Don't know what to do.

Sheesh man, it sounds like your taking this RATHER hard.
1) no one was hurt
2) it was a single car accident (Don't have to worry about sue the happy public)
3) no major damage to the car
4) as long as you replace the bucket with an original, what's the difference?

Good luck, take a deep breathe, and get some perspective!! HANG IN THERE!

P.S. Not trying to downplay your misfortune, I know it sucks now, but when you read your post in a month, you'll see what I mean!

That sucks, but it could have been worse (you could have hit a little kid or totalled your car or something). Try to think positively and don't get too depressed.

If you're gonna kill yourself, make me the one who inherits your car when you do the deed.

I'm gonna say something that may sting a bit, and maybe I'm saying this because I'm about to become a father, but I think you're not taking it hard enough. You're going on and on about damage to the car and you wish blah blah blah, but you made the #1 mistake. NEVER TAKE YOUR EYES OFF THE ROAD! You knew that before you got in the car, but it obviously wasn't clear enough in your mind. It could've been a dog, or another car, or a kid. My kid. That's a real possibility, not some hypothetical accademic thought.

So, if it takes your supposedly precious car getting damaged to make sure you never do it again, then I think it's a small price to pay. So suck it up, stop pitying yourself, fix the car, and drive more carefully from now on.

**** happens....its just the way it is. It will either happen now or later. Its all repairable and its just metal. Dont worry about value...the value is what it means to you. If you someday decide to sell it, the car has already depriciated in your eyes. I bought my 67 when I was 16. since then Its been backed into 2 times, hit twice, I rearended someone once, and just this last weekend chunked my fender in a parking garage. Its all about the trials and tribulations. Look at it like a relationship with a person...be it your family or a woman. Things are not always good, but you have to just recover and move on. Fix the problems and let that be part of the bond you have with it!

Dont worry...we all do stupid things. Its just what we do. It will cost some money to fix, but it can be fixed.

Damn. Makes me think. I do take my eyes off the road for a very small period of time changing CDs, but that is only on the highway where nothing can happen to me because I am young.

I do not talk on the Cell while driving. I really can't with the crazy Mustang I have, but any car. I need to be more careful with the music though.

I actually had an accident due to the radio. I looked both ways at a stop along highway 90 in Biloxi. I decided to change the song on the brand new Beastie Boys album "Hello Nasty". I changed songs and then ran my car into a little Ford pickup. Luckily no one was hurt. I really messed up the truck. My car, on the other hand, had dent in the fender of rougly 8 inch circumference. Dark Green 72 Pontiac Venturas are tanks.

Unfortunately being 17 and being stupid often go hand in hand. We have all been there and done that, making a mistake is fine so long as you learn from it and you seem to have done so. That being the case, be thankful it was a best case scenario and let it go at that. Not too long ago I was just trying to adjust one simple thing, a 2 minute job at best so I opted not to take the extra minute to go in the back of the garage and get my fender apron to work over since I am always carefull. Well wouldn't you know that I went and dropped my socket and took a dime size chunk of paint right off the top of the fender. Don't think I didn't stew over that one all fricking week over a bottle of Jagermeister. Needless to say the apron comes out now even when I check the oil. Fortunately my paint is several years past being perfect already and I have been wanting to redo it for some time, but it sure looked better without that big ass chip staring me in the face every single time I walk past the car to get in.

being stupid and 17 go hand and hand...but after crunching my fender the other night I guess 31 and stupid work well together too. Because no one was hurt, THE MOST IMPORTANT THING YOU CAN DO HERE IS LEARN SOMETHING FROM IT!

mfp4073 said:

being stupid and 17 go hand and hand...

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not always, i went through 17 and now half of 18 and never had a ticket or an accident (knock on wood).

I think its great you have to fix your car, look at it like this. Maybe having to wait longer for the race heads will give you time to mature some more and maybe the race heads wont cause a worse accident.

17 and stupid? What if you're a bit older than that and still less than a genius? Seriously, these guys are right, you learned a valuable lesson this time. Do your radio tweaking in the driveway while the car warms up, not while on the road. As per usual, I have a related story to illustrate how seriously you should take driving. Last year, one of the guys I work with was telling another coworker about an accident a freind of the family's daughter had. She was driving on a local stretch of highway, went to change the CD in her truck and went off the road, hitting an killing an off-duty cop who was taking a few weeks to do a bicycle tour of the north coast. They were talking about what a shame it was (for her) and how upset she was about it, etc. I could not believe my ears! What about the DEAD BICYCLIST??? I drive over the same highway everyday to work, and the next day, I looked at the accident scene, it was perfectly straight, two lanes wide and during the middle of the day, how in the hell could this happen? The same way as your incident, because we as humans rely in our eyes for directional control. Divert your eyes, and the car will drift off, every time without exception. Several years ago, I entered a game at a local show, it was called "blind driver", Essentially, here's how it worked: there's a simple "S" turn laid out in balloons in a parking lot. The driver is blindfolded, and needs to run the course with only verbal instructions from the passenger. Sounds simple, but once the blindfold is on, I could not feel any movement at all from the car. Since you aren't getting any feedback to the brain from sight, you really can't tell if the car is moving, turning, or stopped, creepy, but true. The point (yes, there's a point!) is that driving is soooooo easy, we take for granted the consequences of a miscue. Even something so small as swapping the stations could result in the death penalty for a pedestrian. Your wrinkled fender is a small price to pay.

65fastback2+2 said:

not always, i went through 17 and now half of 18 and never had a ticket or an accident (knock on wood).

I think its great you have to fix your car, look at it like this. Maybe having to wait longer for the race heads will give you time to mature some more and maybe the race heads wont cause a worse accident.

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I was just commenting on what pakrat said.....and I agree. I am not saying I was any different and I was safer than a lot of my friends.....its what happens when you build your own car at 16. And specifically, just a moment of not paying attention can get you into a lot of trouble at any age.

69Rcode_Mach1 said:

Man i feel like i just wanna kill myself.

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Every driver eventually makes a mistake no matter how careful. There are no old bold pilots! This statement is true of car pilots too! You learned a lesson early with almost no pain. Remember the lesson!

My brother died (a long time ago) in a '67 Cougar GT390 while driving too fast. Now that's pain!

accidents happen if they could be prevented they would be called something else. i've been in plenty of them some my fault most were not. i remember one time when i was young and stupid i was driving too fast around an icy corner and wound up launching my 65 onto a 3ft snow bank where it teetered until someone was kind enough to help me. then a year later i wound up back on the same damn snow bank but this time it wasn't as high so i drove over the town green. it's too bad you car got damaged but at least it will remind you to be more careful when your driving.

mfp4073 said:

I was just commenting on what pakrat said.....and I agree. I am not saying I was any different and I was safer than a lot of my friends.....its what happens when you build your own car at 16. And specifically, just a moment of not paying attention can get you into a lot of trouble at any age.

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Right, and I was sure to say "OFTEN" go hand in hand, not always. Plus you can't limit your record of not being stupid to driving only, at least I certainly wasn't limiting it to that. I'm sorry, but any teenager that has not done anything stupid runs the risk of growing up as the worlds dullest person.