April wrecked The Clam

Sorry a bout the crash. You'll get itfixed up easy enough !! Then ya can relax and

 

Extremely heart breaking.

I'm guessing April is your wife? She must be just sick about the whole think. Glad no one was physically hurt.

Good luck with the repairs.

 

Again to echo what everyone else said. It's good no one was hurt. The car looks like it can be fixed if parts are found.

 

I'm sorry Brandon, machines can be repaired though.

 

Oh no! Hate to see and hear about this! I am glad no one was hurt though! It is painful to see, knowing all of the work you have put into it.

You will have her back in shape in no time, but still it gives one a sick feeling to see it. It makes me sick to see it and it is not even my car. Good thing it is looks like it was a high hit and the frame should be fine.

Again, the main thing is no one was hurt.

 

EX-wife!
Thank God and Greyhound she's gone!

 

Sorry to hear about that. Looking through your restoration thread was one of the first things I did when I joined. My wife was beside herself when she rear ended a truck with her Volvo V70. You'd be surprised how much of a hit like that is cosmetic, especially on an old Clamshell like that. Here's my wife's car. It was all cosmetic except for some slight damage to the outboard bumper mounts.

 

Interesting that Mr. Vetteman hasn't returned to this thread since he started it six days ago. I wonder what's going on back home.

 

The problem is that, for a 44 year old car, it's the cosmetic parts that are hard to get. If he needed new, say, front end parts, he could get most of those all day long at the local auto parts store or online. But no one makes fenders, hoods, bumpers, or anything like that for this car. Anything that can't be repaired, and it looks like at least the front fender, right-side grille, and hood fall into this category, will have to replaced with parts from a donor car. If he's serious about fixing it, he might want to look into buying a full-size '71 Pontiac, even if it's not a wagon, as a parts car. It looks like he needs only front-end parts, and all full-size '71 Pontiacs, wagon, sedan, coupe, or convertible, are identical from the firewall forward.


This whole episode points up an interesting conundrum which struck me from the first time I saw this thread. We've all followed Mr. Vetteman's lengthy build thread, and he's done quite a good job. We've all taken pleasure in seeing him turn a solid-but-needed-work old wagon into a nice family car.

But sh!t happens. Using an old car, and by that I mean one that's 25 or 30 years old or more, as a daily driver runs the risk of having an event happen like what happened to vetteman's car. We don't worry much about our late-model daily drivers getting damaged in an accident for whatever reason because, as emotionally painful as it might be, we know we can take it to any body shop, whatever parts needed will be readily available, and we'll be on our way in a week or so. Any time-consuming aspects of the process usually have more to do with settling with the insurance company than with actually getting the car fixed.

Not so with an old car. Damage like this car has suffered can sideline it for weeks, months, or more, depending on what it needs and how much effort it will take to find those parts. If this is your daily driver, you're without transportation.

As much as one hates to say it, and as romantic as it is to be driving the family around in a 40+ year old station wagon, perhaps it would be wiser to restore something a little more recent like a late '90s Taurus wagon, or something like that, for daily use. Leave the old cars for the car shows, cruise-ins, and trips with the family to the ice-cream stand.

 

I can't remember just how many times I nearly was wiped out by dunderheads and selfish @$$holes while I was driving my Ranchero. One good example was a moron who I think deliberately ran a red light, because he was looking at me when he zipped by. He came within 3 feet of clipping my right front fender with his rice rocket.

 

Another is 59wagon man and his wagon on a famous cruise. He no more than got started and his wagon was damaged in a motel parking lot. After months in the shop I don't think it's back on the road yet.
These are chances we have to take to enjoy our rides as they were intended. And that's to drive them.
I'm not much for trailer queens and show cars. I've never had one and if I bought a mint car I'd still drive the hell out of it. That's why they have tires.
All we can do is be a careful and alert as possible and hope. Or each of us order a selfie controled modern piece of crap and leave the driving to computers.

PS Leave the old cars for the car shows, cruise-ins, and trips with the family to the ice-cream stand.
And who says you won't get creamed while doing this?

 

I'm pulling my 66 Chevelle out of the garage and picking up my son-in-law in the morning, going for a cruise and breakfast. Next Friday, Bonnie and I are heading to Palm Desert to see her sister and B-I-L, and we're taking the Chevelle, because there's a car show there on Saturday.........Gotta Drive 'em!

 

I couldn't agree more. Sounds like a great trip.

But this Chevelle is NOT your daily driver, right? It gets in an accident and you can't drive it for a while, you're not without transportation, right?


That's the difference.

 

No one. You're missing the point, which is, as I said above, the car is now NOT your daily driver. It gets "creamed" on your way to the ice cream stand, and, yes, you'll be sad. But you won't be without transportation.


Accident statistics are based on time of exposure. You drive a car as a daily driver, put 10,000 or 12,000 miles a year on it, and it's on the road and exposed to hazards A LOT more than if it's a collector car driven a few hundred or maybe a thousand miles a year. The risk of accident is far less for the car driven less often.

 

Nope, our daily is my wife's '01 Tahoe. If something were to happen to the Chevelle, I could drive my 71 C30 Longhorn pickup (which I drive every weekend) or I could finish the rear wiring harness in my 56 210 2 door sedan and drive it, or my 86 Monte Carlo SS...........but, I promised my son-in-law we'd get started on the 67 Malibu wagon when I get back from Cali. He wants to drive to the Goodguys show in November in Scottsdale.
Next month we'll head to Goodguys Scottsdale for the Spring show, then a month later, Bonnie and I will take the Chevelle to Goodguys, DelMar, CA.
Gotta drive 'em!