Son of a... rear ended myself

[HwyCruiser]

Pulled a real bonehead move last night. I was backing the Marauder out of the garage last night and smacked right into my wife's Escape. Too dark outside, too bright inside, tinted windows, not looking at what the hell I was doing... one of those "ah *****" moments. :(

Paint on the top of the rear fascia split in several places and a couple of nice spider webs 3 inches on either side of the MARAUDER text. The wife's Escape took it like a trooper (like I could care). I'm so pissed with myself.

I took it to a collision repair place this afternoon and was quoted $650 for R&R and repaint. Took it to the dealer's body shop and was quoted $500. Both estimators said it was only paint damage, the plastic seemed ok. So after talking cars with the body shop manager for awhile and wound up cutting a side job. Knocked a $100 bucks off the estimate and promised me a better job that if I ran it though the front door.

So joy oh joy, I'm pulling off the SS inserts out and removed the fascia tonight and deliver it via truck bed tomorrow. Good thing I had practice on TMF's car, know that I know where all the body bolts are. I better get to work on it. Someone give me a good swift kick in the a$$. I deserve it.

[TooManyFords]

Good thing I had practice on TMF's car, know that I know where all the body bolts are. I better get to work on it. Someone give me a good swift kick in the a$$. I deserve it.

See?? I told you you'd learn something by helping me out!!

Does Paypal deliver swift kicks? UPS? FedExBoot?

:P

[KillJoy]

Ahhh....don't be so hard on yourself. Almost everyone has made bonehead moves like this at least once in their life. Consider it a learning experience, because you will now ALWAYS look befor you backup ;)

KillJoy

[O's Fan Rich]

Yeah... I got a fresh painted ready to go new fascia to go on my butt end too.... you don't own the patent on boning yourself.

Hey, now you can put your feet on it to tie your shoes without any worries.... ahhhhhhh freedom!

[SergntMac]

How about dropping a drag radial on the topside of the facia while pulling it out of the trunk? Left a 295/35 gouge that I got to stare at every time I looked at the back of car. Some compound did the trick, but my eyes still see that goof every time I look there.

I won't tell you what laying a strip of velcro on the topside of the dash in the summer does to the interior vinyl...Still see that goof too.

Live and learn, eh?

[DefyantExWife]

Yeah... I got a fresh painted ready to go new fascia to go on my butt end too.... you don't own the patent on boning yourself.

Hey, now you can put your feet on it to tie your shoes without any worries.... ahhhhhhh freedom!


boning himself ?? http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v682/snexus/hum_hum.gif

[Bluerauder]

Someone give me a good swift kick in the a$$. I deserve it.
No Backing Without a Ground Guide. :director:

We've all been there and done that !! No we haven't .... I was just trying to make you feel better. How'd I do? ;)

[SergntMac]

boning himself ?? http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v682/snexus/hum_hum.gifFigure of speech, K?

[kj31067]

**** happens

[merc]

Man, I know the feeling. Good thing you can still laugh about the mistake with others. :beer:

[O's Fan Rich]

boning himself ?? http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v682/snexus/hum_hum.gif

Intriguing, isn't it?:P ;)

[BUCKWHEAT]

JD, Ouch. Maybe it broke all the really bad joss.

[Vortech347]

I did the same thing backing my stang out into my friends CRX. It was just after I put a new tranny in. I thought the slam was the tranny falling out... :lol:

[ncmm]

Hang in there. . .it happens to all of us. . .I think.:depress:

I did it once years ago, so after that I started backing into the garage.

Then one day I forgot I parked my new bike in the garage and promptly backed into it!

:lol: yep, it happens. . .

hope to see your ride someday at work

[jabo731]

I dont know Cruiser too much light inside, too dark outside plus "maybe" a beer or three.

[HwyCruiser]

Thanks everyone for the cheering up. This is right up there with the "dog ate the back door," so I'm not too bent out of shape about it other than I pulled a smooth move like that in the first place and it's going to put off buying an wideband a/f gauge I've been looking at for a couple months.

BTW, the fascia is a replacement from a fender-bender a couple years ago. The wife did that one so I got a pass this time around. Ya think I probably need to look into a backup obstacle warning system? :rolleyes:

Oh well, she'll be fixed up good as new (hopefully) in a couple days.

[HwyCruiser]

Does Paypal deliver swift kicks? UPS? FedExBoot?

:P

LOL, save it for when I come up for the key turning ceremony.

[MarauderMarc]

I hated backing up the Marauder...thats why I had a back-up camera installed. Worth every dime.

[martyo]

I regret to inform you that your wife has hired me to sue you. Keep an eye out for the process server. :D

All kidding aside, I am always afraid I will do the same thing as I am navigating in the driveway. Sorry to hear about this.

[ckadiddle]

Yikes. I have done idiot driveway maneuvers before, but I ain't tellin you guys about them. :)

[TooManyFords]

Ya think I probably need to look into a backup obstacle warning system? :rolleyes:

This brings up a possible Group Buy. I didn't search yet, but have we discussed retrofitting some sort of backup system like the Lincolns have in our cars? Does it beep or something when you get too close? And, can it be "modded" into our rear bumpers?

I know I too have a hard time judging when to stop and usually end up 4 feet and have to get back in and back up some more. Thought it was just getting old and these eyes not working as well as they used to.

See you at the key turning ceremony!

john

[jasonblair]

Similar story happened to me. When I was in highschool, I parked in the garage. My younger sister parked her Firebird behind my car in the driveway. One night she told me she was going to the movies and left. I never thought about her taking my mom's car, so I back out of the garage without looking. Her Firebird was low, it was night, and our driveway was on a decline. WHAP! $400 to mine and $400 to hers. Young rookie mistake years ago.

[marauder307]

This brings up a possible Group Buy. I didn't search yet, but have we discussed retrofitting some sort of backup system like the Lincolns have in our cars? Does it beep or something when you get too close? And, can it be "modded" into our rear bumpers?

I know I too have a hard time judging when to stop...

My wife's Freestyle has the factory backup alert---4 small sensors implanted in the rear bumper cover. After driving with that I've gotten pretty much spoiled...if anything, they're oversensitive. They start beeping at you when you start getting close to the curb, even though with the Freestyle's ground clearance, you wouldn't actually damage anything if you did bump.

It probably could be modded on with minimal problems...biggest issue I'd see is running the wiring harness for it and placement of the beeper signal inside the car.

[Loco1234]

I have a back-up ystem on my Navigator. It works well.
I had damsged the bumper one time and the replacement I got in off of ebay came in paint black etc. but it was supposed to have the holes to put in the sensors... IT DIDN'T.... So... I had to cut them myself....Wasn't hard...

...but then again I had the other precut bumper as a templete....

but you can get a bac up system or if you have a radio w/ tv screen/dvd player you can run an input with a camera into most new ones...

The Eclipse units have it as an optional part in their catalog...
http://www.eclipse-web.com/rear/index.html

[HwyCruiser]

Just to give John a flashback:

Pic (http://www.mercurymarauder.net/showcase/files/1/5/9/4/rearbump1.JPG)

From the looks of the rust on the bumper welds I have another project to do while everything is exposed.

Oh, and the SS inserts came off trashed. I tried using fishing line to get behind them as much as I could but I wound up bending almost all of the letters pulling them off. I had to use a little tech screwdriver to pry some off them up with a towel guarding the paint.

Removing the bumper cover was about a 30 minute job. I'll need to get new trim clips for inside the wheel well and bottom lip of the fascia since I snipped the old ones off from behind instead of gouging the paint with a clip removal tool. The bumper has been dropped off, it's going to be worked on over the weekend and I should have it back Monday.

[Bluerauder]

I didn't search yet, but have we discussed retrofitting some sort of backup system like the Lincolns have in our cars? Does it beep or something when you get too close? And, can it be "modded" into our rear bumpers?
john
I have the factory reverse sensing system in the new '06 Freestyle. It sounds a beeping tone initially at about 6 feet from an obstruction. The tone gets faster as you get closer to the object. Then at about 1 foot, the tone goes to a solid tone. We didn't necessarily need it ... but it was on the one we liked.

Don't know if it is adaptable to the Marauder straight up. Seems to me that it was something like a $300 option.

[HwyCruiser]

John, I'm going to look into a backup system application for the Marauder. Two strikes is enough for me. Hopefully it won't require cutting into the bumper cover though.



I regret to inform you that your wife has hired me to sue you. Keep an eye out for the process server. :D

Marty, the Escape is in my name, and the wife's TOD. If anything I should sue myself but I pretty sure I'd loose since there wasn't any witnesses (thankfully). :o

[Bluerauder]

If anything I should sue myself but I pretty sure I'd loose since there wasn't any witnesses (thankfully). :o

But there is this incriminating confession ... :laugh: :laugh: :laugh:


Pulled a real bonehead move last night. I was backing the Marauder out of the garage last night and smacked right into my wife's Escape. Too dark outside, too bright inside, tinted windows, not looking at what the hell I was doing... one of those "ah *****" moments.

[Mad4Macs]

Ahhh....don't be so hard on yourself. Almost everyone has made bonehead moves like this at least once in their life. Consider it a learning experience, because you will now ALWAYS look befor you backup ;)

KillJoy
Yeah, like the time I side-swiped my '68 Cougar with my '87 TurboCoupe. In my driveway. In broad daylight. Ouch!

[snowbird]

JD,

Sorry to hear your badluck. I had one too this winter with an Escape. We could start a "hate Escape" subgroup ? !

[HwyCruiser]

JD,

Sorry to hear your badluck. I had one too this winter with an Escape. We could start a "hate Escape" subgroup ? !

I don't blame the Escape, was just sitting minding it's own business. It's a 2001 with the unpainted grey bumpers / trim that can take a pretty good beating. The Marauder, on the other hand, got mugged pretty good. My paint guy called me this morning and the bumper cover is ready to go. I'm going to meet him in a few hours to pick it up and put it back on the car. I did take the opportunity to clean up the rusty bumper:

Pic (http://www.mercurymarauder.net/showcase/files/1/5/9/4/rearbump2.JPG)

I also have a rear obstacle sensing system on the way that I'll be installing next weekend. The sensors mount out of sight behind the bumper cover. See this thread:

http://www.mercurymarauder.net/forums/showthread.php?t=29863