Wednesday, January 21, 2015

RV Bumper Finally Repaired

Here is the story from our 11/29/14 blog, about the damage I did in the fog in Acayucan.

We left Catemaco early in a light rain and fog. The traffic was light. But getting on the cuota at Acayucan is a little confusing. Once before I took the wrong ramp. So this time we see the sign that says turn left for Villahermosa, so I do. But, in the fog I turned too soon. I’m driving down the out ramp not the in ramp. So I need to make a U-turn but there are 3 young Mexicans that tried to direct me.

I didn’t see the low guardrail while backing up, BANG, I hit the corner of my bumper, and the guardrail was so low that when I pulled forward it caught onto the bumper and pulled the corner of the fiberglass bumper out from the RV and also broke one tail light.  But, I finally got turned around and even with their help I managed to do another minor ding on the left hand bumper.

We made it out OK and into the correct turning lane which was about 50’ further down the highway. I guess when we get to our winter destination at Xpu-Ha we will need to have some fiberglass repair work done.

2_RightBumperDamage

Right Side damage shown above, Left side is below.

1_LeftBumperDamage

We were missing both side marker lights, one tail light and a small fiberglass piece that the side drawer slides against. Before Christmas I wrote our RV manufacturer Phoenix Cruiser and had them ship the parts to my home so we could bring them back after Christmas with our family. The cost for everything with shipping was only $40. Love this company, they are easy to deal with and know what they are doing and their prices are very inexpensive.

Well in January we finally got a guy that repairs boats at Xpu-Ha to  stop by and agree to fix it. No price estimate was established.

A week ago Monday he finally showed and asks for some money to buy fiberglass supplies and started working on and off for the past 10 days. I took pictures as it finally all came back together.

3_LeftBumper15_LeftBumper24_RightBumper16_RightBumper27_RightBumperPaint8_RightBumperComplete9_RVBackBumper

He finally finished today and it looks great. His total cost including all materials was only $180 USD. Wow, I thought it would cost at least twice that. The best part was, he did it right in our campsite and we never had to go anywhere to have it repaired. I know in the USA it would have come out perfect but at what cost?

The weather here has been great in January. Most of the seaweed went away when the wind stopped. There is still a little coming ashore each day, but the beach workers quickly get it cleaned up at each business. We have had no rain. Daytime highs are in the low 80’s with lows around 65oF. I got to paddle a few days again. One day I went surfing while we still had some big waves and last Sunday I paddled over to Puerto Adventuras when the ocean was dead calm. It’s about 3-4 mi each way.

2 comments:

  1. Wow it looks great! Glad you got that fixed and are having a good time. The weather sounds fabulous. It's no bueno here.
    Love you!!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Such a great repair! You would never know that there had been an accident.......and what a deal! Happy for you! Helen

    ReplyDelete

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