street rod

[Matt. K]

[gstark]

And here was I, expecting to see a lump of metal in the street.

And that's exactly what it is.

Is it me, or could the B&W conversion do with a bit more hardness?

[zafra52]

Love it! Well framed and it looks great in B&W.

[Matt. K]

Gary said,

Is it me, or could the B&W conversion do with a bit more hardness?

Hi Gary
It was a line call. I wanted to avoid the 'smack in the face big,black and bold', and prefered a more constrained version. This version has a nice sultry look to it....but I think it would work just as well with more punch.

[gstark]

And fair call too.

Thanks for explaining.

[ozimax]

This is a beautiful treatment of a classic hotrod. I just hope it wasn't out in the hail last night in Sydney!

[gstark]

I just hope it wasn't out in the hail last night in Sydney!

I had to drive through it on the way home last night. We had two big storms in the late-ish afternoon while I was at work, the second finishing around 5pm. I left the office at around 10 after 5, in glorious sunshine, clear blue sky, and top down. Traffic was somewhat heavy eastbound past the Anzac Bridge as I was heading towards the Cross City Funnel. The weather looked like it mighty be closing in so I put the top up as a precautionary measure, with just a few sporadic drops of rain as I entered the tunnel.

This was what I encountered upon exiting the tunnel at Rushcutters Bay

https://www.dropbox.com/s/gqtb0assl7s827m/2018_1220_170719_681.MOV?dl=0

Windscreen cracked in three places. Bonnet, bootlid, roof cover, all four guards, and one door were damaged! While there's not a lot of hits to most of these panels, I expect that the damage bill will be significant. The ICA has declared the storms as a catastrophic event ...

[zafra52]

Gary, it looks quite awful but hopefully you did not have too much damage. The dash-cam has a very clear picture. I've been toying with the idea of getting one. Are you happy with yours? What brand is it?

[gstark]

Sadly, there's lots of damage.

The windscreen is toast. At least 40 dents in the bonnet. Now that we've been able to take some time to more closely examine the car, there's some damage to both doors, all four guards, the boot lid, the roof cover plate, the bonnet, both A pillars, some of the chrome trim around the car's waistline, and a couple of areas on the (canvas) roof are showing scuffing.

Windscreen replacement is around $4K alone, including calibration of cameras and sensors. I'm thinking bonnet will need R&R, but perhaps paintless dent repairs elsewhere. There's heaps of damaged cars in town, and my windscreen will need to come in from Singapore. I have no idea yet of how long the full repair will take, and I probably won't know that until mid or late January.

I needed to chat with my insurer who told me that I should use their hail damage specialists. Car is a nudge over two years old, and they're not authorised Benz repairers, so going down that path would have possibly voided the warranty. We've now switched to my preferred repairer, which eliminates that issue.

It's an ugly situation, and I'm half expecting that the car might be considered to be a constructive total loss. But for now, she's still drivable, if not her usual pretty self.