lushdrunk

This week I had to do some body repairs on a white 99 C5/A4 car. The owner lost control of it and it hit a guide wire. It cracked the front bumper, turn signal lens and fog light housing, And it cracked the lip of the right front wheel and knocked the car way out of alignment.

On Monday I went to a local corvette junk yard and picked up the parts needed, including a new wheel with believe it or not the same Dunlop tire that the rest of the car has. (talk about luck).

Well I got all the repairs finished yesterday, and only had to get the car aligned and cleaned up before calling the owner. On Tuesday I made an appointment with my alignment guys to have the C5 aligned today at 1pm.
On the way their it started to rain and thunderstorm. Because of the poor alignment (& it not my car), I was driving at approx 35-40mph on a somewhat curvy, two lane highway that has a 60 mph speed limit.
I went in to a down hill, right hand curve when right in the middle of the curve some idiot had completely covered the right hand lane in grass clippings. It was to the point where it completely covered the yellow lines and they where wet from the rain.
Like an idiot, I went for the clutch (my 94 is a 6spd) the moment I seen the grass clippings to let the car roll on through them like you would do on ice. But before I could do anything else the car went sideways.
Amazingly, The C5 slid off the road, completely sideways and just kinda bounced into a large, paved church parking lot where it came to a nice smooth stop without any damage, except for the damage my underwear and pride

After a few cigarette's to claim my nerves, I got back in the car and made it to the alignment shop. Wile at the alignment shop, I told the mechanic what had happened and wile he was doing the alignment he called for me to come look at something that explained why the car hit the guide wire and why I lost it as well. The left side bolts that hold the rear axle to the body where missing. He put a bar under the left rear jacking plate and let the alignment lift down to lift up on the body, and the rear separated from the chassis by about 3"
when you let the body down, the bolt holes aligned back up like it should be and you could not see anything wrong at all.

The alignment shop fixed the rear bolts and gave it a 4 wheel alignment. On the way back I called the owner of the car and had him meet me at my shop. I told him about what happed and he told me that he had lost control of the car four other times before hitting the guide wire.
He called me later on tonight and bragged about my work and how much better the car feels now. He has owned the car for 2 years and "thought that as just how corvette where".


moral of this story? well their is not one..... (Except maybe, don't blow your grass in the road! )

I just thought I would share my eventful day! And remind everyone to have your cars checked out by your mechanic's and fast lube guys often. This could have hurt someone.

Alfs86

Hmm... slid into a church parking lot? Maybe God was trying to tell you something Glad your ok!

eschoendorff

Holy S**t! You and the customer are two very lucky guys...

DA1984VETTE

Luck or divine intervention...you decide...The main thing is your OK.

Wiot

Fun story. Thanks for sharing. Sounds like an was looking out for you.

dogfish246

Wow! Glad you slid and didnt hit anything! Could have been much worse! At least its all better now!

lushdrunk

Yeah, Luckily this is the Bible belt. we got a large church every mile on every road. lol
This is my 2nd church related vette issue this year. The first was during the winter. I stopped at a church and did a couple of donuts in a snowy parking lot after spending 2 hours fighting people for chips and drinks. The donut's caused the 2-liter to come out of the bag and bust open the bag of chips. Then the 2-liter rolled over the chips over and over. I'm still cleaning little bits of BBQ chips from my car.


It was so smooth how everything happened. Once I felt the car go sideways it was over and I was setting in a parking lot looking at the road.
hat amazes me the most is how no one ever noticed it. Drivers and mechanic's. The owner claimed to of had the rear brakes replaced a few weeks before he wreaked it. The oil change sticker was dated on June 29th. And I even put it on a frame machine before I started working on it to pull out the lower control arm mounts and check for frame damage. They never mentioned anything and that is what they should be looking for. I believe I'm going to look for another shop to do my frame machine work until I can afford one myself. Because once the alignment shop showed it to me it was visible and should of been noticed.

Then again, I drove it and didn't realize anything was wrong. It felt loose, But I thought it was the front end alignment where it was just repaired. Never guessed 1/2 the rear end was UN-bolted.

r15

You probably saved this mans life too. After losing control 4 times, it took wrecking the apperance of his car to get the real problem fixed. I'm sure he would have drove it until the axle snapped off.

lushdrunk

Yeah guaranteed. When I told him about the issue he almost acted like I was lying to him. Like I was hitting him up for more money or something. It took him driving it before he realized.

Midnight 85

The least he could have done is buy you some new shorts! Seriously, glad you are okay and the car came through too. For some reason a lot of people take no pride in what they do and don't go one inch beyond what ever it is they are working on. Dealing with idiots and people who just don't care is becoming the norm, sad to say. I'm glad your alignment shop was not among these clowns.

pianoguy

Yowzahh, that is some good fortune right there!

78pacer

I thought this thread was headed in the direction of the owner trying to stiff you on payment of the repairs. Glad you didn't wreck his ride and you probably saved his azz. Bolts don't just wiggle their way loose and fall off unless prior removal was done OR you own a Harley. I wonder wtf happened.
Mike

larry93lt1

HEY HEY HEY Harleys don't lose their bolts anymore. They used to though. New ones don't even come with tool kits. When I got my first one back in '67 the first question was "Where's the tool kit?"

Seems like that grass was put there for a purpose, glad the test drive turned out ok, so to speak !

coupeguy2001

Hey Lush, cigarettes? a 2 liter? bbq chips? how come you are on this health kick?

Klondike

Havin' all the bolts in the suspension makes a big difference doesn't it! My Son found one of my bat-wing bolts missing on my car. I thought all Vettes were noisy like that. Replaced the bolt and the bang went away and the car handled a LOT better too!
As for people that blow their grass and trash into the street and then say "it's out of my yard so it's not mine any more", ought to have the grass dumped into their car and screws, nails and glass in THEIR tires and see how they like it!

mdlfcrss

sounds a little fishy to me...but just in case, I'm sticking my head under my car later and checking tightness of all bolts! I don't think I'm as lucky as the OP.

shakedown067

Man, I totally misread the subject and once reading the post thought you had bought the car because you were going to wreck it, or not get paid for the job. Turned out much better. I've owned my car for quite a while now and I still get under the car and check for proper bolt tightness a few times a year. It still amazes me how bad someones car can drive and they don't think anything is wrong. I've seen two issues just this week with people driving on HORRIBLE front alignments and thought, how do they not know???????

j-vette

H P Bushrod

Maybe you should visit that church. Don't wait until 6 strong men carry you in, in a box.

Vette Jockey

It is sad to say