So the last Saturday before last - 3 days after we got back from holidays - we went down to the DFO to buy me a cheap $30 pair of running sneakers (which turned out to be a $70 pair of Saucony's, since they were the only one to go to a size 14). Backing out of the undercover carpark in the Pathfinder saw this happen:
Yup - backed it into a pole. In my defence, the poles in that carpark are put in the most stupid places - this one was right in the middle of the driveway. Of course, I wasn't even expecting a pole there and the angle I backed out on, with the curve of the steering, kept the pole neatly hidden behind the back of the wagon until it was too late. But, it was my own stupid fault for not noticing it was there, I suppose. I've been wanting a reversing camera for a while now, because it's a bit hard to see if anyone little is behind the car, so that might have just moved up the list now.
Good news is that it missed the expensive tail light completely, and didn't actually damage the metal panel. The plastic flare had been pulled off, and, as it turns out, one of it's mounting brackets broken off. It's also got a lot of spider-webbing in the paint where it was flexed around. The lower flare/mudflat/spat was also damaged, and has a lot of paint ripped off. The rear bumper was pushed off it's mounting clips, and hanging low. It looks a lot better in these photos than it did in real life.
The yellow paint on the body came off with some cutting polish and a bit of elbow grease. Pulled the flare and mudflap, which necessitated removing the wheel to get the spanner and screwdriver in there. In the above photo, those with keen eyes might notice a pile of dirt on the ground under the wheel well. This is where it came from:
The bottom half of the flare was packed full of dirt. A nice design to be sure - fill up with mud/salt water/whatever, and then hold it nicely against the metal of the car! This was all well dry by now, and the paint and panel that it was held against cleaned up just like new, so thank goodness for a nice thick coating of paint. You can bet I'll be pulling off the other flares in the near future and cleaning them out as well.
Whilst under the car with the wheel out of the way, I had the opportunity to have a good look at the huge void just aft of the rear passenger-side tyre:
If that doesn't look like the perfect position for a second battery, I don't know what does! Lots of nice, solid mounting positions, out of the way, easy access for power up into the rear load area - perfect. So I might need to borrow Trev's welder and see if I can knock up some sort of bracket to hold a battery box up in there. A lot of Pathfinder owners mount a second battery in the back load area, something that doesn't really appeal to me. This looks like it will be the perfect spot though, and it shouldn't be
that difficult either! Eventually, I'd love to get someone to knock up a steel rear bar to replace the entire bumper, which could incorporate spaces like these, as well as provide a rear wheel carrier mount. But that will be a fair way down the track, if at all.
As for the damage - I've glued the mounting point on the flare back on in what I hope is the right position, and re-inforced it. I've bent the bumper bar mounts back to what I think they should be, and have used an inappropriate amount of touch-up paint to make the mudflat spat white again. In the process however I'd lost one of the plastic clips that hold the flare onto the body of the car, so I'll need to see about sourcing something similar that can be made to work. Once I can sand down and polish the touchup paint on the mudflap, it'll be time to screw it all back together and see how dodgy it looks!
