Someone just hit my rig!

[Maritimer]

I agree with the posters who are saying there is rust, that it has been painted over, and that it's not too severe. Most of that frame rail would still be covered in original shiny black paint, and you can see it's a bit rusty around the frame holes and welds. I bet if you spent a good 30 minutes under it you'd discover that it's better than 90% of vehicles up here.

Pay particular attention to the front skid (mine was rusting despite good care because of the pieced together design of it), the part of the frame where the rear lower control arm hanger is attached, look at the filler pipe (it's in an area that catches driver's side road salt but can't get a good rinse), the upper rear control arms, and the rear shock mount areas on the frame. Those areas are all hard to reach, will collect salt, so will be prone to rust and not prone to being easily painted.

 

[zgensler31]

Thanks man. I'll definitely check out those places in particular.

 

[zgensler31]

So they came and picked it up yesterday. It was kinda sad but kinda cool. Cuz now Im one step closer to getting a 4wd.

 

[AZ4FNER]

So they came and picked it up yesterday. It was kinda sad but kinda cool. Cuz now Im one step closer to getting a 4wd.

Man, that looks like it was horrible to watch. Sorry about your rig, and good luck on your search for a replacement.

 

[zgensler31]

The worst part was that they didn't pull the bumper out, as they rolled it up on the truck it just scrape cup that tire. My poor bfg's. Lol oh well. If it did anything its one less tire that they can sell.

 

[GladeRunner]

That sucks, I know you hated watching them take her away. Sounds like you're on your way to finding a new T4R, best of luck.

Any news you can share on the hit-and-run driver?

 

[Diagram14]

I gotta third what kball and Hepar say about the painted over rust. Paint, new or old, doesnt look that flakey...even over welds. I wouldnt say the rust is overwhelming, you can gauge it by the other non-frame parts that didn't get painted that show the rust and salt buildup (Exhaust hangers, drive shafts, back side of TC, etc...) But now, rather than being able to see exaclty what youre dealing with you're going to have to dig. .02 from the Salt Lake Valley.

 

[zgensler31]

That sucks, I know you hated watching them take her away. Sounds like you're on your way to finding a new T4R, best of luck.

Any news you can share on the hit-and-run driver?

actually i can. we just got off the phone with the state trooper who was handling the case....

so the night of the wreck we found a turn signal in tact off of the other car. it had a hyundai logo and a part number. this coupled with my story and the neighbors pointed u towards and 02 silver hyundai elantra. heavily damaged in the front. my dad and i followed the oil trail about 9 miles to a neighboring town where we lost it at a busy intersection.

fast forward to last monday. we get a call from a girl that used to live next door to us. she tells me to friend her on facebook and she forwards me a message she got from someone who wanted to remain anonymous. it had the name of a girl, a picture she posted online of her wrecked car, and the caption.
the photo should be attached.
here is the caption.

"Wrecked my car last night. Gotta love idiots who drive on the wrong side of the road and cause people to wreck n not even come back to see if ur ok. Grrr... thank god i only have a concussion n am sore and the baby wasnt with me!"

so as im on facebook i get another message from a seperate friend saying that she thinks she knows where i can find the car that hit me. she gave us an adress name and told us how she had posted it but you had to be a 'friend' of hers to see anything.

so ofcourse we forward all of this to the police. the next morning i get a message from the state trooper saying that he couldnt get her fess up to anything but that he wasnt finished with the case, and that he wasnt working again til today.

this afternoon he calls back saying that although she didnt fess up the evidence was too strong against her. the visual evidence on the car showed no dirt, that it hit something higher then her car, not lower, and that it was clearly a metal on metal collision. he also checked out the supposed bank and it had no signs of any activity. no scrapes, parts, nothing. she had no insurance on her car, and admitted to being at a bar less then a mile form my house, and dropping a friend off at her house less then three hundred yards from my house, but claims that she turned around and went back through town..bulll craaaappp! lol

so the trooper told us that he is printing out a ton of violations and citations and that he would be arresting her shortly. he also informed me that she had done something very similar less then a year ago.

so she wont be driving for a while. and i can hopefully recoup my $250 deductible.


so in a nutshell, she posted in on facebook and got caught. stupid girl...

 

[Hepar]

actually i can. we just got off the phone with the state trooper who was handling the case....

so the night of the wreck we found a turn signal in tact off of the other car. it had a hyundai logo and a part number. this coupled with my story and the neighbors pointed u towards and 02 silver hyundai elantra. heavily damaged in the front. my dad and i followed the oil trail about 9 miles to a neighboring town where we lost it at a busy intersection.

fast forward to last monday. we get a call from a girl that used to live next door to us. she tells me to friend her on facebook and she forwards me a message she got from someone who wanted to remain anonymous. it had the name of a girl, a picture she posted online of her wrecked car, and the caption.
the photo should be attached.
here is the caption.

"Wrecked my car last night. Gotta love idiots who drive on the wrong side of the road and cause people to wreck n not even come back to see if ur ok. Grrr... thank god i only have a concussion n am sore and the baby wasnt with me!"

so as im on facebook i get another message from a seperate friend saying that she thinks she knows where i can find the car that hit me. she gave us an adress name and told us how she had posted it but you had to be a 'friend' of hers to see anything.

so ofcourse we forward all of this to the police. the next morning i get a message from the state trooper saying that he couldnt get her fess up to anything but that he wasnt finished with the case, and that he wasnt working again til today.

this afternoon he calls back saying that although she didnt fess up the evidence was too strong against her. the visual evidence on the car showed no dirt, that it hit something higher then her car, not lower, and that it was clearly a metal on metal collision. he also checked out the supposed bank and it had no signs of any activity. no scrapes, parts, nothing. she had no insurance on her car, and admitted to being at a bar less then a mile form my house, and dropping a friend off at her house less then three hundred yards from my house, but claims that she turned around and went back through town..bulll craaaappp! lol

so the trooper told us that he is printing out a ton of violations and citations and that he would be arresting her shortly. he also informed me that she had done something very similar less then a year ago.

so she wont be driving for a while. and i can hopefully recoup my $250 deductible.


so in a nutshell, she posted in on facebook and got caught. stupid girl...

Manm, that girl deserves to get caught.

 

[GladeRunner]

Wow, thanks for the update. Glad to see they are able to cite her for several things and making her pay (if she can). Just hope you're able to recoup your deductible.

Were you able to see and screen capture the pics? If so, please provide to us curious folks on the forum!

I don't understand why people post incriminating stuff on FB. But glad she did!

 

[zgensler31]

Manm, that girl deserves to get caught.

exactly.... and its not like she lives in a huge city. by brother went to school with her. and her friend that she dropped off is dating a guy that i worked with last summer. and like half the county knew we were looking for a wrecked elantra.

some peoples children. lol

 

[Hepar]

I don't understand why people post incriminating stuff on FB. But glad she did!

It's called devolution. We're evolving into a dumber species.

 

[IanB]

Great to hear that you caught her! The police "looking into" my hit & run have the last 8 digits of the VIN, and still can't seem to put 2+2 together, I've all but given up on it at this point. Super frusterating.

My cousin was sideswiped on Friday a couple minutes from where I got hit, and the guy took off! It was a 70 year old guy so drunk he could barely keep his head up, they found him at least.

Hit & run drivers can die in a fire as far as I'm concerned.

 

[zgensler31]

Wow, thanks for the update. Glad to see they are able to cite her for several things and making her pay (if she can). Just hope you're able to recoup your deductible.

Were you able to see and screen capture the pics? If so, please provide to us curious folks on the forum!

I don't understand why people post incriminating stuff on FB. But glad she did!

yeah we have higher quality pics of it. since my brother went to school with her someone he works with was friends with her and signed in so we could download the whole image. just have to get them from him. and i definitely will post them once i get a hold of them.

 

[zgensler31]

Great to hear that you caught her! The police "looking into" my hit & run have the last 8 digits of the VIN, and still can't seem to put 2+2 together, I've all but given up on it at this point. Super frusterating.

My cousin was sideswiped on Friday a couple minutes from where I got hit, and the guy took off! It was a 70 year old guy so drunk he could barely keep his head up, they found him at least.

Hit & run drivers can die in a fire as far as I'm concerned.

all i can say to help you and others in the future is to put it out there. i frineds, coo workers and the state police all put it on facebook and the web. and keep hassling the police. i swear i called them probably 20 times. got to the point that the knew what case we were calling about by our name. lol. so word of mouth and web found this hit and run driver.

 

[zgensler31]

and more info on the wreck. we got the itemized estimate from the adjuster.
the grand total.....wait for it......$5,610.49. snap! lol

replaced:
front bumper
bumper valance
radiator support
grill
R/f head light
R/f corner light
R/f fender
inner fender
fender flare
lower control arm
front hub
washer fluid resevoir
for a parts total of.......................$2,814.21
they also listed replairing and repainting the hood and having to blend the door mirror and other fender.
for a parts and material total of....$3,153.96 plus $189.24 tax at 6%

then for 44.5 hrs of labor.............$2,069.00

no wonder it only took them a day to decide it was totalled and give me $4800 and change. lol

 

[zgensler31]

Here's some better pics.

 

[the great him]

outstanding! im happy to hear that ***** got caught. how stupid do you have to be! lol thanks again for the end caps of your totaled runner, i mean the spare ones you had laying around... :wink2:

 

[Doug18]

Good to hear man ... and looking on the bright side $4800 is a good price for a 2wd with over 200k probably better than you could of got if you were to sell it before

 

[zgensler31]

Good to hear man ... and looking on the bright side $4800 is a good price for a 2wd with over 200k probably better than you could of got if you were to sell it before

Actually its pretty average I guess for my area. I paid 4500 but tax and reg. Etc made it about 5000. It kbbs a little lower but it was in excellent condition for its age/mileage. I'm happy with it. Obviously I was hoping for the miracle but thats only once in a century. For proof my boss was looking to sell/trade his mini cooper to buy his daughter a car and he was gonna get like 5 for it. After deciding to just let her drive the mini his friend put it in a guard rail and totalled it. Insurance cut him a check for 9800 I believe. Lol