Really BAD morning!

[sherry_ridgeway]

Hi, Im really sorry to hear about your accident, hopefully nobody was injured and very little damage done, Was it a truck/car/van/etc that backed into you?
Im very leary in traffic because of the low profile a corvette has in the rear view mirrors , [they sit so low and are hard to see] espessally in a truck with a campershell or an rv or trailer etc, ..Again im sorry to hear about it, but on a lighter note it could have been a lot worse, Im sure you'll get her back to original
asap, ...at least you didnt do somenthing stupid like i did, and hit the silly door knob under my carport leading to my shed and crack a fender moulding after 3 days of ownership.$2.000 missjudgement, in repairs/paint. Needless to say my shed under my carport is only accessable via a rope
Sherry

 

[BarryK]

Hi Sherry

it was just a regular full sized car he was driving (maybe a ford Crown Victoria or something similar - with such a boring car who pays attention to it? LOL). But it was just a car, not a truck or anything sitting up high and I had left plenty of extra space between us so he had no reason to not see me except for lack of paying attention. i'll admit, i'm sure he was distracted considering I found out he was on his way to his brothers funeral.

Nice white C3 you have whenever I see a white C3 it reminds me of years ago when I was young (about 13 or 14) and my dad got a brand new '79 in white. One of the first times he took it out I went on a drive with him so he could show it off to my uncle (his brother). He pulled up in front of the house behind another car, misjudged the front and drove the nose of the 'vette right under the other car. Luckily not much damage, just a minor scratch on the paint in the very front but boy was he upset and embarrasssed. When we got back home I remember him taking a tape measure and measuring the front of the nose where it slants down and he always remembered after that that he had a full 3 feet of blind spot in the front he couldn't see and he had to allow for. I grew up on a farm so at times I was allowed to hop in the car and drive it around the farm and I was always careful about that blind spot when I would pull it back into the garage.

 

[sherry_ridgeway]

hi barry
Please dont let little dings and scrapes deter you, Im sure its all in getting comfortable with owning a vette, and learning the tricks of driving one. Me personally was scared to death to even take mine to a car wash for the first few months of ownership, but as time went on i thought to myself "heck its a car =Drive it" "enjoy it" "kick ass in it" ..After the inital "break in period" and the shock has worn off" you'll find that owning a corvette is just like any other car
except fancier and faster than most, and can we say "STYLE". .Little bumps along the way are to be expected and dealt with as in any car , I know it hurts your feelings to have a classic damaged in any way "im sure it would mine too"
but hang in there and get the nessassary repairs done and enjoy a true classic
sportscar, As rule of thumb i stay at least 3 car lenghts away from people at stop lights, "who cares what the people behind ya think" If they were in that big of a hurry they would take the metro link or a bus or a taxi..basically what im saying is "chin up" and get it fixed and enjoy driving it
Sherry

 

[BarryK]

Sherry

thanks, good words of advise. I have been leaving more room between me and other people than normal but you remind me that the 'Vette sits even lower than normal so allowing even more room than what i've been doing is a great idea.
And I DON'T care what other's thing........h**l, they are probably jealous and wished they had a 'Vette also! :L
After this though i DO want to avoid the "little scrapes and dings". I know it won't be possible to do that forever but forgive me for wanting to try

 

[c5vetter]

Barry and All,

Check out my club's (FREESTATE CORVETTE CLUB) website at the following:

http://www.freestatecorvette.com/

We do Ocean City weekend every year and have for a number of years. Many CAC members have supported the weekend and the Spina Bifada kids - which is what the weekend is for - raising money for this charity, and several others.

 

[BarryK]

c5vetter

thanks for the info, the event sounds like fun. My wife is already excited about it.

 

[Black Thunder]

Stories like yours help me to keep focused. My Vette is a one off custom done 25 yrs ago. If it gets hit like yours I'm screwed as the nose is a Mako shark type with no hopes of replacing.

Its been 3 yrs now and knock on wood no bad luck. I hope I can keep cool and take care of business if an accident ever happens. Oh and not go to jail for assualt.

Hope it doesn't get tied up to long for repairs. Know you want to enjoy driving it.

John

 

[BarryK]

John

beautiful car!
yes, if anything happens i hope you have a great 'glass guy!
I'm taking BABY into the shop this morning and we will get her fixed up. I hope it won't take too long either. We have had a lot of rain lately and they are calling for more most of next week so at least i'm not missing out on the driving too much while she will be in the shop. I hope she won't be there too many weeks though, i'll miss her while she is gone

 

[Black Thunder]

TY Barry
Thunder is lotsa fun and ================== Fast!!!!
But a nightmare to ever recreate

fingers crossed while drivin
John

 

[JohnZ]

TY Barry
Thunder is lotsa fun and ================== Fast!!!!
But a nightmare to ever recreate

fingers crossed while drivin
John

Yeah, and it does GREAT burnouts, especially at HBB3! How ya doin', JT?

 

[BarryK]

well, here is an update for everyone who has given me all your wonderful and kind support.
I dropped off the car at my shop this morning. About a 2 hour drive to get there but that's ok, it was a beautiful day for a drive and BABY was running great. Not sure how long she will be there so it was nice to have this last drive until i see her again.
When I got there the shop told me the insurance people have already been in contact with them and will be there on Mon to look at BABY.
The shop is going to make sure the insureance company isn't going to try to cut corners. none of the "cheap" business of them saying "well, you can straighten out this support bracket instead of us buying a new one". My shop is going to make sure this repair is done CORRECTLY. Since they are the ones who sold me the car (just 4 weeks ago today) they know precisely the condition that car was in and the way it needs to be returned to me. thank god for these guys! I can't say enough good things about them. Keith, the shop owner, told me that when he heard about my phone call into them the other morning explaining what happened he got a lump in his chest because he knew how nice the car had been , plus how much getting BABY meant to me.
Anyway, I should hear from Keith by the end of Monday to know the extent of the damage and what the insurance guy said. I'll keep everyone posted

BTW, got to see the progress on c5vetters LADY and the meet Rick. Lady is looking awesome and it was great to meet someone from here. Rick, I can't wait to see LADY's progress again when I go back to get BABY when she is done. In the meantime, LADY and BABY are keeping each other company.