Well, the wreck happened in 2008 and unfortunately, or fortunately, I don't remember anything at all. The wreck didn't put me in a coma, I was placed in an induced coma after a few days due to Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome. Essentially they had me on a constant drip of Adavan and Dipravan (spelling my be wrong) which put me in a medically induced coma and paralyzed state for which I stayed for roughly 2 months. The side effects of these drugs are severe memory loss. The only thing I have to go on is the accident report which is one sided since I was non-responsive. This happened on a 2 lane road, I was headed north and the truck was headed south. Per the driver of the truck, he had to stop quickly because 2 cars in front of him stopped. This happened to be at a side road that people tend to make a left hand turn at. So supposedly those cars were stopped because one of them was turning left? So, when he stopped, he said he looked in the rear view mirror and saw a green van coming, so he held the brakes as hard as he could. At that exact moment the cars in front of the truck took off and the van clipped the right rear bumper of the truck which supposedly pushed that full size chevy silverado into my lane as I passed. I don't fully buy his story and I think he is telling half truths, but I can't prove it. I actually spoke with the kid driving the van, who was deemed at fault, and he said yes he did hit the truck. I asked him if the truck was turning...if it had a blinker on...or anything, but all he remembers is he was looking down, and then saw the truck and tried to swerve but ran into the truck. To me, based on the damage and whatnot, I think the truck was trying to turn and thought he could make it before I got there but then slammed on the brakes when he realized he wasn't going to make it and that caused the van to rear end him and push him further into my lane. Now, I can't prove any of this, so I pretty much screwed. The kid driving the van was deemed at fault and he had liability insurance only. So legally, the insurance company was only to pay the min amount which was 10K, but that all went directly to the hospital. Hell, it was 10k a day in ICU! My medical bills were almost a million! The kid lived at home with mom and grandparents and they had nothing, so I got nothing. You have to love our system...spill some hot coffee on you and get a few million, almost die in a wreck that wasn't your fault, and you get nothing. Yea America!
Since the front end is insanely long, I needed a way to tell where it was while drifting. I decided to make a hood ornament that resembles an old gun sight, but with my own unique design. So this thing will be mounted to the front of the bash bar as a means to help me determine where the front end is lol Yes, a GoPro looking through the gun sight would be pretty damn cool!
The rear of the fender looks rough, but those gaps were crazy. My paint & body guy told me just weld a few area and he will fix the rest. Trust me when I say...once he does the paint & body, you won't be able to tell; it will just look like one solid fender.
Sorry. Not much time to slowly scroll through while I'm working.
Torture device?
And understandably you could get those fenders to look like a solid piece. I have been contemplating between fixing my truck bed in a similar fashion or giving her a wood flatbed for E36 M3s & grins. I'm thinking fix. Welding, bondo, and rhino-liner. :D
Shes looking great. Keep up the good work.
Awesome build, love the stretch. What are the plans for a final finish, please don't say the rat look!
boost_dependent wrote:
....... he had liability insurance only. So legally, the insurance company was only to pay the min amount which was 10K, but that all went directly to the hospital. Hell, it was 10k a day in ICU! My medical bills were almost a million! The kid lived at home with mom and grandparents and they had nothing, so I got nothing. You have to love our system...spill some hot coffee on you and get a few million, almost die in a wreck that wasn't your fault, and you get nothing. Yea America!
So so very sorry for you.
So you ended up paying the million or did you have to declare bankruptcy? And people wonder why I can't believe a 'civilized' country has anything other than a single payer system! Having grown up in the UK your costs would have been exactly $0.00
Adrian_Thompson wrote:
Awesome build, love the stretch. What are the plans for a final finish, please don't say the rat look!
boost_dependent wrote:
....... he had liability insurance only. So legally, the insurance company was only to pay the min amount which was 10K, but that all went directly to the hospital. Hell, it was 10k a day in ICU! My medical bills were almost a million! The kid lived at home with mom and grandparents and they had nothing, so I got nothing. You have to love our system...spill some hot coffee on you and get a few million, almost die in a wreck that wasn't your fault, and you get nothing. Yea America!
So so very sorry for you.
So you ended up paying the million or did you have to declare bankruptcy? And people wonder why I can't believe a 'civilized' country has anything other than a single payer system! Having grown up in the UK your costs would have been exactly $0.00
Thank you, I'm glad you like the stretch. As far as final finish, are you referring to paint, or what exactly? As far as paint goes, it will be industrial satin black. There is a theme to this build--Project: SR71. Like the name implies, it will have aircraft traits here and there.
As far as the hospital bill is concerned, we fought that for about a year and in the end we actually got the hospital to write off most of it which helped. I would have been better off slipping and falling in a McDonald's or something lol
A few minor changes to the build section of my website:
http://www.nostalgicimaging.com/Project-SR71/SR-71/
