EJC

Last Monday was cruising west on I90 in NY. Doing about 80, I pulled out and started to pass a truck. Suddenly spotted about 5 foot of retread sitting in the road taking up about 3/4 of the lane. Truck on the right no breakdown lane on the left with a gulley. This was not a good situatuation.

I pulled as far to the left as possible. Could not clear the tire, right wheel and bumper took a hit. Car is moving fine, thankfully no blow out.

I pull into the 1st rest area and assess the damage. Not as bad as I thought, and I guess I was lucky I don't have an air dam or ground effects. The damage appeared limited to a nice sized black area on the lower bumper



The driving light had been knocked loose from it's mount





I had a slight buckle to the bumper at the wheel opening and the wheel well lining popped





As I said I got lucky. Today I went in to see what I could do about the problem. I removed the 2 retaining clips from the wheel well lining and was able to pry it out far enough to pop the driving light back into its' mount - which was not broken.



The black on the bumper was just rubber, a bit of Meguiers #9, glaze and NXT Wax and it looked great






As to the slight buckle on the wheel well opening, I tried leaning on it and that seemed to take care of most of it.

Scythe

yeah thats pretty minor damage, good job on the cleanup. could have been muchhhh worse

slee18

iTrader: (1)

Sorry it happened to you! Looks like you did a pretty good job fixing it yourself. The fender isnt really noticable!

I almost had that problem going to SF. Luckily there was no cars on the side of me. Drive in a SUV freaked out when he saw me swerve!

passnu2

iTrader: (33)

Nice job on the fix and cleaning it up! looks like it never happened

EJC

Thanks.

I had a similar encounter back in 1978. I was in a '70 Barracuda when I watched the truck in front of me send a complete retread at me. I wasn't quite as lucky then, I swerved to avoid it, the grass was wet in the early morning I slid into the guard rail and the guard rail flipped the car. I came to rest hanging by my lap belt, no harness back then (2 separate belts and I was only wearing one). BTW, I was doing the speed limit this time.

I walked away with a couple of scratches and the car was totalled.

Little E

iTrader: (2)

Nice clean up! Bummer this happened to you....stupid trucks. Glad there wasn't more damage.

Bichon

Nice job! Looks pretty close to perfect. I didn't realize that the fog lamps had a snap-in mount. The pictures that others have posted (when removing their front bumpers) made it look like it was permanently attached.

EJC

The outboard side has to tabs that fit into holes in the bumper cover. I could not see or feel the inboard side that may have a screw down. But the lamp is solid in place. The tire must have flexed the bumper enough to pop the lamp with minimal damage to the car.

mikez

Hey I had the same situation happen to me when I drove past nyc, except it was a gasoline jug and it hit be smack in the middle of my bumper and deformed the lower lip + bumper

as3.0cl

iTrader: (2)

sry to hear man, i had something happen to my bumper this weekend also....prob be posting about it in a bit...

Brian231

Glad you not only fixed this, but posted a positive story as well. These things happen to the best of us and I am happy you prevailed and fixed this on your own. Road debris is inevitable and very dangerous.

Bichon

Thanks for the info!

EJC

Sounds like you're lucky it was empty and vented. I would think otherwise you had the possibility of explosion, closed can, a bit of gas and fumes = not a good mix.

dwhitlow

I was driving on the I5 in Orange County last week and had the exact same thing happen to me while in my 06 IS350. Exact same damage to the passenger-side fog light and rubber left on the bumper cover in almost the same place. Only difference is my fog light housing actually broke.

I had to open it up as you did, pull the housing out, fix it up with some super glue, and put it all back together. Looks pretty good, but I still have to get the rubber off the paint.

Funny thing is, I had just bought the car the weekend before. Also, my car is the exact same color as yours. Weird.

Anyway, your cleanup looks really good. Nice job. It gives me hope that mine will cleanup as well.

Thanks.
Don

Fizzboy7

Very nice recovery!