*@$%&#!

[jdurant]

Hyundai Sante Fe vs. K5





Sante fe FTMFW.

Seriously. That really is what the two cars looked like. I keep telling myself: underneath those plastic body panels that sprung back that car is seriously messed up. But he drove off and I needed a tow.

This sucks real bad. I really think this stupid Blazer is cursed or something. I have never had so many frustrations with one vehicle. Since the day I brought it home, I was constantly changing parts to keep it on the road. Stupid stuff like starters, alt, heater core....etc, etc, etc. Don't get me wrong though, I have loved this thing. I drove the crap out of it. Then the head gasket blew and, so basically I have gone entirely through everything except the rear end at this point. Never even really got to modify/drop anything, but was always working on it. Lately I have been working on some carb issues even though this is my third new/rebuilt one. Been trying to get it ready to sell for months...and was real close.
Now this.
My timing has just been awful the past year.

The accident wasn't really my fault, wasn't really his fault. Naturally I don't have full coverage. So I'm sure this ones gonna be on me.

Don't really know what I'm gonna do about it at this point. I had the back full of parts I just got in for the mustang, so I think I'm gonna get elbow deep in that and not think about this thing for the weekend.

[Driveway Dreams]

Man, that sucks! I love your Blazer too. Sorry to see that. I have in my time in body shops seen this sort of thing where common sense says vehicle "A" should beat vehicle "B". And yet vehicle "B" wins more often than you would think. Heck, my 95 VW GTi took out a Ford Excursion. Ripped his axle out and he spun and rolled of the side of the highway. Crazy things happen. Dorry to see this! Good luck with getting it all back together.

[SBTork]

yeah, your thread title about says it all. This kind of thing just plain sucks.

[Mr79C10]

I would of NEVER of guessed! I would of lost money on that bet. I would think that the Hyundai Sante Fe would of been totaled!!!

Sucks bro!

[silvereagle07]

Wow, that sante fe is a tank! Sorry to see the blazer smashed like that.

[N2TRUX]

Dang dude, that thing took a pretty hard smack. I can see that it got the hood, grill, fender, bumper. What about the core support? Is it whacked too?

[old Rusty C10]

alot of it depends on the angle of impact and where the impact hit first..if the impact had been an inch or so over he may have needed the tow and you would have drove away..either way it stinks...but the good news is its repairable

[scotts62]

Ouch man sorry to see that, that sucks...

I saw a older Lincoln hit the back end of a newer beetle once and the Lincoln was totaled and the bug just had some scratches... it was weird.

[3r!c84]

Hyundai Sante Fe -1
chevy k5 -0

man that sucks.
hope u get it fixed

[impalamark]

I am so sorry to see it.
hope it is an easy fix . the paint will be the hard part -matching
It's a great looking truck and it will be worth the fix hang in there.
unfortunately many of us have been there .
Had the right side taken off my 62 impala convertible once
guy said it's o.k. I'm insured . I said -so what, money is the least of it

MArk

[78 Chevyrado]

That sucks man, I know how you feel. Good luck though! When mine got wrecked I didn't mess with it for a couple of weeks, and then after a while I just got to fixing it.

[JohnC]

That just makes me sick man. Maybe it's a sign like you said to take a break from it, and work on the Mustang. Glad you are ok. That is the important thing. Keep us updated on it man.

[Tony_SS]

sorry to see this!

[jdurant]

Thanks for the kind words.
I tried to stay busy this weekend and not think about the misfortune I have been having. But, more misfortune ensued. I really really just need to vent to somebody. Gonna be a long read. Hope you don't mind.

It has just been one thing after another this past year. And it seemed over the past couple of weeks that I was finally starting to make some much needed progress around the house and on my cars. We closed a few weeks ago on a couple of acres and are a few months away from starting construction. Of course, the money from the sell of the Blazer would have expedited things a little bit. We have another baby girl coming in December and therefore have outgrown our current digs.

All of my cars were running as recently as a month ago(technically the buick still runs, making alot of noise from rearend). Oh except for the Blazer from Ken. I don't think I plan on touching that one until I'm working on it in my new giant garage I plan to build! Now, since I posted the WIW (at the time I thought I was just about ready to post it up for sale) about the Blazer, it made it obvious it wasn't ready to leave my posession, yet. Tried a third quadrajet, installed a fp regulator, new fuel pump, tried a different type of filter, new valve cover gaskets (because that is where the leak was coming from, not rear main), and changed the fouled plugs for the last time. Also had just taken it to a transmission guy, because it started hemoraging fluid and I never really thought lock up worked quiet right on it, although he assured me it did. That was one week ago tomorrow.
Here's what the engine compartment looked like before the headgasket failure.

This is what it looked like after I went through it.

The mustang:
I had been making pretty good progress on it. The interior is starting to come together, and it's begining to be a real presentable car. I took it to the track a couple weeks ago and it performed pretty good for the first time out. There is still some power sitting on the table though. Like stated before, I had just recieved a bunch of parts and had a pretty ambitious weekend planned. I was just excited to be caught up enough that I would be able to really work on something other than a 305 out of necessity. I was planning on removing the valve covers to see if I could figure out that noisy lifter problem, put on my new sheetmetal valve covers, change injectors and flow tube(30lbs are way too big for my setup), plenum spacer to allow for taller valve covers, temporarily paint semi black and install 2.5" cowl hood, I had all new a/c stuff to replace everything and get that a/c blowin, rear transmission seal, and needed to take the drivers side door apart one last time. Most of the stuff I have had, I just couldn't use until I had a cowl hood. I bought the hood and a/c stuff for the weekend.
I had a good friend come over sat night to help me all day Sunday. We used to be able to do this kinda stuff all the time. Man, the things we used to accomplish in one weekend.
Anyway...so, we got the new valve covers and plenum spacer on, installed a white gelcoated hood, and fixed the trans leak. BUT I could only find 7 of my injectors, The new(that I insisted on) a/c compressor was for dealer ad on a/c, therefore not the same. Knowing that, we looked it up again. New-not available anywhere. We found a remanufactured all the way in Beaumont. Not happy about remanned, but really wanted to go to work with a/c on monday, since the mustang is now my daily driver by default. I was on my way.
I talked JD into letting me take his car. An 87 t-type. Pretty nice car. Fast. Old tires--remember that part. So he stayed and started tearing down the top on the motor. Naturally I got there pretty quick. I was very disappointed in the part which was spray painted black and chipped. I really hate putting crap like that on a car that I am trying to make nice. When I do stuff like this I get pretty anal about how it goes together. The compressor is dead front and center on fox bodies too. Went to a couple other parts stores in the area. Realized that I don't have any other options--atleast not to have it done today. Don't know what the net would turn up yet. Anyway with all that I wanted to accomplish, at this point, I can't tell you how dissapointed I am in how my weekend was turning out.
I head back home with the crapessor. I'm doing maybe 90 mph on the way home. Not driving like a jerk, just trying to make good time to get back to work. And the tire let go. I locked them up. Slid for what seemed like forever. Luckily there was nobody around me, because I used all lanes to stay on the road. IT WAS REDICULOUS. Messed his wheel well up pretty good and flattened his exhaust pipe. Luckily he wasn't too mad at me. I really wish I hadn't taken his car!

Got back home. The crapessor doesn't fit! It's the wrong part. Right part number, just not correct. Cannot use it.
Autozone in Crosby showed another one in stock--different part number. I went there just to find the exact same crapessor. Damn it! I've exhausted all sources. Don't know yet what to do about it. Got some research to do on compressors I guess. We got the mustang back together with basically no change other than valve covers (oh yeah, that have the oil fill hole on the wrong #$#%^ side). And is running ok, but making a very strange noise just oughta idle now.

Frustration really isn't a strong enough word for what I am feeling right now.

But know this: Nothing like this will get me down too much. At the end of the day, they are just cars. Well, time and money too, but as long as my wife and kid are ok--so am I, everything else is the small stuff.

Anyway, back to the Blazer. Here are a couple more pics. I think it is pretty safe to say that the core support is toast.

This is the passenger side door that won't open!

That sante fe really ate my lunch. I didn't mention before that he was towing a boat. Maybe that had a little something to do with why it messed up the blazer so much. Whatever the case, I'm glad it happened that way instead of tearing up that sante fe. There was a boy about my daughter's age, a mom and a little baby. Turned out to be real nice people. I couldn't have live with myself if either one of those kids got hurt.

I'll post a diagram of how it happened later. I wanna see who yall think was at fault.

[boatpuller]

ow..........feel for ya bud.

[menace121978]

on a good note, the engine bay looks awesome compared how it looked before.

sorry about all the problems man. just remember 'this to shall pass'. some days out in that garage are smooth like warm butter and leave a big grin at the end of the day and i swear i have some days that are pure hell. roll'em out in the street and torch them kind of days! looks like we all have them next weekend has to be better!!

[78BO]

LOL, keep your chin up brotha. I think we’ve all had times like this. While I don’t think mine lasted as long as yours, I too had a month (this last month) where any and everything seemed to go wrong with everything I touched. But I road it out and I ended up all good. And yea, you did a hella job on that engine bay. If you come do mine I’ll buy you a beer!

Oh, and don’t think that Hyundai isn’t messed up. I would bet you money if you take off the front and rear bumper covers he’s going to have a lot more issues then you think. Those cars a have crumple zones. And while you can’t see it on the out side those creases are now bent. The only way to fix them is to replace them. While it may look ok, if they don’t replace them and they get in another wreck it will REALLY mess up the car and maybe even the passengers.

[nlped]

I can't really offer much, but I can reiterate, "That sucks!!!"

BTW...I have an '86 Mustang GT that I am pissing money away on too. I still have a long row to hoe, but I'll get there.

[JCampbell]

That blows, Dude.

I bit the bullet and bought full coverage for all my rigs. It's not that much $$$ for the older trucks, plus I have an agreed replacement value w/ my Insurance Co.

Something to think about...for everyone.

[Sniper X]

What happened exactly? I am curious, I saw that the car had a boat behind it.....

[jdurant]

Originally Posted by JCampbell

That blows, Dude.

I bit the bullet and bought full coverage for all my rigs. It's not that much $$$ for the older trucks, plus I have an agreed replacement value w/ my Insurance Co.

Something to think about...for everyone.

That is something that I have been thinking about the last few days. I do regret not getting the collector car insurance. I've heard that that is cheap, but you can only drive x amount of miles, or atleast it's not supposed to be your daily driver, which the blazer was more or less when it was all together. As far as full coverage goes, my insurance rates are pretty bad and full coverage jumps up alot. (I have had many speeding tickets over the years).
I always told myself that if I had an at fault wreck, it would be cheaper to fix it myself, than pay that higher premium for years potentially for full coverage. Then when you need them, let's take now for example--if I was covered with my insurance, you know I would be getting screwed then too. I would be fighting for a total value of $3k and you know it. Insurance, what a racket. That's why I drive cars like squarebodies and foxbodies. Easy to work on, parts are available and relatively cheap, atleast cheaper than paying full coverage for years. But of course, a big fat check would make me feel a little better about the whole situation.

Originally Posted by Sniper X

What happened exactly? I am curious, I saw that the car had a boat behind it.....

Heres a little diagram I did at work today to show the insurance cos.

The orange square represents me. The blue him. The grey squares are other cars. The lines show our intended paths. The "starburst" is where we hit. Traffic was a total clusterf**k. It was bumper to bumper westbound as far as I could see. Two cars stopped to let me out. I was clear there, or so I thought, so I was looking to the right for east bound traffic. It was clear, so I was going. And boom. This guy had gotten over, oh a couple hundred feet early, to make a left at the next intersection. I feel like he was abusing the turn lane and shouldn't have been there. The yellow dot is where the yellow line stops-to allow people to get in that lane to make that left.

What do you think?

[USSkoval]

Hmm, I would have to say you were both at fault. That's a tough one.

[3r!c84]

you pulled out into oncoming traffic,sorry

[78BO]

Originally Posted by 3r!c84

you pulled out into oncoming traffic,sorry

Yep, have to agree with you. By you having to cross his lane you have to give right of way. Because the cars were blocking your view you pulled out and caused the wreck. While he might have been abusing the turn lane there really isn't a law that states how far a person can drive in one. Atleast not in Texas. Either way, because you were crossing it's on you.

Now don't hate.

[jdurant]

Yeah, the more I think about it, the more responsible I feel. I needed to clear all three lanes of traffic, even though it was a turning lane.
However, I have heard of people getting tickets for driving too far in the turn lane. And if I would have been in his place, I would have thought it was my fault. I don't feel like the other driver had no fault. He really shouldn't have been there. I don't get over early like that, because I think it's dangerous.

I guess, I'm most annoyed with myself, then the guy that waved me on, then the guy in the Sante Fe.

I wish it hadn't happened.