Deep dent from a Harley Sportster

[Dino]

I hate Harleys. OK now bash away, but I hate em. :mad: to dern heavy!!!!!!

I was at band rehersal last night, parked the VX in the lawn on a slight incline >>>> as in the car was lower on the passenger side.
Our drummer, who arrived 1 1/2 hours late, :confused: decides to park his fatarsed Hogley Spittster next to the VX driverside, with the tender uphill, and the bike BARELY leaning on it.
I come outside for a beer at break time, bump the bike in the pitch black night... I felt it goin, tried to hold it and thought... oh well it's gonna hit the ground.

No..... it went pooock!

I thought oh no... it hit my baby. :eek: :eek:



It did. the tip of the god#@ned $(%ing brake lever impacted about 1" above the cladding and made this nice bit of bodywork for me to tackle.

http://www.vehicross.info/gallery/data/500/dent_fender.jpg

My new tennis shoes have their first mark on them!!!!!!!


CRAAAAAAAAAP!!!!!!


I'll get over it, and I'll fix it. The paintless way...

[cyronman]

Yikes, dude...that sucks.

I fear little crappy stuff like this happening to me all the time.

Post a pic of the fixing.

[CrnCnn]

You know if your VX was lifted you may just have a scratch in the cladding. HMMM :p

[Dino]

hmmm but it's not, it doesn't NEED to be ...and it won't be. :rolleyes:

[IndianaVX]

bummer bud,
but just keep thinking to yourself, it could have been worse, it could have been worse. dents easy to fix, well, not easy but, you know......gouge out of your cladding.....yikes!! good luck with the repairs, im sure you will do an excellent job

david


p.s. tell your friend to get a REAL harley.............:rolleyes:


http://www.vehicross.info/gallery/data/500/thumbs/MVC-021S.JPG (http://www.vehicross.info/gallery/data/500/MVC-021S.JPG) just kiddin...........maybe you should take the scion next time:eek:

[Triathlete]

hmmm but it's not, it doesn't NEED to be ...and it won't be. :rolleyes:


Oh, but it doe's need to be...

























...you just don't realize it yet! :yesy: ;Dy;

[JHarris1385]

Ah that sucks. Im sure you can take of it and make it look good.

Amen to the lift, though.

[Dino]

OK sidebar: Suspension Lifts...... :rolleyes:


I've had my share of sky high driving. I once owned a 72 Ford Econoline E300 van with the Pathfinder conversion. No, not Nissan.... Pathfinder (http://www.pathfinder-vans.com/). :rolleyes: It was a dealer sold conversion with custom built Dana axles. I had 33"x12.50"s and it was cranked up enough that it was a friggin climb in and out of the thing! Econoline my culo!! 9 MPG!!!! ...with a tail wind.

I had it sort of offroading here on Maui, twice. Light rock crawlin. :o

Lifting a vehicle here is pretty much for looks. :rolleyes: :rolleyes:
There's not many places to do any real off roading unless you're a local boy with keys to the ranch gates.

The latest trend here: Lift em up with springs AND a body lift, then put deep offset rims and 33"s stickin out a foot from the fenderwell. Nice. Dumb. Ruins the handling sucks and the freakkin thing is fully 2 feet wider on already too skinny roads.

Recently here, a Ford Ranger lifted like that hydroplaned in hard rain, crossed over the center line, slammed a rental car, went 15' airborne, (eyewitness accounts) then hit nose first and literaly came apart!. The engine and trans broke away from the frame as did the cab and the bed!!!!!

But it sure looked cool!!!!!! :rolleyes: :cool: :mad: :( :eek: :confused: :confused: :confused: :confused:

NO SIR!!! I will not be messin with the suspension or the tire size. I love it just fine as is.


...and now, back to the dent.

I'm going to have to pull the cladding off to get behind the dent. I'll wait until the weekend to tackle it I think.

[CrnCnn]

Lifting a vehicle here is pretty much for looks.

And they look so good.

[SBC]

Sucks about the dent! I did this conversion to my 98 E-250 after i bought it...front and rear 4-link....Full Air Ride Suspension.....38" super swampers.....Thing rocked for offroading!
http://www.vehicross.info/gallery/data/515/v_copy.jpg

[JHarris1385]

What in day He**

[Chopper]

Damnit man! You couldn't have chosen a more difficult, less forgiving spot on the car to smack. (ok, the valley around the spare blister, convex-concave transition under the rear window are tough too) Well, you'll get to work on your plastic game :rolleyes: A smooth, changing radius like that, on a black surface will not allow even a primer scratch to be hidden. I'd be tempted to hang new metal, since the paint work is gonna be the expensive part of the repair. I've been at this, more decades than I care to admit, and I doubt I'd get a paint match on this Ebony, that I would be willing to panel paint... meaning, now at least the hood (maybe the door) are blend panels. At this point, the metal cost becomes almost incidental. Look---I am a perfectionist/ paint Nazi/ a-hole in my shop, and with my cars. I admit it. I drive everyone around me nuts with it...you won't believe how many "painters" I've blown out of Flagler Collision in the past 5 years. Were that my VX, I'd probably be planning to disassemble it, and do an all over...but I'd be planning it from a county bunk... 'cause I'd have hurt him pretty badly, I'm afraid. Look, you may be cool with a rattle can spray ;) in which case...ignore everything I said. If I can help in any way(paint codes and such) let me know. Wayne

[SBC]

here's a couple more shots of it!
Dino being a past owner of a 4x4 van can appreciate something like this.
http://www.vehicross.info/gallery/data/500/thumbs/272553_5_full.jpghttp://www.vehicross.info/gallery/data/500/thumbs/272553_6_full.jpghttp://www.vehicross.info/gallery/data/500/thumbs/272553_7_full.jpghttp://www.vehicross.info/gallery/data/515/thumbs/272553_4_full.jpg

[JHarris1385]

SBC add those so you can click to the enlarged or original pictures. Cool van for sure.

[SBC]

http://www.vehicross.info/gallery/data/500/272553_5_full.jpghttp://www.vehicross.info/gallery/data/500/272553_6_full.jpghttp://www.vehicross.info/gallery/data/500/272553_7_full.jpghttp://www.vehicross.info/gallery/data/515/272553_4_full.jpg

[Dino]

Well done!!! Love the paint job too!!

I thought the same thing Chopper... worst spot it could have happened!!?? :(

I'm actually brainstormin a way to make a sort of spot tool and die to clamp it back into shape. I could sample the proper curve from the other side in fiberglass, then cut a tool and die set, then try clamping it.

It'll get me close, and it won't distress the metal as much as hammer and dolly work. Then I can just leave it until I get time to do the real prep and paint.


Cars... Body work... the smell of bondo AKA polyester resin.
Side note ... :rolleyes:
My Dad had a bodyshop when I was a kid. I remember a wall of tools and LOTS of hammers. I asked what they were for many times over. It's funny, but sometimes I do stuff and wonder how the hec I knew how to do that!!! :rolleyes: Guess some stuff is just absorbed.

This is me, sanding on some car my Dad was working on, in 1961. I was 1 year 9 ,os old. :p
http://www.vehicross.info/gallery/data/500/dino1961.jpg


My dads is 93, not so much in the here and now, but alive and vital enough. I'm going to visit him and my Mom in the Adirondacks next month. :)

[IndianaVX]

dino,
cool pic, but i have to wonder, were you SUPPOSED to be sanding on that??? lol
again, cool pic.

[Dino]

Heh he... yeah... it was getting painted. :p

[Chopper]

Forget all that...too much work. Pull it, heat it, hammer it, shrink it, do it right. Probably what your pop would tell you anyhow. Me, I'd just hang new metal. Enjoy parts availability while it exists.

[IndianaVX]

IF,....i say, IF you did replace the panel, i would hold on to it, or offer it up to someone on here......again, keeping parts availability in mind, they wont ALWAYS be available, and a fender, with a small harley dent might look really good to someone who REALLY smashed theirs up.....

im just sayin.......;)

[Dino]

I hear that!