Last Monday morning I was heading north on 5, in San Clemente area, when a piece of what I thought was recap came sailing over the car in front of me. No place to go, so bam! the scrap hit the front bumper of my MINI, bounced onto the windscreen and on over.

Wow, that scrap punched a hole right thru the bumper, and gouged material out of the bumper bar that resides inside. I'm not so sure it was recap now, but very glad it didn't catch anything under the car, or break the windscreen.

Now little Seashell is at the body shop, waiting for her new front bumper.

 

they offered on ebay regularly and many times with the same color scheme.

 

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...category=33640

 

Whoa! So many stories of getting hit by stuff on the road lately, it's scary!

When I was driving between Nashville and Murfreesboro on the way to Chattanooga, something came out from under the semi in front of me and smacked my front bumper. It was white, oddly shaped and had a couple of strings on it. I said to myself, "What the heck?! Was that a SHOE?!!" No damage to Zooty from her unintentional kick.

 

SS - that's a remarkable picture, whatever it was sure did literally "punch" through. Glad you're OK.

 

Shelly - SO sorry to read this!! Bummer.... There is MORE CRAP on the roads out here than I've ever seen anywhere else!!! I guess the fact that CA is in a constant state of "no $$$" leaves NO $$$ for clean up crews on the roadways...pretty obvious.....

I hope your baby gets fixed quick...and is perfect again very soon...

Donna
02' CR/W MCS (gone to MINI heaven - burned up)
05' Cool Blue MCSC "Ariel"
05' HB/W MCS

 

Sorry about your car. I feel you on road crap. Egguinn got smacked on day 4 during a road trip. Nothing as bad as yours, but now I do have a chip in the bumper that drives me nuts, but is not bad enough to fix.

 

Please don't take this the wrong way, I'm not trying to be critical, just sharing a thought.

Motorcycle folk learn pretty early that if you get hit in the head with the kind of things that folks are reporting they've hit on the highway, you'll be a dead person right quickly. So we learn to keep enough distance in front of us so that if a semi throws a wall safe up into the air we have enough time and space to avoid it.

I'd suggest to the folks that are hitting debris on the highway, that you might want to look at your driving habits and see if there's a way you can give yourself a little more space ahead of yourself so that you could react to that sort of thing rather than being in the position of just wondering what that thing was that wiped out your front end.

Yeah, yeah, I know. Traffic's too dense, people will just pull in and take the space, there's nowhere to go, aliens will abduct me, the Patriot Act requires me to be able to read all bumper stickers in case there's a terror alert on one of them, blah, blah.

 

I guess i've been pretty lucky, I got to wind through the remains of a small charcoal grill the other day but didnt hit anything. Almost 3 weeks and all I have is a chip on the roof of all places from a rock that got thrown up by someones tire

 

Which is the main reason I wear a helmet when I'm on my bike - whether it be the law or not.

Sometimes sh** happens, and there is nothing you can do whetheryoulikeitornot.

Sorry Seashelly got a new vent hole.

 

wow, glad it didn't fly through the winshield and hurt you!

When I lived in LA, some truck carrying a butt load of flower pots
dropped about half a pallet of new pots on the 91 freeway right
in front of my face going expressway speeds.

I was in my modded-prelude at the time with full coilover system
(souped up suspension) and luckily there was no one beside me so
swirved out of the lane and missed the pots by a hair. but
the cars behind me were not that lucky.

 

Now if motorcyclist could keep their speed below 130mph, twisting through traffice and between lanes, they would be doing great.

 

Several years ago (15-20?) it seemed like recaps from tires off of big rigs were all over the place. I remember seeing them frequently along shoulders and medians. Then something changed. I don't know if it was truck inspections, rules for tire manufactures, or what. But the problem almost went away for a while. Now its back and I'm not sure why.

Maybe inspections or enforcement have been reduced. I know there was some sort of change in trade laws a while back, that allowed free flow of semi's from Mexico, and there were concerns about safety inspections for those vehicles. I guess it could be partially related to that.

Whatever the cause, its become a life threatening problem again.

 

Are you sure that's not some kinda b_llet fragments It's pretty near the Corp ya know j/k


Poor litto seashell !

 

Hay the same thing happened to me on Monday at 5:30 am on I-5 in San Clemente in the third lane. A Ford Ranger kicked it up and I had no where to go and it slamed into me. The adjuster said $2021 damage. I need a new hood, bumper cover, fog light and wheel arch. It must have been the same recap.

 

A few weeks ago in Utah I had a semi truck kick up a baseball sized rock as it pulled off onto the sholder. The rock pitched out and whacked my front driver's side headlight. The chrome surround was gouged, but otherwise no additional damage.

 

Here are larger versions of seashelly's pics

 

Samething happened to me somewhere near Wyoming, but it hit the top of my windshield--behind rear view mirror and cracked it.

 

I'm so sorry about the damage to your Mini!
Just glad that it didn't fly up and hit you, instead.

I'm sure she'll be good as new in no time.

Lee Ann

 

Heehee, that's what I told my kids when they got home from school, that someone shot my car.

But I don't think it was recap, since it gouged aluminum out of the bumper bar. I think it was rubber jacketed steel cable, was about 4' long. Sound familiar Turbogeo? That would be wild, that we both took a hit from the same piece of cr*p. 'Cept, it was about 9:30am when it hit my car. After hearing everyone elses' stories, I feel lucky there wasn't more extensive damage.

Spunky, I do appreciate the thought, and make it a point to leave room to avoid life's little surprises. Its the other drivers who weren't cooperating. :-) This kinda stuff doesn't seem to happed when I'm driving the pickup.

Thanks for the kind words everybody. Its ever so nice to know there are folks to commiserate with.

Shelly

 

The good news, the bumper is as good as new.

The bad news; I must have some bad car karma some where. The hole in the bumper happened about 2 weeks before our MINI 1 year anniversary. Once the bumper was fixed, we needed a new tyre due to a nail in the shoulder (actually picked up the nail before the bumper boo-boo)

Was drving home after having the new tyre mounted and just before home (not on freeway) a rock got kicked up and gashed a nasty spot into the bonnet, well above the clear bra.

It was bad enough I broke out the touch up kit - my first try ever and it turned out not too bad. :smile: But I did find some mystery spots on the back end of the car that won't come off. Whatever, most people wouldn't notice.

Today I was on the north 5 freeway again, near the El Toro 'Y' and I hear a big pop, see one of the wiper blades jump and think "a rock?" Couldn't see any damage. A few minutes later I see a crack start creeping up the windscreen. ARRGGHHHH!

But the good news is I stopped by a nearby MINI dealer, and they're fixing the windscreen under warranty , so maybe its not bad karma after all.

Shelly

 

Jeez, Shelly! I cannot believe your luck, sweetie! But to get a dealership to repair the windshield under warranty in Cali....now that is a minor miracle! Hope it's all done thoroughly and FAST!


Clover

 

I had the same thing happen to my 02 MCS and I feel for you seashelly

Don’t you just hate that but thank god my insurance cover it.

 

... hurts just to look at the photo. Driving in California has been a new kind of hell for me. While the Mini is great for commuting I still am shocked at how crazy it is here... I've never seen so many aluminum step-ladders, flower pots, lawn mower parts, strewn across the 101 or 580... glad that's all that happened this time to your Mini.

 

Gosh that sucks so bad!! So far I've been lucky I guess. The only thing to hit Spike was a big rock enough to crack the windshield but it was fixed under warranty!! Good for that...