In keeping with my annual bad luck each week of MINIsOnTop, I ran over some debris late Sunday night. During a long drive from Philadelphia, on 84 just West of Hartford, I hit what in a flash looked like a black bumper on black pavement in pitch dark. Not seeing it till the last instant, I ran over it at full speed, and it was nearly the width of the car. Of course it sounded terrible and I pulled over to investigate.
Some scrapes on the bottom of the plate mount show it was initially quite high and therefore took the front lower spoiler with it. The remaining pieces of plastic at the bottom of the bumper were damaged and left hanging. No big deal there–I’ve had the bumper apart before and these plastic pieces are easily and inexpensively replaced.
The radiator (technically the front one is the air conditioner condenser) was spared a direct hit and I have no leaking fluid (yet) allowing the car to continue driving just fine. However, the impact did split the lower radiator support and bent back the entire condenser, and possibly the radiator behind it. Because this may gradually start to leak, I will be bringing it up to Julian at Sublime Restorations for a look over.
With MINIsOnTop starting on Friday, I hope I can simply pick up the plastic parts from MINI of Peabody and do the cosmetic repairs myself before the weekend. My fingers are crossed that I can hopefully wait till afterwards for the radiator repairs. It is both good and bad: If it were one inch shorter, I probably would have no radiator damage and a quick and inexpensive repair. But if it were one inch taller, it may have punctured the radiator and left the MINI undrivable. I’ll see what the prognosis is at Sublime.
Man, sorry to hear about your Mini. I just ran across your site while looking for replacement parts as I just hit a racoon with our Cooper. It took out the front grill, half the plastic on the lower bumper, the AC condenser and split the radiator like a melon. I did stop and go driving for about 5 miles to get to the closest gas station to call a tow truck to get me the 80 miles the rest of the way home. Insurance guy will be here in the A.M. to assess the damages.
Any good sources for a radiator, condenser and lower bumper? I’d like to repair this myself as I would rather beef up the lower grill. The thin aluminum on there now (or was on there) is worthless for protecting the radiator in these situations.
Comment by Aaron — June 12, 2007 @ 4:34 am
Sorry to hear. Looks like a lot of damage. Good luck with rest of journey to MOT.
Comment by twistybitz — June 12, 2007 @ 9:38 am