Date: Wed, 15 Oct 1997 12:05:06 EDT
Reply-To: Sean Bartnik <sbart7kb@WWW.MWC.EDU>
Sender: Vanagon mailing list <Vanagon@Gerry.SDSC.EDU>
From: Sean Bartnik <sbart7kb@WWW.MWC.EDU>
Subject: Vanagon got smacked :-(
Hey all,
Well, today started out pretty poorly.
I was sitting at a traffic light waiting to turn left. The light turned
green and I pulled forward a couple feet but stopped to let the guy
opposite my position come across as he was going straight and I left, so
he had the right of way. All of a sudden SMACK, from the rear. The guy
behind me had apparently not noticed that I was no longer moving forward
and he hit the Vanagon.
Luckily he wasn't going fast when he hit me, as he was stopped behind me
at the light. Also luckily I didn't have my foot securely on the brakes
or else the impact damage would have been worse, but since the wheels
were somewhat free to roll, much of the impact energy was expended
moving my van forward instead of crunching the rear up.
Damage doesn't look too bad. The rear bumper is bent pretty badly, and
contacts the rear apron. The bumper contacting the apron caused the
apron to bend ever so slightly, but thankfully it has not bent to the
point of contacting the exhaust, so there was no exhaust or engine
damage. His car hit mine square on the bumper so the body wasn't messed
up. The only body damage might be where the bumper contacted the apron.
He had one of those mid-'70s GM land yachts with the "protrusions" from
the front, and it looks like one of the protrusions hit the bumper
rather than the whole front of the car, so the bumper is bent in in only
one place. It looks like this
||||||<>|||||||||||
where the <> is the impact and bumper dent. The motion of the bumper
caused the left side end cap to break, so I will need a new one of
those. The bumper is also now keeping the license plate flap from
opening, so I can't check or fill the oil until I remove the bumper.
But luckily, my sturdy Volks Cafe license plate frame does not appear to
be damaged :-)
The guy was genuinely sorry about it and was pretty nice and the damage
isn't severe so I guess I'm not as pissed as I should be. I told him I
don't want to involve insurance unless I have to so we traded names and
phone numbers and I got his license plate number just in case his phone
number info was bogus. If it's not too awfully expensive to fix he just
wants to pay for it himself rather than involving his insurance company.
Anyway, here's where I need help. How much should I expect to pay for a
new bumper? What about repairing the old one? The old one was in
really good shape before it got whacked. Also I'm going to need a new
left end cap. How much do those typically run?
What about hidden damage? Is there anything I should specifically look
for? I hope the bumper mounts are not bent, and he didn't hit me too
hard so I'm not too worried about it. I will give it a more thorough
inspection later, I looked at it briefly this morning; I didn't want to
be late for class.
Any special things I should look out for? Any leads on new/used bumpers
and end caps?
Any and all help will be appreciated, this is my first accident with
actual damage so I'm new to this. Thankfully, it wasn't my fault.
Sean
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