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98 Caravelle recovers from argument with a tree.

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  • 98 Caravelle recovers from argument with a tree.

    My poor old Caravelle and I were involved in a bump a few weeks back, when I swerved to avoid a policeman in the road - a long story, but in a nutshell he was attending another accident which had only just happened and was stood on a blind bend in the middle of the road. So I miss Mr. Plod thank God but did take a tumble into a hedge, hit a tree stump which just caught the passenger side headlight an front panels, as well as kippering my front wheels and tyres.

    I thought the damage would be a good opportunity to tidy her up, as there's been a few things I've wanted to tart up, the paintwork in places is a bit untidy, but I'm doing this on a budget, so it will be a rattle can job to try and make her look a little more presentable.

    Here's before the accident:



    Here's the immediate aftermath:





    I'll post pics as I go!

  • #2
    Wow that was both lucky and unlucky!! Out of interest who's at fault with that sort of thing?


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    • #3
      I'm sure the policeman would have caused less damage [emoji23]


      Sent from my iPhone using Just T4s mobile app

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      • #4
        Originally posted by Dan View Post
        Wow that was both lucky and unlucky!! Out of interest who's at fault with that sort of thing?


        I'm not sure in all honesty, I was doing well under the speed limit, and had I not taken the course of action I did, I would have definitely hit him, and in all likelihood have killed him (its a national speed limit, main road - I was doing 45). So I have spoken to them about it and wait to hear back off their legal team - To be frank, I think it's their fault, and if the officer involved was following SOP in response to the other accident, and in doing so causes another accident, then there is an issue with how they respond to these things. However I do have faith in our police force and sympathise with the officer involved - he was first at the scene of another accident which was a fair bit more serious, and probably still in panic mode.

        I would hope they would cover the cost of repairs - I'm 3rd party insured so there's no claim involved. But I can at least be glad that nobody was seriously hurt.

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        • #5
          Originally posted by Jonnybigballs85 View Post
          I'm sure the policeman would have caused less damage [emoji23]


          Sent from my iPhone using Just T4s mobile app
          Hahaha I suppose so!

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          • #6
            Originally posted by kaferboy View Post
            I'm not sure in all honesty, I was doing well under the speed limit, and had I not taken the course of action I did, I would have definitely hit him, and in all likelihood have killed him (its a national speed limit, main road - I was doing 45). So I have spoken to them about it and wait to hear back off their legal team - To be frank, I think it's their fault, and if the officer involved was following SOP in response to the other accident, and in doing so causes another accident, then there is an issue with how they respond to these things. However I do have faith in our police force and sympathise with the officer involved - he was first at the scene of another accident which was a fair bit more serious, and probably still in panic mode.

            I would hope they would cover the cost of repairs - I'm 3rd party insured so there's no claim involved. But I can at least be glad that nobody was seriously hurt.
            I suspect it will be your fault as the highway code states that you should drive to the condition of the road and be prepared for unexpected or difficult situations, for example, the road being blocked beyond a blind bend.

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            • #7
              Originally posted by Greg The Great View Post
              I suspect it will be your fault as the highway code states that you should drive to the condition of the road and be prepared for unexpected or difficult situations, for example, the road being blocked beyond a blind bend.
              I wondered the same, which I thought I was doing to be fair - I know the road well, and I always take it easy along there as it is a tricky road, hence me doing 45. As a result of me taking it easy because I was prepared for the unexpected, I didn't flatten him. I did however, stack my bus.

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              • #8
                Ordered the replacement parts from James at Cali Campers, and in the meantime have got stripping.





                a little bit of a clean up and some smoothrite on the cross member is needed as there's a bit of surface rust. Unbelievable amount of soil/decomposed stuff inside the inner wings - if you haven't already cleaned them out, do so!!! Amazingly no rust down there, but think I'll give them a coat of smoothrite too while the wings are off.

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                • #9
                  Originally posted by kaferboy View Post
                  I wondered the same, which I thought I was doing to be fair - I know the road well, and I always take it easy along there as it is a tricky road, hence me doing 45. As a result of me taking it easy because I was prepared for the unexpected, I didn't flatten him. I did however, stack my bus.
                  I suspect it means you should be able to slow down or stop if required, using your brakes and not the nearest bush.

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                  • #10
                    Originally posted by Greg The Great View Post
                    I suspect it means you should be able to slow down or stop if required, using your brakes and not the nearest bush.
                    Bushes are under rated hahaha... I can see it from your perspective, but short of doing 20mph on a road where most traffic does 55-60 (and so risking having a car plant itself onto my back bumper) I can't see what more I could have done. FYI the officer involved apologised to me when I got out of the bus.

                    I'm not interested in the blame game (or where there's blame there's a claim bullshit), and like I've said, I'm just glad nobody was hurt, irrespective of fault etc. All I'm interested in is getting my bus back on the road, so back to that topic

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                    • #11
                      Looks like an reasonably easy fix, keep us posted with lots of pics [emoji106]


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                      • #12
                        Originally posted by kaferboy View Post
                        Bushes are under rated hahaha... I can see it from your perspective, but short of doing 20mph on a road where most traffic does 55-60 (and so risking having a car plant itself onto my back bumper) I can't see what more I could have done. FYI the officer involved apologised to me when I got out of the bus.

                        I'm not interested in the blame game (or where there's blame there's a claim bullshit), and like I've said, I'm just glad nobody was hurt, irrespective of fault etc. All I'm interested in is getting my bus back on the road, so back to that topic
                        Yeah Dan stop hijacking other peps threads and taking them off-piste 😆

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                        • #13
                          Originally posted by Greg The Great View Post
                          Yeah Dan stop hijacking other peps threads and taking them off-piste ��


                          Cheers folks. be back on the road in no time.

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                          • #14
                            The to do list is as follows:

                            Replace the wheels.
                            Repair the nicks in the bumper, prep and paint.
                            Paint both grille panels.
                            Paint the bonnet and wings.
                            clean up the rust scabs on the wheel arches and paint (fingers crossed no welding).
                            Paint the wing mirror backs.
                            Straighten and repaint the sliding door (hmmm dreading this one!).
                            The paint is LN5Y Windsor Blue by the way.

                            I might drop the front end down a little lower too, as to my eye it looks a little tail down. Opinions? I have CMC Springs which I've had on there for about 6 years so maybe they've sagged a little - can they do that?

                            I also have a split charge kit I'm going to put in there that I bought ages and ages ago and never got round to fitting. Then finally I'm going to swap the mucky carpet in the rear load area for something that doesn't get muddy so easily - I ferry bikes about in there a fair bit and a washable surface would be much more practical.

                            So to kick things off, as I mentioned I ordered a few used parts from James at Cali campers, which turned up quickly and were a good price:



                            I also managed to track down a set of wheels locally (important as I have no vehicle while this is off the road) - a set of 16" Caddy steels, complete with load rated tyres - a bit short at 205/55 so I'll have to be aware of the changes with my speedo. Its another reason why I'm thinking about dropping it a little more too.



                            And I wire brushed and neautralised the surface rust on the cross member, which will be painted tonight hopefully.





                            That's all for now, hopefully get a few hours in over the weekend.

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                            • #15
                              Bit more done, gave the bits of surface rust a coat of smoothrite after neatralising the rust, also gave the bottom of the inner wings a bit too. The paint hasn't turned up yet and I couldn't face another week without a car, so I have put all the panels back on, and will paint the panels over the coming weeks. Watch this space I also stuck on the caddy wheels which I really quite like!



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