done on your car, and if so, did you use a local shop?

Frank

[fred cook]

Frank,

Probably the best body/paint shop here in Moultrie is the one that belongs to Hutson Ford / Lincoln / Mercury / Jeep. They are located on the Quitman Hwy just east of where it crosses Hwy 319. They have repaired and painted several "gotchas" for me and did an excellent job each time. The assistant manager there also builds 69 Camaro street rods, one of which was just featured in Popular Hot Rodding magazine. He just sold one of his Camaros to a guy in Alaska for something north of 70 grand!

[Purkinjefibre]

Hi Frank, bad luck man.
I did an H4 upgrade on my SC. I still have the trim rings (no lights). They are silver and in need of painting. If they are of any use to you i'd be happy to send them.

Brett

[FrankF]

Thanks for the offer Brett. Based upon the parts list associated with the estimate, I think these are being ordered by the body shop already. If they have any trouble finding parts, I will contact you for sure.

For what it's worth, the headlights currently on my SC are H4 - I honestly didn't realize that this was an upgrade. I obviously still have alot to learn about my car. I do know now that it can take a hard front end hit and drive away, which is more than I can say for many new cars. The body shop guy even remarked about how solid these cars are.

BTW, I failed to mention one interesting side point. My wife, who hasn't exactly been the biggest fan of the SC, now has a different opinion of it from a safety perspective. She arrived at the scene yesterday as the officer was writing the report. The first car she saw was the other driver's Camry, with the detached rear bumper. She expected the worst for my car. Then she saw the 911 with what really appears to be minimal damage in comparison. She was impressed with the 911's resilience.

[Dan in Pasadena]

Frank, I don't think those were H4's. I could be wrong, I'm no expert, but I don't think they could be H4's with those bezels. maybe someone else can chime in here, but H4's look like this: