300ZX (Z32) Appearance Exterior, Interior Discussions related to body kits, accessories, interiors, window tinting etc.

Oh boy, I got a gravel shower.....

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Old 04-02-2006 | 05:54 AM
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Oh boy, I got a gravel shower.....

As if dodging retards that don't know how to drive in the rain on the 5 southbound in California wasn't enough I picked the one uncovered dirt/rock loaded hopper truck on the freeway to get stuck next to. Long story short, he hits a bump and I watch helplessly as a veritable wave of dirt, sand, gravel and ROCKS comes flying out and over the front of my baby at 70mph.

The results:

Busted windshield, paint chips to bare metal on both front fenders, two dents in the hood that could have been done with a ball-peen hammer weilded by a caveman, split front end piece, broken fog lamp bulbs (not the lamp itself mind you, just the bulbs....go figure), the front bumper is chiped and gouged like mad and the black stripping that runs from the hood up over the roof is scratched down to bear metal in a couple spots.

My only consolation at this point is that the glass in the T-tops didn't get busted and that I DO have a long standing policy with Geico....and $500 deductables. Of course the traffic around and in front of me slowed down to a crawl while the truck just took off, so by the time I got around and away from them all I had no idea where he had headed or turned off....so no company or license plate number on that one. *sigh* Here's hoping it all gets covered on one claim and they don't try to send me to Earl Shives.

Pray for me. lol

Old 04-02-2006 | 10:08 AM
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Damn, that sucks to hear. I hope it all gets taken care of for you.
Old 04-02-2006 | 10:09 AM
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pics?

I'd be pissed if that happend
Old 04-02-2006 | 03:35 PM
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Dude, that sucks. Post some pics. A license plate is the first thing my eyes would've been looking for. Even a partial plate number and a description of the truck is better than nothing. At least with that they can match truck routes.
Old 04-03-2006 | 12:04 AM
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Oh believe me, aside from trying to avoid rear ending the dumbasses around me the primary concern on my mind was a license plate.....I'm sure there was one but it wasn't visable under all the caked on dirt and crap covering it....other than that vehicle description is as follows:

Unmarked duel hopper semi....white...very dirty. Yeah.....now you see my problem. lol

Called Geico today and filed the claim, my drive-in appointment is on the 10th and the company is some joint called Cone Collisions, never heard of them so I'm doing some digging on them. I'll see if I can get some pics up that actually show some damage, it's hard with a white car.
Old 04-03-2006 | 01:30 AM
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man, i hate those damn trucks. they are all over the road where i live, and none of them are covered. i stay WAAAY the hell back from them. still, they drop their gravel on the road and it gets kicked up by other cars. got a nice little chip in my windshield now, but havent had any really bad ones to the paint (knock on wood). i'm considering a bra, and maybe even mirror bras.
Old 04-03-2006 | 09:04 AM
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I had a rock kicked up into my right hand mirror with enough force to break the glass out of the mirror and shatter the bottom half of the mirror body... just happy it wasnt my windshield that got smacked by that one
Old 04-06-2006 | 12:09 AM
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Well, still no info on this company they are sending me to. My only concern now is that the front of the car will be new white and clear coat while the rest will be original 1993 white and clear coat......I hope they match when it's all said and done. I wonder if I can get them to reshoot the whole car for the same price using the "omg it won't match!!" argument....
Old 04-06-2006 | 04:38 AM
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Probably. I've heard of quite a few people that have done that.
Old 04-06-2006 | 06:58 AM
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Sweeeeeeet

I'll give it a shot and see what the guy says next week.
Old 04-13-2006 | 12:23 AM
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****UPDATE TIME****


Well, took her down to the shop today to get the estimate done. The guy was actually pretty cool. Not the stuffy "Oh I don't think we can cover that" type of insurance rep you always hear about. This guy was actually finding things on the car that I didn't know about and was asking me things like "This was part of it too right?"....gee, let me think...YUP!! Sure was!! Don't ask me HOW a door ding comes from rocks hitting the front of your car but damned if I could prove it DIDNT happen

So basically it looks like they are going to replace the entire front bumper, my fog lamp bulbs, repaint both front fenders, fill the dents in the hood and repaint that, replace the molding around the windshield, replace the windshield and then do a full body detail and buff&polish so that everything matches.

On top of all that the guy waves my $500 deductable because my headlights had small small really REALLY small chips (that I KNOW were there before hand) in them saying that if I didn't mind not having them replaced in leu of the deductable. Pssshhh...lemme think about THAT for a second...umm...OK!!

He then tells me that they're ready to start working on it and that someone from Enterprise will be right over to pick me up and take me to my rental car. 5 minutes later I'm at teh rental place.

Now the bad part...lol

I am presented with my choice of THREEE, count em..THREE folks...vehicals:

A Previa
A Chevy Equinox LS
A Cadilac Escalade

Ok....Let em being this part of the discussion by saying Geico only covers $25/day for rental fees. Be that as it may the only way you're getting me in a Previa is if I'm dead and it's being used as a hearse. The Escalade was $89 a day....That said, wanna guess what I'm driving?

http://www.chevrolet.com/equinox/ YUP!!!

Now, without comparing it to my Z, which would be insane and akin to comparing the nutritional advantages of a salad to a bucket of chicken fat, I can honestly say this thing is a freekin nightmare to drive. It's way too tall, not wide enough, cranks out a whopping 185 horsepower and is front wheel drive. It rolls from side to side like a fat chick trying to get out of a beach chair and is about as nimble as well but will flail the tires from the rims if you ditch the ATC and tromp the gas at a stop light...much to my wife's surprise. Not as a show if it's beasty power mind you, just **** poor weight distribution.

And to top it all off my license is expired (found that out at Enterprise) and it's supposed to rain on friday. WOO!!! I'M GON' DIE!!!!!!!!


More to come
Old 04-13-2006 | 12:31 AM
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cool. good to hear that insurance is actually not going to rape you. sucks that you have to drive that POS equinox though. although i suppose its a bit better than the previa. i cant believe they didnt have a car availlabe.

Last edited by entropy31; 04-13-2006 at 01:00 AM.
Old 04-13-2006 | 02:33 AM
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I asked the girl if they had a mustang or something avalible and she looked at me like I just farted and mentioned the other office had a Taurus I could get. Forgot to add that
Old 04-13-2006 | 10:29 AM
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Hey, atleast you will come out a few dings less from this one but any time spent without ur z is time you will never get back
Old 04-14-2006 | 02:22 AM
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Thats one way of looking at it btu I prefer to see it as that many less miles I'm putting on the poor thing commuting thus saving more for cruising PCH (Pacific Coast Highway) with the T-tops off later Truth be told though I'm only goind on 48 hours without her and I'm starting to get antsy.....SUVs are for retards that don't know what performance is supposed to feel like.....
Old 04-17-2006 | 12:00 AM
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**** Update #2****


Paint shops close on holiday weekends....boo.

$60 in gas.....less than 400 miles......SCREW YOU CHEVY!!! 28 miles per gallon my ***
Old 04-17-2006 | 03:24 PM
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Usually helps to not drive with your foot planted through the floorboard though!

Originally Posted by Comorat2x2
**** Update #2****

Paint shops close on holiday weekends....boo.

$60 in gas.....less than 400 miles......SCREW YOU CHEVY!!! 28 miles per gallon my ***
Old 04-21-2006 | 12:52 AM
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*****Update #3*****


WOOT!!!! She's back where she belongs, in my damn GARAGE!!!! and she looks niiiiiiiiiiice. (pics to follow soon, I promise)


It's been a full couple of days.....dropped off the Equibox, complained heartily about the POS and only had to pay $100.00 and some change for the 5 days I had it...counting gas that's still way lower than my $500 deductable I didn;t have to pay. Woooo! I win!!!

Cone didn't have my car ready when they said they would but they had a good reason...or at least a valid one. They told me that when they removed the front bumper the clips basically disintegrated, which I can believe. Far as I know they were the original ones and it IS a 1993. So it took em a day to get those shipped and installed, big deal.

Went down today to pick her up and gave it a very picky once over. Found the molding wasn't 100% secured down on both sides fo the windshield, made the guy fix it, good to go. Found a couple of missing faux screws, made the guy replace them, good to go. Everything else seemed to check out just fine. They didn't put in ultra bright fog lamp bulbs like I asked, but considering they were burned out 3 months prior to me bringing it in.....*snicker*.....yeah...heh. Hopefully I have them alligned now, not sure if the adjustment screw on them is an up/down or a left/right, but they were cranked all the way one direction tonight so I'll have to check em again later.

The windshield is flawless, the new paint is WAY brighter than the old paint but as soon as I get off my *** and rub out the old paint it'll be just fine. Couple weeks from now I'll most likely polish, buff and wax the whole thing...gonna play it safe and give the new paint some cure time just in case. The interrior doesn't smell like paint, no overspray anywhere, it's just freekin' beautiful.

They did inform me that it looked as though she had been in an accident many years ago, there was some warped metal on the inner parts of the right front that the guy said looked like they had been fixed by a 5 year old...lol....but they did what they could and the new bumper fits perfectly as does everything else, so I'm not overly concerned. I've never had an issue with alignment or anything so no worries so far.

Really the only thing that kinda sucks for me is that goddamn "Hey, jerkass...you have a tail light burned out" warning lamp is on despite all the lamps working fine so one of two things have happened:

They left it outside and I've got some minor moisture inside the brake lights

or

They used a pressure washer on it and sprayed the tail lights too long. <-- Most likely.
Either way on that front it should clear itself up in a couple days. If it doesn't it's still an easy fix, I hope.

So as soon as I get a chance I'm going to take her to the park and get some glamor shots done to post up here, also got a great shot of a brand new Subaru WRX witha crushed in right side. Odamitmeter only had 27 miles on it....hahahahaha, sucker!
Old 04-21-2006 | 12:53 AM
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Originally Posted by silvrhand
Usually helps to not drive with your foot planted through the floorboard though!

Wussy.......
Old 04-21-2006 | 09:10 PM
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I believe the warning light for the lamps comes on if there is any difference in resistance through the lighting other then normal, this can be caused by slightly different then stock bulbs, incorrect bulbs, burned out etc... sometimes even two bulbs from the same batch, one might turn it on the other might not, its a pain :| i just live with it and get a nice red light telling me I forgot to take me foot off the brake pedal
Old 04-21-2006 | 11:55 PM
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You are 100% on what makes that light come on....one of the Z's many charms I guess lol

I could almost ignore it if it weren't for the fact that it comes on steady when teh headlights are on and I work graveyard shift.....which means I have two 45 minute car rides with a damn red light staring me in the face the whole time. It actually winked out on me for a bit this morning but came back on. I'll most likely pull teh bulbs in a few days and go over all teh connectors with some scotch-brite or something.
Old 04-23-2006 | 08:01 AM
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your car sounds great, can't wait to see ur pics.
Old 05-08-2006 | 05:56 PM
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Well....one of these days the sun will come out and I'll get some pics done....*sigh*.

The new job is nice at least.
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