14 Sep 09 A rough Sunday morning : smashed Chevy Venture windshield

OK, a bit of a breather over lunch after a hectic morning; 2 of my colleagues are out of the office while they take 5 days of training on Windows Server 2008.
I just realized that I haven’t published anything here since the mid-Spring several months ago! Don’t worry, I’ll be soon retroactively sharing some stories of my adventures and fun over the extended leave I enjoyed with the family over the summer.

So it was a brisk Sunday morning yesterday just before 8:00am as I drove on a local road near my home when suddenly a bit of a whooshing sound… I had about 0.25s to view the hood on my Chevy Venture rising up… and then a resounding smashing sound as it hit the windshield hard. The Chevy Venture hood has the front grill integrated into it and as such includes a near 90° angle. That hood angle is what caused most of the damage to the windshield which, despite being severely cracked, did not completely shatter. I was able to solidly close and latch the hood afterward, which surprised me a bit; I’m guessing it was improperly latched during a recent service visit or perhaps by me when I check the oil and other engine components.

As always, it could have been much worse, since I was driving on a secondary road at only about 65-75 km/h; I’m quite convinced the damage (and potential collision risk) would have been much worse if I were on a faster and busier highway.

I realized afterward that I had lost the chrome grill inlay and I returned with the boys (they weren’t with me at the time it happened) and Tristan was most proud to spot the shiny chrome grill just barely peeking out of the grass on the side of the road.

That was actually a good thing since just the replacement grill on eBay goes for between USD $70-105 and that’s not including shipping. Extra large bowl of ice cream for Tristan (and Zach, who checked his side of the road)…

Ah, it could have been worse… but still, about $450-600 all included to have the windshield (and possible molding) replaced. So, it’s riding my great Trek 6500zx bike for a couple of days depending on the repair delay…

Tags: Cars, Chevy Venture, Tristan, Zachary