HELP - Minor SGT Damage from Dog Strike

[AndyGJ]

HELP!!

 

I don't know what I'm more sick over...the car or the dog that I hit. I was out to exchange a Birthday present for my daughter tonight, and I was on my way back home. I decided to take a different road home since the normal road I would take was being resurfaced this week and I didn't want to throw a lot of asphalt debris against my paint.

 

I'm just cruising along on this 2 lane road behind another car doing about 40...following a good 3 to 4 car lengths behind. All of a sudden, a massive chocolate brown lab steps out of the darkness at a slow run about 20 feet in front of my car heading right at my stripes. I didn't even have time to hit the horn and barely hit the brakes (I went hard on them ASAP and maintained my lane). He must have been a good 75 to 85 pound dog or more.

 

I immediately pulled over about 30 feet past impact into the driveway of a large mega mansion....since it happened so fast I wasn't sure if he went under the car any or if he rebounded off and back the direction he came. I think his head caught my bumper right on the stripes, not sure if any impact with upper or lower grill. His jaw was so large that it took off a ton of the silver decals, some paint, below, and not sure if the bumper cover is cracked. You can see strange "swirl-like" marks on the front and top area of the stripes where the bumper cover must have compressed under the impact.

 

Help Item - car drove home OK, but shifter sounded a little raspy for a while, but then seemed to disapear...not sure if I was just hearing things or if that might be something to check.

 

I have a great shop to do any paint & body work, but not sure how they are on decals that we have to get from the Shelby folks. Should I have them replace and repaint the bumper cover if the cover is damaged below the stripes, or would you just put the new stripes on in a fashion to hide any visible damage underneath?

 

Anything else I might be missing????

 

My wife said that I was handling this much better than she thought I would....at the end of the day it's just a car...at least it wasn't a deer that I hit and really messed it up. I was driving slow and watching for deer as they are very active at night along this road in Atlanta. I never expected a giant dog...

 

 

Weird part is that after I exited the car to see what the condition of the front end was (headlights were all I had since the kids took my flashlight out w/o telling me), I looked back at the road to see where the dog was and his status. He was barely breathing and on the same side of the road....and another dog - female chocolate brown lab - was standing in the road. I called to the other dog to get out of the road and it finally came towards the one I hit, could tell that her mate was dying, and then sadly walked over to me. I went to ring the call box on the gated driveway, but no answer.

 

The dog disappeared but the car behind me who saw the whole thing picked up the other live dog and came back to where I was parked...still dont know who owns them...no collar or anything. I called Police to help us, and we moved the dog off the road and dealt with the nice lady who stopped to get the female dog to a 24 hr vet who might could locate the owner if the dog has the ID Chip in it.

 

Oh well, any help or suggestions on getting this approached to be good as new would be Awesome!!

 

Thanks,

AndyGJ

[1965coupe]

Sorry to hear about what happened..

 

I know what it's like to get your SGT 'scarred'; been there, done that. But all is well now (except for having a quarter panel painted with water-based paint [damn CA]).

 

Is there any way you can post pictures? I'm a visual kinda guy so I just need to fathom the extent of the damage.

[AndyGJ]

Sorry to hear about what happened..

 

I know what it's like to get your SGT 'scarred'; been there, done that. But all is well now (except for having a quarter panel painted with water-based paint [damn CA]).

 

Is there any way you can post pictures? I'm a visual kinda guy so I just need to fathom the extent of the damage.

 

 

 

I'll post some later tonight when I get back in from work....

[ilmor]

This is all too bad; I hope it all gets worked out for the best.

[grsybtch]

Don't have any advise, but sorry about the damage

 

 

Metro Atlanta roads are harder on cars then any where I have lived.

 

Between the animals and the amount of sand and rocks on the roads your paint and windsheild don't stand a chance

[NordicShelby]

This is sad for both the dog and your car. I sure hope they find the owner and to bad they didn't have tags on their dogs.

[2007_Shelby_GT]

Andy,

 

Sorry for your accident - nice of you to stop and help with the dog, most folks don't.

 

Anyhow, the front fascia is a one piece item, and the grill/surround and turn signals stay attached. It is VERY EASY to remove so my advice would be to do some preliminary investigation on your own. Immediately behind the fascia is a bumper protector made out of high-density styrofoam, (which may have been crushed by the impact), and with the fascia removed you can check your bumper and components to see if there is hidden damage.

 

The dog probably passed beneath the car and because of it's size, I would definitely put the car on a lift/ramp to check for items that may have been bent/damaged. Possibly a plastic guard or two may have been damaged and some of those plastic rivets will need to be replaced. (this happened to me with an armadillo!)

 

If the damage is minimal, you could just take the fascia in for repair/repaint/restripe and keep the car safe at home. From your description of the swirl pattern, (stress cracks), it sounds like some painting is necessary.

 

Sam

[AndyGJ]

Here is an update...

 

We found the owners of the dogs. Apparently, they just moved into a new lease home about 1 mile away on Dec 1st., and the Dogs were in a fenced back yard and jumped the fence. They had just been to the vet that day, so their collars were not back on yet. The lady in the veh behind me sent out notes all over various websites and a friend of the owners saw it and got in touch with her to get the other dog back. They were brother / sister pair, and I hit Gus, the brother. Gabby is the sister.

 

The dogs were raised on a 5 acre plot in far North Atlanta area, and the owners fell on hard financial times and lost the home to a foreclosure on Nov 30th...this just adds salt in the wounds. Now comes the hard part...they have 4 kids and the wife was just diagonosed with stage 2 breast cancer. I really feel bad for them...my car is nothing compared to what they face.

 

Here is the ironic part. I was driving my Shelby for the past week because a local friend of mine and my wife's had his transmission drop on his old BMW and didn't have money to repair it right now. He was taking the bus to and from work and missing appointments with some of his clients due to no vehicle...missing out on good money from his job by not having a vehicle. I told him to take my 2010 Expedition for the week so he could keep on his "A" game at work. He was bringing the vehicle back to me Friday afternoon and went out to the parking lot to drive to my house, when he noticed the damage where someone had just smashed my Passenger's side rear view mirror crushing the LED turnsignal, shattering the mirror and cracking the entire black case of the housing. It is just barely hanging on. What a BUMMER!!

 

NOW I HAVE TWO VEHICLES DAMAGED. But if that is the worst thing that I face for the rest of this year, then I'm considering myself lucky.

 

I have a great body shop across the street from my State Farm office, and they are super eager to help me since I send so many clients their way as they are one of our top notch certified shops. They have already ordered the mirror for me to be installed on Monday am. The have an inhouse Decal specialist who, by the way, owns a 2011 Shelby GT 500. I have requested the order to be confirmed from Ford Racing/Warranty for the replacement stripes and we will see what damage there is underneath once the stripes are in and I take it back to them. I'll have them put it on the lift to double check the underside. I used my SLR digital camera to shoot a few pictures underneath so I could examine in detail if I see any issues that are glaring. Everything happened so fast, I'm not sure if I went over him or he rebounded off the front. the body didn't look too mangled, so I think he was pushed off to the right due to the immediate impact head on from the right side.

 

I'll let you know what I hear on Monday or Tuesday...supposed to snow on Monday here so the car will be locked down in the garage...not taking any chances since things usually come in 3s!

[tko211]

I had a bird strike a year ago. I was having fun coming over a small bridge over a local river with my father riding shot gun. I was literally mid sentence in telling my Dad how much I loved the SGT and how snappy the throttle response is when a low flying bird came up over the bridge at bumper lever and I hit it without breaking at about 50 MPH. The bird when right into the grill and exploded. It was like I hit a goose down pillow! The feathers all flew up and over the windshield like a blanket and then nothing. I stopped and peeled off the remains from the grill and then washed off some blood. No damage. Poor animals!

[SVT NAJA]

Here is an update...

 

We found the owners of the dogs. Apparently, they just moved into a new lease home about 1 mile away on Dec 1st., and the Dogs were in a fenced back yard and jumped the fence. They had just been to the vet that day, so their collars were not back on yet. The lady in the veh behind me sent out notes all over various websites and a friend of the owners saw it and got in touch with her to get the other dog back. They were brother / sister pair, and I hit Gus, the brother. Gabby is the sister.

 

The dogs were raised on a 5 acre plot in far North Atlanta area, and the owners fell on hard financial times and lost the home to a foreclosure on Nov 30th...this just adds salt in the wounds. Now comes the hard part...they have 4 kids and the wife was just diagonosed with stage 2 breast cancer. I really feel bad for them...my car is nothing compared to what they face.

Here is the ironic part. I was driving my Shelby for the past week because a local friend of mine and my wife's had his transmission drop on his old BMW and didn't have money to repair it right now. He was taking the bus to and from work and missing appointments with some of his clients due to no vehicle...missing out on good money from his job by not having a vehicle. I told him to take my 2010 Expedition for the week so he could keep on his "A" game at work. He was bringing the vehicle back to me Friday afternoon and went out to the parking lot to drive to my house, when he noticed the damage where someone had just smashed my Passenger's side rear view mirror crushing the LED turnsignal, shattering the mirror and cracking the entire black case of the housing. It is just barely hanging on. What a BUMMER!!

 

NOW I HAVE TWO VEHICLES DAMAGED. But if that is the worst thing that I face for the rest of this year, then I'm considering myself lucky.

 

I have a great body shop across the street from my State Farm office, and they are super eager to help me since I send so many clients their way as they are one of our top notch certified shops. They have already ordered the mirror for me to be installed on Monday am. The have an inhouse Decal specialist who, by the way, owns a 2011 Shelby GT 500. I have requested the order to be confirmed from Ford Racing/Warranty for the replacement stripes and we will see what damage there is underneath once the stripes are in and I take it back to them. I'll have them put it on the lift to double check the underside. I used my SLR digital camera to shoot a few pictures underneath so I could examine in detail if I see any issues that are glaring. Everything happened so fast, I'm not sure if I went over him or he rebounded off the front. the body didn't look too mangled, so I think he was pushed off to the right due to the immediate impact head on from the right side.

 

I'll let you know what I hear on Monday or Tuesday...supposed to snow on Monday here so the car will be locked down in the garage...not taking any chances since things usually come in 3s!

 

 

AndyGJ,

 

It's stories like this that always remind me how blessed we and our families are to have good health and some degree of financial security. Owning a Shelby is just icing on the cake to be grateful for.

[SWEDEMAN]

I am glad you were not hurt and very thankful that you had the compassion to go to the dog to see if you could help. If the dog did died it is good to know you were thinking of the life of man's bnest friend firsdt and foremost as you knew your car could be repaired but the owner of that dog will have a loss that can never be taken to a body shop and made to live another day.

Merry Christmas!

[NordicShelby]

This story does make me appeciate all the blessings I have had in my life. I am glad that the owners of the dog were located and I am also glad that your shelby is going in good hands.

 

 

The story about you borrowing your SUV to your friend also reforces my new found beliefs of NEVER EVER borrow a vechicle or MONEY to a friend. I have borrowed Friends money and MOST of the time it ruins our friendship. I have had friends ask to borrow my vechicle and I always get that horrbile feeling that they are going to do something dumb and 9 out of 10 they do so now I will not borrow cash or one of my vechicles.