[Shotimes] Well...it had to happen sooner or later.....

[George Fourchy]

Considering how long it has been on the road, Lowrider has been exposed to potential
damage from other drivers a lot more than most other cars, and up until today it was
doing pretty well.  It was last hit (in the rear, a BIG hit) when it was just over a
year old, and so there was plenty of room in its value to make sure it got fixed
right.  

Today, its luck ran out.  Overall, things could have been a LOT worse, but the
bottom line is that there is one less SHO in front of the house tonight.  Amazingly
enough, there is one less Lexus RX300 in front of the house, too.  Around 11 am this
morning, Eva was following me over to the new house to get some measurements, and
then I was going to leave from there to come to work.  We had to stop for a
particularly busy stoplight about halfway over, and I glanced into the mirror out of
habit just to see if she was having a hard time with traffic (relatively new
driver).  She was coming at me, at about 25 mph or so, and just kept coming, and
coming, and coming.  I said to myself....."oh, oh.....this is not going to be
nice...why aren't you stopping?"  She hit the right center of the taillight panel,
crushing the right taillight and right fender, and popped the bumper cover down so
that the ends are flipped up towards the rear window.  The right side of the cover
binds slightly against the right rear wheel, but it is driveable.....to the body
shop only, where it is now.

The RX took a pretty good hit, too, although the airbags didn't inflate.  It will
need a hood, grille, left headlight, left fender, bumper cover, and some of the
supporting brackets and whatever that are behind the headlights.  It also probably
has a broken overflow bottle.  The electric fan is hitting something when it
runs....makes a buzzing sound.

The insurance company said that there was a limit of about $2300 for fixing the
Lowrider before it hits the 'total' point.  They offered to buy it and sell it to
me, if it comes to that, but I don't want a salvage title on it.  So what I have
decided to do is to try to get this shop, recommended by USAA, to fix it, and I will
pay whatever extra is required past what USAA will pay for repairs.  If that won't
work, I have a couple of other places I can take it.  However, if the shop is
recommended by USAA (whom I trust regarding not ripping me off regarding repairs)
I'd be just as happy to have them fix it.  Eva feels so bad about the whole thing
that I don't want to take advantage of her, but she said she would repaint it
(completely) for me later, so that repainting can stay off the repair bill.  The
paint is white pearl (not stock), and would be very hard to match....it is a
homemade recipe.

Many exterior SHO parts are obsolete, but I have two or three rear bumpers laying
around, plus there are two parts cars available to me; both have good bodies.  So it
can be fixed...it's just a question of how much hassle it will be to do it.   There
is also a PickNPull close by that has lots of Tauri....I can get the fender and tail
end there, and not have to cut up my parts cars.

Pictures will be on the website in a couple of days.

Could have been worse....could have been on the freeway, going a lot faster,
resulting in much more damage.....could have been another person involved, who might
claim injuries.....we didn't need a police report, so her license is safe.....etc.

Long live the Lowrider......it'll rise again.

George