Itinerant Air-Cooled

wcfvw69 wrote:Ya know, I'm kinda missing the fuel filter clean outs.. The updates are becoming boring!

Careful what you wish for. I could get damn good and tired of the cost of amusing you.
NaranjaWesty was parked at the jtauxe call:




That is a buckled left rear panel too:




The offender was a temporary visa driving on a restricted permit someone else's car who himself was out of town, no identified insurance company or coverage at this time. The frame has been torn asunder at the bumper bracket area.
Colin

Deeply saddened. That was like a punch in the gut to see. Looks like its going to be a test of how good your own insurance company is to you, Colin. Crap, just so lousy.

Wow... that really sucks Colin! WTF! I hope you've figured out that person's insurance situation and they will take care of that damage. What's the rest of the story? Did she just have her head up her ass while staring at her cell phone and plowed into your bus?

F*ck.

Well its not the Twin Towers, but it will be a day you will not soon forget. Glad you are OK and calm, I think I would be in hand cuffs.

Colin, this sucks, however it appears you handled the situation well, better than I would have. That being said if we are too focused on what might happen, nothing ever will...

Hopefully insurance will cover, someone's at least.

Crap! but it will buff out....

was the offending driver the girl?

Yes, that young Chinese woman is the offending driver. This was just so stupid is is hard to believe.

We get a lot of transients in Los Alamos. Not homeless people, but summer students, post-docs, and visiting scientists from all over the world. They come from a variety of backgrounds, from diverse cultures. I expect that Ling here is a physics student who, while perhaps brilliant at physics, does not understand how cars work and how big they are. Funny that -- it's the classic highly educated and yet somehow completely clueless and dysfunctional type of people that a place like Los Alamos is populated with.

This was the dumbest thing... Colin's Naranja is parked there on the street, and we are there working on getting my four Type 2s running (which we did!) and crunch! wham! How the **** can a driver NOT see a giant bright orange bus in full sun, and just sort of run into it as she drives by?

I actually don't think that she was on her phone. Watching her pull into a nearby parking space, with some temerity, gave me the impression that perhaps she had never driven a car before. That and her learner's permit. A friend of hers (another transient Chinese summer student) was to be leaving in a few days, and was looking to sell his red Dodge Stratus. She is going to be here for the year, and could use a car maybe, so when he left on a last-minute vacation to Yellowstone, he left her the keys to try out the car. No registration or insurance paperwork in the glovebox, though. Foreign nationals don't really understand these things, I guess.

FWIW, she did feel bad, apologizing for being careless. It was just so unbelievably stupid.

Despite this stupidity, Naranjo is still fully functional (except for the rear left side marker) and drivable. And we did have a VERY productive two days, tuning four sets of dual carbs, and bringing to life a 1972 largely unmolested Sportsmobile that had not run in 20 years. But more on that in other posts, no doubt.

Crummy situation, but not without precedence. Like someone said before, it'll likely come down to how good your insurance company is to you. Will they pay for NOS parts if they can be found? Will they only pay someone to do minimal straightening, slap some bondo on it, and do a cheap respray? We wait with anticipation.

Good luck and keep us updated on what happens. BTW, I think I have paint mixing codes for the Chrome Yellow if you need them. Went through this with my old bus a few years back.

Sorry to see. It IS fixable. Could have been worse.

It wasn't a Road Warrior incident, and you're physically OK. Big pluses in my book. But, damn it all, she shoulda been paying attention. It's a bus, for cryin' out loud, lady. Hit a goddam Lexus or something.

Jivermo wrote:It wasn't a Road Warrior incident, and you're physically OK. Big pluses in my book. But, damn it all, she shoulda been paying attention. It's a bus, for cryin' out loud, lady. Hit a goddam Lexus or something.

I have played a pecular phone tag with Lin Ling this morning. The number for the owner of the car that she gave to the officer and I was not the correct number. I called her and requested the correct number , and it takes me into voice mail only. I think I shall pay an early morning visit to his alleged residence in the morning.

Then I went to work:




The impact pulled the left rear bumper bracket down. I took the occasion of the opened frame box to hit it with rust catalyzing primer, then jacked the weight of the rear, 2,300 lbs, onto a bumper bolt without the bracket, then "tapped" with my sledge until the hole was sitting a bit higher:




The battery tray is jacked in the middle and pulled away from the rear quarter panel to show the secret places behind our best efforts at underside protection:




Pretty spot to work:




Touched up all exposed metal because rain is coming. I hate to see that buckled left panel, but hope it will spontaneously straighten when I find a shop that will PULL properly:




After measuring the displacement of the left rear bracket, I used this "brake" to unfold the left end of the bumper:




Installed the bumper with two offsetting seatbelt anchors (from my switch to retractables) so I can have some continuing protection from the distracted . . . :







Saw threatening clouds and scampered down the hill .. .. .. :








.. .. .. to the sunnier valley of Espanola where I painted my mangled bumper with a paint brush:




Here you can see that the bumper can at least provide some nominal protection:




The car absorbed a pretty good whallop. I am so glad that I had upgraded to the factory washers and four 17mm bolts and threw out those three 15mm rusty bumper bolts with no washers that it came with. These bumpers and brackets came off with ease, the threads were good.

Remember the good ol' days, like back on September 10th?
Colin

suck.

Wasn't Lin Ling one of those pandas at a zoo somewheres? Check there. Beginning to sound like this happened in Miami. Since i am on the verge of political incorrectness, waters I seem to breast stroke in fairly often, I shall end my commentary on this indignity here. Good luck.