Bill Ball

Some of you may have read about my roadtrip encounter with a rather large stray pipe on the way from California to the Dallas OCIC. If not, here's the thread.
https://rennlist.com/forums/928-foru...n-trouble.html

Thanks to Darien Nunn, Dr. Bob, Kevin Flynn, John Corenman, Roger, Sean R, Stan Cohen (mrmerlin) and Brad Webster, my car was made drivable in no-time and completed the near 4000 mile trip successfully.

Today I got a closer look at the damage. To say I am "Mr. Lucky" may be an understatement. The pipe went VERY close to a lot of things. The primary damage was to the driver side rear exhaust, shown here by the side of the road after I pulled it from under the car. If you have ever taken a hammer to one of the 928 exhaust pipes, you know that it took some considerable force to create this damage. My 3 lb sledge hammer will hardly leave a mark on the pipe.



Later, when we were installing the new shifter cable, Stan noted the pipe missed one rear brake line by an inch, pushing up and cutting through the floor a bit. Looking at it today, I don't think it missed the brake line at all. It appears to have shoved the line to one side and put a nice curve in it. This does not look normal....



Weird, huh?

In this next shot you can see the dirt shadow where the brake line used to run, left after I pressure washed the bottom of the car a while back. The brake line was gently moved over by the pipe. There are no kinks, nicks or other signs of damage beside the curve.



When the exhaust was shoved up into the tranny area, kinking the shifter cable, it slightly tweaked the end of one of the tranny fluid hoses. Again, the part survived unbroken, but has a slight seapage that is not dripping. I will order new lines today.



The pipe gouged one of the RMB pipes. I have a pipe expander that should work that out.



Heh, here is the temporary "adapter" used to fit Darien's 86 exhaust to my car. The 86 driver side rear exhaust is a couple of inches shorter than later ones. The adapter shows no evidence of leaking and is taking on a nice patina after the 1700 mile ride home. I'm looking for a good used rear driver side exhaust with GT resonators so I can send Darien's exhaust back to him, hopefully soon.



The battery box took the last hit, raising its floor and distorting one side of the battery a little.



Here's the battery...



And the box reshaped...



So, the pipe missed the front spoiler, ripped the front bellypan a bit more than it already was (new one now installed), dented the rear bellypan (which Stan and I pounded out), raised and cut the floor a little, mostly behind the front seat (should be an easy fix), shoved one brake line over, smashed up the driver side rear exhaust (used on order), crinkled the heat shield (good used one now installed) and pushed it up into the shifter cable (now replaced) and ATF line fitting (line on order), banged on parts of the lower control arm (notsignificant), and hit the RMB and battery box before leaving. Call me Mr. Lucky that the alternator, oil pan, brake lines, tranny pan and both bumpers were spared.

Darien

Must be all that "good living" Bill

Garth S

All said & done, both you and car came out of that surprisingly well - a pipe bomb that did limited damage.

Landseer

Wow. If that car could speak.

John Veninger

Amazing!

pcar928fan

Hope you bought a lottery ticket that day!!! Well, maybe you used up all the luck in that one encounter! Glad you made it round trip and it was good meeting you!

michael j wright

I believe that you were being looked at from above on this one! Wierd brake line damage! and just thinking about what could have happend with the battery scares the *%$# out of me! Glad to see that yoiu got through it all right!

Mrmerlin

that is a great story i like the Patina of the exhaust extension, might be good wall art for the garage......
The battery took a good hit and its great that it didnt leak, it might have damaged one of the cells though...

Ed Scherer

I'm a bit disappointed in your choice here, though:



Didn't you realize just how close you were to having a legitimate reason to fit a real coffee can exhaust?

Bill Ball

Yeah, Stan, the battery is checking out OK. I looked over the case carefully and I think it just avoided a crack.

Somebody wanted to scare me a little but not hurt me.

IcemanG17

wow Bill you did get VERY lucky.....

heinrich

Great job guys .. Bill, you deserved the goodness

joejoe

Very lucky Bill. We were not so lucky with our '90 944s2 cabriolet. Just after doing all belts and fluids my dad took it out and ran over a truckers' tie down for 4'x4' bins. The hook tore through the belly pan and took out the oil pan. Surprisingly the trucker had stopped and my dad got his information. I priced replacement parts for about $1500 and $400 for me to do the work. The trucker was flabergasted saying it was only an oil pan. I told him to call around and see if a shop could do the work for less. Needless to say I had a check for my price the next day. (No shop would fix for less than $6,000)

Nicole

Welcome back to California! I'm glad you made it home safely with your "illegal" redneck exhaust modifications.

Now our cars can talk to each other about their experiences with slit bellies...

6mil928

Yep close call glad it worked out Bill. It's good to have friends huh