Bad Automotive Times in Sacramento

[glxtasy@juno.com (Ken Weidmann)]

Hey guys,
  Just to tell you how my automotive week has been going and to find out if
 there is a good body shop around that deals with custom stuff, i.e. molded body
 kits and graphics (you can see where my week is going)
   so early last week, I'm leaving school and in front of Sacramento City
 college, some guy in a Honda Civic hatchback who isn't paying attention runs
 into the back of the rocco.  No major body damage, but a scrape right in the
 middle of the bumper.  I get 2 body shop estimates, $369 and $374 to reshoot
 the bumper.  I'm supposed to get cash from him in 2 weeks.
   Today I go to leave for school.  I'm driving the rocco past the jetta and
 think to myself that the sprinklers are getting pretty bad since they are now
 spraying on the drivers side of my car (which is parked on the street).  I go
 to pass my Jetta GLX and find that the drivers front window is shattered and
 missing a few pieces.  Luckily, they didn't mess with anything or even get
 inside the car.  Go back home, get the jetta keys and the garage door opener
 and park it in the garage.  It's been 6 weeks since I moved here and AT&T still
 hasn't seen fit to deliver a phone book to me.  I'll just stop by some of the
 glass shops that must be on Franklin by all the body shops and mechanics shops
 and see how much a new door glass with install is.
   As I'm passing on the south side of the city college, some guy in a green
 honda accord comes out of the school parking lot and immediately goes from the
 yield/merge lane across the slow traffic lane and into my lane near the center
 island.  I slam on the brakes and lock up the brakes on the painted
 instructions on the street while steering towards the island.  I hear his
 drivers side running all the way down my passenger side as I feel the left
 front wheel hit the island.
  I get off the road and pull into the JC expecting the worst.  I see that about
 1/4 of the way around my front left wheel, I have totally flatened it and
 rubbed off probably 1/8 of an inch of the lip on the Hock's.  I walk around to
 the other side of the car and surprisingly, the fender is the only thing that
 has obvious damage.  the damage is:  Scraped front bumper, scraped and
 semi-gouged front fender flare, scraped front right wheel, damage right on the
 1/4 panel and door joint and of course it is where the white/silver/blue
 pinstripes meet, and scraped rear flare.  The front and rear flares have
 cracked off of the body where they were molded, I need an alignment and the 2
 front wheels have major issues now.  They are the TSW Hockenheims, not the Hock
 R's, so these aren't in production any more.
  I went to Lee's restoration off 47th and he gave me an estimate of $2300 to
 repair the damage, not including alignment or wheels.  I may just get the whole
 car repainted in Alpine white and bail on the graphics though, so he quoted me
 about $3000 to repaint the whole car white.  I'd like to get some estimates
 probably next week so that I can figure out what I'm going to do about it,
 either fix, totaly repair, or just collect the money and drive it.
 I finally did find a shop to do the glass.  2 places quoted $185 with install. 
 1 place quoted $110.  Guess who is coming to school tomorrow to do the
 install??
  Needless to say, it hasn't been a great automotive week, and I have a ton of
 school work and assigments to do for the rest of the week, so this is stuff I
 didn't need right now.
  Stopped by the wagen shop last friday.  Seems like a nice guy, but booked for
 almost 2 weeks in advance and a good 35-40 minute drive from me.  I'll keep him
 in mind when I do need some service though.
thanks and sorry to ramble
Ken



Ken Weidmann Jr.  Checkered Flag Automotive
916-424-2197
1995 Jetta GLX M3 Wannabe
1985 Show-rocco
1957 Porsche 356 A (1st family/2nd owner)#100119


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