Blown Tire

[B Jake Moran]

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=952524138479770&set=pcb.10158205687749119&type=3&__tn__=HH-R&eid=ARC5N9hcf0Zq6VTZ-t9w6OgpVec93zFn6tDZZxIB8FQpJiQEHNSoxanFjbRvh-7nUUGqKVUaazrQJdZC

 

A friend of mine had a right front tire blow on his Reatta convertible.  Basically it terminated the right front fender. 

 

[dship]

Saw it on Facebook....nasty looking but does seem to be quite fixable.  Good to know that Keith was not hurt.

[Josh B.]

My Reatta had a similar issue with the previous owner. They put in a newer short block but after buttoning everything up, they never properly realigned the front end in combo with having tires on the front bigger than they should have been. He cranked the wheel and it caught and blew out on the driver's side. Exploded the fender, destroyed the wheel well liner, a bit of the molding on the driver's door, and a little part of that middle strip on the bumper cover. If there is one thing I know I want to invest in as spares it's the fenders, just in case.

[Y-JobFan]

The FB link is not working, it is also on the V8 site.  

[Y-JobFan]

[Jim]

I just sent Keith some other parts and shared my similar experience with him.

Maybe it is something in Florida.
Back in '06 I flew to Orlando and bought a black Reatta convertible. The same day I drove to Naples and stayed over night with some friends. The next day we drove over to Miami and went to some junk yards and then on the way back across "alligator alley" I felt a vibration but we kept going as my friend had to be back at a certain time. About the middle of alligator alley the same right front tire blew the tread off and my fender looked like yours. Fortunately it was only the fender and it damaged the hood a little. I owned the car for less than 24 hours and now had a fenderless Reatta. At the time there was a fellow in Florida selling parts so we drove the next day to the Daytona area and put on a used black fender which made my car look much better for the trip back to Duluth.
I then repainted the fender and hood and it came out very nice.
 

[Ronnie]

I came close to having the same thing happen me that would have taken out the front fender.  Not long after I bought my Reatta I left out of the driveway one morning and felt bumping coming from the front of the car.  I could feel it in the steering wheel too. I went about 1000 feet to the stop sign at an intersection where I turned around and came back home.  After inspecting the tires I found that the left front had a raised place in the center of the tread about the size of an egg where the tread had separated from the tire.  I have no doubt if I had turned at the stop sign onto the main highway the front tire would have blown out and destroyed the front fender when I got up to speed.  Although all four tires looked new, on closer inspection I found that they were all dry rotted and cracked and were ready to come apart. I learned my lesson about driving on old tires even if they look new.

Edited November 26, 2019 by Ronnie (see edit history)

[Y-JobFan]

Saw on V8 site that Hagerty totaled the car - it sounds from the description that shrapnel damaged a large portion of the right side of the car including the back deck - posted parts alone were $2760 not including the windshield and every panel needed painted except the drivers fender, door and quarter and headlight doors, so basically they would have painted the entire car plus all the parts replacement and repair.

 

[39BuickEight]

Don't forget care are totaled for many reasons.  Repair cost is one-the main one of course.  Others include constructive total losses (where the salvage return is expected to be good-enough to make the net money paid less than the repairs), claims where there might be additional damage and it's not worth the time and money to keep the claim open longer to figure it out (rental expenses, for example, go up, while the salvage value goes down - the longer the claim takes), and also times when an insured owner wants to total the vehicle when it's not a total mathematically.  If it's close and there are possible issues that could happen down the road (mechanical damage/insured wanting endless unrelated items covered and dragging things out).  Smart insurance companies will go ahead and total those cars too.  Then you have the imaginary diminishment of value claims where someone tries to say they have a loss of value just because the car was in an accident, and a shady car salesman tells them so.  If someone is going to whine about that, sometimes it's better just to get rid of the vehicle.