Close One!

[clarky]

Driving back from Brum Airport around 8pm last night I joined the M6 and pootled home ... heard a loud plastic sounding thud under the car - sounded like a plakky bottle or similar and sounded like the front. Obviously it was dark so waited for A14 layby and had a look round.

Nothing obvious - all lights working and no obvious damage (remember it was dark) carried on home and had another look in drive - nothing.

Back in airport car park which is floodlit this morning and walked round car after locking it - always want to minimise door banging etc ...

Looked down and saw that passenger side side trim below door was a funny shape - in fact on close inspection it was completely loose at the rear. Start panicking and look closely to find (under road muck) that a HUGE - I mean like 3/4 foot metel rod with tapered end is embedded in trim and has peirced not just moulding but it lodged into outer wing!

Start realling panicking now - hands and knees in car park and drag offending spike out - being as careful as possibly. Obviously puncture wounds to trim and outer wing. Puch and prod trim and it snaps neatly into place. In fact because all of damage was done under the edge of the trim - nothing obviously worng at all.

Going to have proper look tomorrow when home - but cant beleive I've been so lucky - another couple of inches and it'd have peirced my back tyre and who knows what would have happened!

Clarky

PS Having a strong coffee in airport lounge right now ...

[Chuck04]

Ouch never a good thing, sorry 2 hear, metal on the road is always dangerous!!

[Kerby]

you were damn lucky there mate. hope it doesnt take much to fix.

[clarky]

dont really know what sort of thing will need doing - popping the body trim back on made it look fine - what I need to do is get underneth and see whats really happended

Clarky

[knightrider]

damn metal rods gettin jealous of yaris's again!

[Viper_7]

Aye.,..you need to get the trim off and get the damage underneath sorted...it is afterall just trim, and doesn't keep the elements out. The "hole" will just rust and spread in time. Even if it's just a case of priming and rust proofing the damage and sticking the trim back on.

Vipes

[clarky]

Go the car up on the platform in my local garage today - what happended was the steel pipe hit the trim and push against the bulkhead and got stuck.

When I removed the trm completely it hadn't actually penetrated the metal - but very nearly - had to gently tap it back into shape then prime and underseal again. Got trim back on and got a synthetic nut and bolt on to trim to make it rigid again (had lost a bit of spring).

Local garage guy pointed out that it had hit the bulkhead just in front of petrol tank before slamming into trim - now going for a beer

Clarky