Rope or chain smacked into my new MINI!

[boognish]

Uggh! This morning a lawn care maintenance (I'm guessing) company truck blew past me in the opposite lane at around 50 MPH. I didn't catch the name/license it all happened so fast. No problem, right? Except this jerk was trailing at least 30 feet of untethered rope and/or chain behind his truck! The rope/chain swung around and sideswiped my MINI, just grazed it, fortunately, but when I got to work to observe the damage, it's not too bad. But it does suck! Just this past Saturday I finished detailing/winterizing MINI Boognish ('06 Space Blue) with several coats of Zaino. It's just gleaming it's so mirror-shiny and perfect...well, the paint WAS perfect.

But now there is a small, 1/2" scratch right above the front driver's side wheel arch (the wheel arch also has a gouge in it where the rope/chain struck first) that is pretty deep--down to the "white" paint (primer?) and then another 1/4" scratch, also down to the white paint (I even see some black, is this the base metal??!), about 6" below the side rearview mirror. These aren't smooth edged scratches...they're jagged, which makes them stick out like a sore thumb even more.

A while back I saw someone posted a link to an auto paint company that actually sold special touch-up paint and clearcoat formulated for MINI paint colors. Any one have the link? I'd like to try to repair this myself, even if just temporary, until I decide to have a pro do the job. Sucks, because I'm sure Space Blue Metallic is a bear to make a perfect match.

Thanks for all your help and tips on how to fix this. I have a $1000 deductible so even if I had this professionally repaired it would be out of my pocket.


Rock on,

-boognish

[CR&PW&JB]

You may not have to pay anything to have your MINI fixed. Check with your insurance company but I believe that should be covered as a "hit and run" accident and they could well pay for it out of the Uninsured Motorist coverage on the policy.

Sorry you had such rotten luck. It's been a week since I was rear-ended in my 4-month old MINI. Sucks, I know !!

[flannelhippie]

I feel for ya, I had my mini for 3 weeks and realized that the roads in my area require much more conservative driving as I had chips-galore on the hood of my car. I still have them

[gokartride]

Ouch...sorry that happened!!! Reminds me to stay far, far away from any "suspicious" vehicles on the roads ....although sometimes they unfortunately just can't be avoided.

[vargasgal]

That first scratch really hurts. Glad it wasn't any worse.

I have learned to stay far away from those lawn care trucks and their trailers after seeing the one in the lane next to me loose a shovel off his trailer in the middle of rush hour traffic. We all had to be doing about 70 mph. Luckily no one was directly behind him or they would have been messed up. I honked my horn at him as I sped up to get away from him and they were just oblivious.


I have passed a few ladders on the expressway in the mornings too. Somebody is going to end up being killed before it is over with.

[boognish]

You know it is amazing (and dangerous) what objects I've seen in the middle of the road/highway

Once we were driving up the NJ Turnpike on the way back from a business meeting and saw a 20 foot aluminum ladder fall off a truck about 1/4 mile ahead of us. Cars swerved, and amazingly no one was hit by the ladder...but we could not avoid running it over as it was lengthwise across lanes of traffic! I closed my eyes and held tight as we ran over it without incident, but if a 80,000lb semitruck ran it over, who knows, the ladder could go airborn!

I also saw a hand-truck (like what UPS would use to carry lots of packages) in the middle of a local, well-traveled highway and immediately called the local police so they could remove it before someone ran into it and got injured/killed. The dispatcher lady was like "there's a WHAT in the road?" I said "a handtruck, you know, a metal cart with two wheels..." Heh...

A few days later there was one of those illuminated traffic signs on the side of this road that read "Be Safe: Secure Your Load!" But I still see tons of debris on this road...today it was about half dozen copy machine toner cartridges...with black, red and blue ink powder everywhere... imagine smacking into that, what a mess.

And on the way back from picking up my MINI from the dealer (it's a 60-mile drive mostly on highways) I witnessed a small box-truck with the back wide open and as the wind blew into the back, various items would get sucked out and drop onto the highway behind it..like a high-heeled woman's shoe, some clothing, a bunch of other household junk. It just amazes me how unsafe people are... SECURE YOU LOAD!


-boognish

[agranger]

About 10 years ago I hit a tire & wheel that was laying on the highway. I saw it and moved to the far side of the lane to avoid hitting it, but the moron in the lane to my left wasn't looking, crossed over into my lane and nicked it just hard enough to kick it in front of my passenger wheel. At 55 MPH, just over the George Washington Bridge in the Bronx. The wheel launched the entire right side of the car into the air and almost flipped the car. I lifted off of the accelerator and actually drove what felt like 20-30 yards while balancing on the 2 driver's side wheels before the car came crashing back down. I flattened the front wheel, tore the tire clean off and crumpled the door sill when I landed. Amazingly, I was able to mount the spare and drive home... The oil pan and all driveline components were OK.

Morons!

[millerd2]

Amazing the number of drivers on the road suffering from severe cranial-rectal inversion. The kicker is most of those clowns have no idea they're causing problems - and if they get caught they're usually under insured or have no insurance whatsoever.

Oh well - off my soap box for now. Hang in there!

[agranger]

The plastic arches over the wheels are all less than $20 at the dealership and attach with simple screw-on fastners or push-on clips... a very easy do-it-yourself install.

[boognish]

Cool, i may purchase an arch to replace the one with the gouge/scratch.

I also ordered a touch-up kit from paintscratch.com (found them doing a google search) It comes iwth a 1 oz bottle of Space Blue Metallic touch-up paint, 1 oz bottle of clearcoat and 2 oz bottle of "rubbing compound" plus a oz bottle of automotive paint thinner. It was about $25 + shipping. They say this is enough paint to cover "hundreds of chips."

It looks like it could be a very tedious, multi-step process to apply the paint (wait at least 24 hours to dry) then the clear coat (wait 30 days to fully cure), then smooth it off with the compound...but I am extremely patient...thorough...and detail-oriented so I'm up for the challenge! I'm hoping this paint is as perfect a match as they claim it to be. Their customer reviews are GLOWING on the positive side in terms of "wow, the match is so good I can't even tell where the scratch was!" so hopefully that is the norm and not the exception.

Once the kit arrives and I use it, I'll take photos of before and after. Although my digital camera isn't so good with anything more than 10" away...

Anyone have experience with this company and their paint?

regards,

-boognish

[GBMiniGirl]

Tire debris is the main problem down here (along with unsecure loads). But, that's how I got an aero kit....so, I guess there's a bright side to everything.

[jwardell]

This whole week there's been a metal snow shovel just an inch out of the left line on my commute home. I'm always waiting for that thing to get kicked up.

Last january the car in front of me on the highway kicked up a piece of plywood, which spun sideways right at me and shattered my windshield! Thankfully it only hit glass. A free windshield is much cheaper than a new hood!

If you plastic arches are damaged, they are very cheap ($6 to 18 last I bought any), just call your dealership's parts dept. And keep an eye when replacing them as one of the ones I had was for the wrong side (labeled wrong on the bag).