i have terrible luck

[KellyJ]

well today driving into the school parking lot i hit a chain that was spread across one of our entrances. i bent up the corner of the hood, the quarter panel curled in above the parking light, cracked that along with the headlight, and put some gouges in my bumper, and it ripped up the bug shield. no insurance for this unfortunately. my dad thinks the best place for parts is a scrapyard- any ideas?

 

[One_96TR4]

It wouldn't hurt to check but around here 4runner are scarce in the scrapyards. I think e-bay might be cheapest for the headlight not sure about the other parts.

 

[lee]

wait what are you replacing?

if its the hood, definitely buy one unpainted and have a body shop paint it

but none of that is gonna be cheap, so id go with insurance unless you have the $$

 

[KellyJ]

the school might pay for it. the allignment of the hood is still a ok, and my dad thought that the body shop could do a fix for the quarter panel. i dont think im going to worry about the bumper. lights are like 130-150 so far as to what ive seen

 

[Elton]

take off the bug guard then post up some pics

 

[rook]

A couple of things to watch for if you shop e-bay. Dont go for the cheapest replacement parts, they will be LKQ (like kind and quality) or cheap aftermarket brands that will not fit correctly. A uesd oem headlamp is better than a new aftermarket one. Take your time, do it right and you can save some coin to have the repairs done that you cant do on your own.

 

[broncosi]

wait so why was there a chain blocking the parking lot to your school? were you there too early or did someone forget to put it down?

If the school is at fault for someone not doing their job id be in there with repair estimates at hand.

 

[gapboi210]

wait so why was there a chain blocking the parking lot to your school? were you there too early or did someone forget to put it down?

If the school is at fault for someone not doing their job id be in there with repair estimates at hand.

I doubt you would get anywhere with that. It is still your fault that you drove into it.

 

[broncosi]

I doubt you would get anywhere with that. It is still your fault that you drove into it.

thats not true, when somebody makes a mistake that affects another person, the person who made the mistake ends up paying.

Say for example it is a blind driveway going in and out, is she suppose to stop everyday when going in and out to check if somebody in the school system wasnt awake to do their job?

I guess what im trying to say is, theres no reason you should have to pay for someone elses stupid mistake.

 

[gapboi210]

I understand that it may be someones elses fault the chain was there but when you are operating your vehicle you are in control. You are the one that was driving. They did not make you drive into that. So if you live in a gated community and the gate is closed you are going to drive into it say pay for my damages cause it should have been opened?

PS not trying to start a fight but I work for an insurance company and we see stuff like this. Hitting anything that doesn't move basically means you were not being cautious or aware. If it is a blind driveway you should be going slow to make sure that there is nothing there.

 

[MillerPKA]

when someone hits an obvious obstruction (ie gates, etc) i doubt there's anything the driver can do. but if it was something minute and difficult to see such as this chain it's definitely worth arguing over.....that is, if it wasn't supposed to be there. we've gone off on this whole rampage of what if's and we don't even know if the chain was supposed to be there or not haha

 

[gapboi210]

at least the damage is minimal.

 

[Sac State]

Did the chain have yellow/orange reflectors on it? Some states require that if a chain is across a road it has to be identified with easy to spot orange/yellow or reflective markers. Just think if you had hit that chain doing a good speed, it could have caused a much worse injury to your truck as well as to yourself.

i would say the school is responsible if it wasn't properly marked. A dark chain becomes invisible without warning markers.

Just think if you were riding a bike and hit that chain at a fast speed. Ouch!

 

[00FourBanger]

Easy Fix:

Step 1: Remove Old Bug Guard

Step 2: Replace with New Bug Guard (maybe headlight also, if you want)

Step 3: Enjoy tasty Alcholic Beverage and admire the Ching$-Ching$ you saved.


I remember when my friend's Dad hit some kid on a bike (I was in the car, wow) and the kid's handle bars left a 9 inch long scratch on the nose of the hood. $800 for a repaint? Hell no, $50 bug guard!

After I got the 4Runner I cut some guy off and he rear ended me, me being a nice guy, I let him go because it was totally my fault for driving too agressively. At first I shopped around for new bumper and I think it came out to about $180 shipped (just the middle piece). But then I realized... it's a 7 year old 4Runner! Just do the cheapest fix you can unless you're an absolute car nut about it. Which I can understand because if something like that happened to my BMW, I'd flip!

 

[KellyJ]

i havent been able to post pics of the damage lately, but my dad was able to take a hammer to the quarter panel and the hood so they could open and shut. the allignment of the hood isn't affected. the thing is we just got a whole new bumper and the scratches are only minimal, i can deal with them. the QP and hood however, have chipped paint which will inevitably lead to rust, which is something i cannot deal with

a little about the chain...

the chain did in fact NOT have any reflectors on it, nor any reason for it to be up. i go to school in DC, so there is a little possibility of theft of vehicles which is why the chain is there in the first place (also the school is pretty uptight so its there to keep kids from leaving early or whatever) in this case it kept me from getting in! hah...

my dad and i had a meeting with the dean of students (read disciplinary control for school). he said that it is the job of the maintenance crew to take down these chains in the morning, and that they had failed to do their duty on that morning. however, we have police officers on campus who have keys and access to the locks that hold the chains up, including the one who i talked to after it happened, had gotten to school, as he said, at around 7AM, almost an hour before i did, yet he did not open the chains like he had the ability to. the drive way is in no way a blind one, but ask anyone at school, and it is not supposed to be there.

after this meeting, the dean decided now to put streamers coming down from the chain as well as put cones up in front of the chain (so now they do this after i take the first blow from it...)

its all pretty unfortunate. it was the start of a bad week...monday i hit the chain, wednesday i get my report card...and thursday i get pulled over for 4 offenses. bad karma if you ask me

 

[KellyJ]

i didnt realize this would be the top topic when i visited back today...ha

thanks everyone for the input and support, there was a meeting today at which the dean brought up the incident and i should know by next week whether or not theyre throwing any money my way

 

[97Limited4Me]

Well not to throw a damper on your parade but I really don't think that you will get the school to pay for this. Like several other people have mentioned. It was there, but you drove into it. Its like hitting someone who is stopped at a green light. They should not have stopped there, but you hit them. Your fault.
Not to be too critical, but take responsibility. Nothing worse than someone who blames others for their mistakes.

I worked as an inside rep for an insurance company before moving into the field as a damage esimator. And I'll tell ya that I would find you at fault every day of the week. No offense, but thats a fact.

The fender and the hood look like relativly minor damage. The bug deflector blocks the damage but I would guess a shop would charge you about $1200. Repair to fender, repair to hood. paint both and then replace park lamp/headlamp/bug shield.

 

[KellyJ]

here's a picture a little better showing what happened, since i hit it, i bent the quarter panel back out as well as the hood so they werent overlapping like before.

i take full responsibility for it, i'm not whining, just hoping that maybe my school will be generous enough to offer to pay, since my parents do shell out 13 grand a year for me to go there.

 

[MARSHALLMAY]

quick example of how, unfortunately, it was not the schools' fault. Say maintenance left a garbage can in the road and you hit it. Who's fault would it be?

 

[FlyZLow]

its all pretty unfortunate. it was the start of a bad week...monday i hit the chain, wednesday i get my report card...and thursday i get pulled over for 4 offenses. bad karma if you ask me

Don't take this the wrong way, but you had control of all 3 of those things. I don't think you can really call it back luck or bad karma when you had control. Maybe if you watch where you're going, study harder, and don't break the law your luck would improve.