Accident recently...
The Bad:
Well, unfortunately, I had an accident recently with my 2005 Focus, middle of last month. There was a ridge in the road where they had stripped the asphalt and there was no signs warning drivers of the impending danger. I was going to change lanes, glanced to my right mirror, and out of the corner of my eye I spotted the brake lights of the car in front of me. I put on my brakes, but when I whipped back to look in that same instance, he was braking harder. I tried to brake harder and unfortunately it didn't work out as I had hoped. I kinda steered a little to the right, but didn't want to cause another accident if there was a car beside me, so I ended up hitting the rear of the Civic in front of me. My first accident and I'm not very happy that I damaged my car, or anyone else's for that matter.
The initial estimate is approx. $9000 but of course that will go up as they find other things wrong. There were a few parts that needed to be ordered after they tore it down, like the drivers side frame fender support, and a few other misc. body parts.
Maybe someone can help me here, there is some kind of valve, or air intake that is on the front of the engine below the throttle body. There seems to be a tube or hose that normally connects to it, but it's broken off. They don't know what it is, and they figure that's where the extra air is coming in from because the car still isn't running right. Any ideas? Because they also need to order the part to fix it properly.
The good:
The insurance company has agreed to let me put on aftermarket parts instead of the OEM parts. The OEM front bumper is $590, and the OEM hood is $465, so this was an opportunity I couldn't pass up.
The body kit is sassy. It's the OEM euro Focus RS replica kit from F2Focus.com (Better picture here: F2kit) I'm just getting the narrowbody kit, not the widebody in the pictures. It's made from high quality Urethane; it feels and flexes like OEM products. There are cut outs in the rear bumper for the euro bumper lamps, which I am definitely going to order and install. I'm also going to get the crystal clear front turn signals like the euro Focus RS.
The hood, is also sassy. It's the vented 'invader style' from DeftRacing.com Good quality CF, it was bubble wraped to the power of 10, it come with a hood latch installed, and it came bolted to a couple pieces of 2 x 4's to save the corners of the hood from damage. It's the vented style, and already comes with a mesh grill attached to the vent.
There's a few other misc. things I'm going to get done while it's there, like removal over the side body moldings.
I plan to put as much 3M as I can on that front end, and any other part of my car that could get normal rock chips. It will be parked until spring though, to help reduce the risk of paint damage.
I wasn't sure where to post this, but I can't contain my excitement. Hopefully it'll be done in a few weeks and I can at least take shots of it at the bodyshop. As for now, I'll just have to settle with the images dancing around in my head.
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