Earthquake and an unrelated visit to the body shop

[Mudgen]

I was sitting in a "war room" in a hardened data center near Hopewell, VA, about 60 miles from the epicenter, when the earthquake hit. The place shook pretty good for 20 seconds or so. It's built on shock absorbers, don't know if that increased or decreased the feel of the vibration.

G's in the body shop to repair a hood ding. What I think was a bolt hit the front of the hood and then the windshield. Had the windshield replaced, twice, under my $0 deductible glass coverage. First aftermarket windshield had ripples across the top, never seen anything like it, surprised the shop didn't reject it themselves (I used the glass shop that my Infiniti dealer uses). The body work is being done at Roy's Body Shop in Glen Allen. They put a better-than-factory paint job on my 1985 RX7 GSL-SE about 18 years ago after a towing company beat it all to hell, so I have high hopes. Tried touching it up, but I couldn't live with it screaming at me every time I walked up to a 6 month old car. With any luck, I'll have better paint than Infiniti's across the front, maybe more resistant to dings.

[370Z/28]

Gosh Mudge, I sure hope they do a good job. It is really tough being a car enthusiest! I was sick at the crappy job that body shop did on my ding on my G. Was never happy with the whole rear 1/4 after they got through with it. Darn thing was where a dent-docter couldn't reach it.

Keep your dang ole earthquakes to yourself!!!

[Mudgen]

Thanks, Becki. I didn't realize you'd had that problem, I'm a relative newcomer.

In addition to my RX7, these guys did my Legacy GT last year after a deer hit. I couldn't tell it had been repaired, and it involved fender, bumper, and both a headlight and a foglight, all opportunities for misaligning something. Old Roy passed in February, but his son and daughter still run the place. I remember that when I picked up the RX7 all those years ago, the guy washing it introduced himself as Roy. Said that if he washed every car, he knew whether it was done right. Instant customer for life.

The earthquake was nothing to get all shook up about. The epicenter was way the heck out in the country, next to the nuclear power plants.

[370Z/28]

Oh that is a great place to build a nuke!

Google the New Madrid fault. We are on a pretty wicked one. Really scary when we are 1/2 between the 2 yesterday. The earthquake here in 1812 made the Mississippi River flow backward and formed Reelfoot lake. It is quite a feet to make that river flow backward!

They bondo'd the ding. It was a deep one and right on the wheelwell lip. I think I know who did it up here. That is why I park in the back now. There were runs in the paint and overspray all over the car. After about a month I got hidious swirl marks. I used a scratch remover twice, but they would always seem to come back. I don't know how they could have ruined a whole 1/4 panel just trying to fix one little ding. The Dent Dr couldn't reach it because the gas filler pipe runs right behind it. If y'all get a door ding....DON'T GET IT THERE!! I know you would say "why didn't you take it back". At that point I didn't want them touching my car again. I had to clay bar the whole thing to get the over spray off. It was on the glass and mirrors and everything.

[kmckis1029]

i have a couple scratches on my black car... I havent got them fixed yet with the fear of my car looking worst... i might let my cousin do it. But over spray every where... its not hard to tape up a car.

[370Z/28]

2 suggestions ~ have you tried a good scratch remover? They really do work wonders unless the scratch is all the way through to the primer or metal.

Another thing. Those cheap plastic paint drop cloths make great things to cover your car with if you want to so some painting and don't want overspray. I painted all that black plastic on my Camaro between the hood and windshield. I just covered the car with those drop cloths, then just taped right around what I was painting. I literally wrapped the hood in one like it was a present!

[Mudgen]

So now I'm getting paranoid. Earthquake on Tuesday, hurricane bearing down on us, and yesterday afternoon on the way home from the body shop I took the back route home. Fun twisties on Greenwood Road, just running 50 in a 45 zone. Last twist coming downhill toward the one lane bridge, I round the corner and there's a doe standing in the middle of the road. Two thirty in the afternoon, just standing there. I slam on the brakes, thinking about the $1800 hit I took on the Subie when I traded for the G--from hitting a deer almost exactly a year ago on the same route. I'm stopped, the doe is just looking at me. I toot the horn, she heads for the woods, I head for home. No longer enjoying it, expecting Bambi to leap into my path at every twist.

I drove the Rustoleum Blue '93 F150 today. Love that ugly old truck. When you signal a lane change on the interstate, BMWs start swerving toward the guardrails to make room.