Accident
These are pics of an accident I had back in November of '97. I was taking my wife to LAX at 1130pm on a rainy California night. Now, I was already worried about getting into and accident because SoCal drivers can't drive in anything but sunny weather but I didn't expect this. I was driving south on Hwy 14 near Placerita Canyon completely boxed in by traffic. There was a white Ford Aerostar about 2 to 3 CRX lengths in front of me and it kicked up something from its left rear tire. I've had things kicked up in front of me before and usually it's a plastic bottle or a piece of old truck tire. They bounce off the windshield and make a loud sound that startles you and that's the end of it. Well... this was not one of those cases. I see the object get flung up into the air. If I were tailgating the van it would have probably flown over the car, but I wasn't. Like I said, I was boxed in and I was thinking it was just another "harmless" object. So, I stay my course and just before the object hits the windshield my wife and I close our eyes out of reflex. Then I hear the crash of breaking glass and I feel something like someone throwing sand in my face. When I open my eyes this is what I see.

Believe it or not the first thing I thought was, "I wonder if I can still drive to the airport like this?"

My wife is still sitting in the passenger seat with her eyes closed and wondering if her husband still has a head or not.

Other than being covered completely in glass dust we weren't hurt at all. Now I need to pull over and get some help. I put on my blinker and reach over to the gearshift knob. At my fingertips I feel a huge hunk of metal resting in front of the gearshift on the center console. No time to worry about that now though. I finally get pulled over and discover what had flown through my windshield. It looked like the crankshaft pulley from a Chevy 350!!! WTF!!!! How does that happen?!

It is then that I notice a car in my rearview mirror about 200 ft. back with its Hazard lights on and it's a 1978 Chevy Caprice. HMMMMM, I wonder if this thing belongs to him? I back my car up to his and I get out to find out. I ask him if his car overheated. He says yes. I ask if the power steering went out too. He said yes. I ask if his alternator light came on to and again he said yes with a tone that said, "How the hell does he know all this?" I then presented him with the crankshaft pulley and said, "This belongs to you." He looked at me in disbelief and I asked him to open his hood so I could show him the gaping hole where his crankshaft pulley used to be. At a loss of what to do next I suggest we exchange insurance info and call policeman to file a report. No sooner than I said that a cop pulls up behind the Caprice. The cop is incredulous of what has happened and can't believe I'm not hurt. In conclusion Insurance covered the damage and my wife got to the airport the next day.
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Just a little higher and... Gulp! That's me ducking down to look through the hole

The only damage was the windshield and the instrument cluster cover

Page 1: Main
Page 2: Cold Air Intake How-to
Page 3: Cup Holder How-to
Page 4: Steering Wheel Spacer How-to
Page 5: Accident, windshield
Page 6: Re-done 1/18 Hot Wheels Tunerz CRX
Page 7: Other aircraft models I've made.
Page 8: Odd stuff
Page 10: Accident, LR 1/4 panel
Page 11: Body Shop
Page 12: Body Shop Day 2
Page 13: Body Shop Day 3