Isn't it ironic...or 'A BBWF Casualty'...

[wedg1e]

I'm slightly with myself.

I went to the 'Fest, loitered in the pub for a couple of jars then headed back up the Fosse Way to Leicester.
It was halfpast midnight, drizzling, foggy in patches, honking up a road I didn't know with typical Wedge lighting.
By the time I got back to Coventry I'd had enough so I picked up the A46 and then the M69 and got back to me Julie's without incident.

So this morning I went round to fill the car up and the pump had a sign on it saying 'vans and trucks only'.
For some bizarre reason my brain told me I was at the first pump rather than the last, so I checked the mirrors, selected reverse and some right-hand lock and smacked into the petrol pump behind me, smashing the rear light, bumper and corner of the wing.

Why f***ing NOT. The imperfect end to what should have been a perfect weekend.






Still, on the bright side, I didn't hit anyone else's car in the process...


Oh... anyone got a spare Fuego tail lamp...? (O/S on a Wedge)

>> Edited by wedg1e on Sunday 31st July 19:04

[rich 36]

never mind fotango,

http://tinypic.com/

[Selmer]

That's a real pain Ian, sorry that's happened.
Ironic when you think that travelling on the Fosse Way in those conditions would throw up many more hazards than a stationary petrol pump.
having said that, some guy told me to watch where I was driving today after he walked straight out of the petrol station kiosk in front of my slowly (I mean s- l - o - w) moving car.
Is there a prick in 'baggy-short-cum-trousers-plus-fours' smiley?
Hope you get it sorted quickly.

[grahamw48]

Probably the same sort of who drive 2 feet behind you on the motorway.

[combine]

You should have stayed a the hotel, we had a great time , nice to have met you by the way , we are only just south of Leics.

[tallbloke]

Doh!

Sorry to see this Ian. Always more work to do on these wedges isn't there? Hope it mends easily. I'll ask Scott which side lens he's got.

[Hormone]

wedg1e said:

I'm slightly with myself. I went to the 'Fest, loitered in the pub for a couple of jars then headed back up the Fosse Way to Leicester. It was halfpast midnight, drizzling, foggy in patches, honking up a road I didn't know with typical Wedge lighting. By the time I got back to Coventry I'd had enough so I picked up the A46 and then the M69 and got back to me Julie's without incident. So this morning I went round to fill the car up and the pump had a sign on it saying 'vans and trucks only'. For some bizarre reason my brain told me I was at the first pump rather than the last, so I checked the mirrors, selected reverse and some right-hand lock and smacked into the petrol pump behind me, smashing the rear light, bumper and corner of the wing. Why f***ing NOT. The imperfect end to what should have been a perfect weekend. Still, on the bright side, I didn't hit anyone else's car in the process... Oh... anyone got a spare Fuego tail lamp...? (O/S on a Wedge) >> Edited by wedg1e on Sunday 31st July 19:04

Sorry to hear your news Ian. I think it was on offside thatTower View were selling at BBWF.
Hope you get it sorted.

[grahamw48]

Ian, that's a real bummer.
No doubt I'll be popping round to commiserate in a day or two.

At least there's work to look forward to tomorrow.

[wedg1e]

combine said:

You should have stayed a the hotel, we had a great time , nice to have met you by the way , we are only just south of Leics.

Maybe next year!

It was quite hard to tear myself away from the pub and head off into the night...

Glad you enjoyed it; that's the sort of people these cars attract.

>> Edited by wedg1e on Sunday 31st July 23:02

[wedg1e]

grahamw48 said:

At least there's work to look forward to tomorrow.

I think that covers it...

[wedg1e]

tallbloke said:

Doh! Sorry to see this Ian. Always more work to do on these wedges isn't there? Hope it mends easily. I'll ask Scott which side lens he's got.

Strange that we were discussing exactly that, isn't it...

I've pulled the car to bits just to see how bad things are, and the worst bit is of course the crushed corner of the wing. The GRP has eggshelled to the point you could probably push your finger through if you tried hard enough (maybe a bit thin from the mould?). There are a few stress cracks in the paint on the wing forward of the lamp, but nothing as bad as the car already has elsewhere... not that that makes it OK, of course.

The bumper seems to have been repaired on the same corner already; the repair patch has parted company from the bumper, proving it wasn't that sound, I guess.
The bumper was pushed forward and this ripped some self-tappers out that secure it to the boot floor/ inside of wing, easy enough to fix. To support my previous repair theory, there are holes for 8 screws in this wing, but only two on the other side of the car.


The lamp lens is broken into about five pieces; perhaps 50% of the lens is still attached to the lamp housing and that is sound and secure on the car. The fractured pieces will go back together, I think, leaving two small holes that amount to about 0.5 sq. in. that I can patch, until I get a new unit...

There's a slight scrape on the end of the bottom wing; it doesn't appear to have moved relative to the boot floor, but the exhaust seems to be at a different angle although I've never looked at it with the bumper off before. The polished tailpipe isn't scraped, so I don't think the pipe has moved.

I thought I'd take the wing off and sandblast/paint the brackets that hold it to the car, but although I can get the wing off the car, I can't get the brackets off the wing! I think the captive fixings have rusted solid and I don't really want to have to repair the wing, so it'll be a session with the die grinder instead, I think.

While I'm at it I've taken the bootlid strut braces off (the bits of bent tin that tie the gas rams to the wheelarch!) and blasted them; they've been on the list for years...

The other bits I want to blast and paint are the steel sections that hold the bumper to the car; they're glassed-in to the bumper and have gone rusty (of course) causing a prominent bulge in the paint when viewed from the rear, almost as if there were lamp unit recesses that have been badly filled. Some stress cracks have now appeared around the right-hand mounting, so now is a good time to repair the whole thing properly...

Wonder if it'd be worth taking a mould off the finished bumper...

Julie's already suggested a full respray, and I do like that Ash Green...

I must remember to do some work on the Esprit, too...

[boltontvr]

Blimey, that's a bugger. I think I must have tempted fate when firstly I said you were a bit harsh with your profile description, and then I asked that bloke from tvrcarparts about back bumpers for 390s. I'm going over to France in a couple of weeks, I'll keep an eye out for any dumped Fuegos by the side of the road .

wedg1e said:

Julie's already suggested a full respray, and I do like that Ash Green...

Is that after being parked between two examples on Saturday ?

[rev-erend]

After seeing the smashed up car at the Ettington junction of the Fosse way on Sunday - I hope everyone got home safely..

I was just glad there were no incidents with TVR's on the day

[wedg1e]

rev-erend said:

After seeing the smashed up car at the Ettington junction of the Fosse way on Sunday - I hope everyone got home safely.. I was just glad there were no incidents with TVR's on the day

Wedge Girl and I saw one on Saturday, a short way south of that junction: looked as though someone had pulled out of a farm entrance into the path of a dangerous speeding maniac

[rev-erend]

Yes - I saw that one too .. seem's the Fosse way has plenty of casualities

Hope Dickie & Julie managed to find their way hope - we followed them for miles thru the cotswolds to Oxford and decided like them to use the last part of the M40 - but I guess they must have had a passenger seat sat nav malfunction as the took the Birmingham direction

Hope you made it home..

[stever]

rev-erend said:

Yes - I saw that one too .. seem's the Fosse way has plenty of casualities Hope Dickie & Julie managed to find their way hope - we followed them for miles thru the cotswolds to Oxford and decided like them to use the last part of the M40 - but I guess they must have had a passenger seat sat nav malfunction as the took the Birmingham direction Hope you made it home..

Think I spotted Richard coming up the hill out of High WycombeC12.30????

[tallbloke]

wedg1e said:

tallbloke said: I'll ask Scott which side lens he's got. Strange that we were discussing exactly that, isn't it... The lamp lens is broken into about five pieces; perhaps 50% of the lens is still attached to the lamp housing and that is sound and secure on the car. The fractured pieces will go back together, I think, leaving two small holes that amount to about 0.5 sq. in. that I can patch, until I get a new unit...

He's got a nearside (onna wedge) lens. Sorry Ian.

[wedg1e]

tallbloke said:

wedg1e said: tallbloke said: I'll ask Scott which side lens he's got. Strange that we were discussing exactly that, isn't it... The lamp lens is broken into about five pieces; perhaps 50% of the lens is still attached to the lamp housing and that is sound and secure on the car. The fractured pieces will go back together, I think, leaving two small holes that amount to about 0.5 sq. in. that I can patch, until I get a new unit... He's got a nearside (onna wedge) lens. Sorry Ian.

No worries, Roger, cheers! Have more or less reassembled the broken one using some liquid adhesive I found at work. One day there'll be one on Ebay that everyone else misses...