[dstryr]

Short backstory, my Judge has been in storage for the better part of 12 years and I got it out and moved to where I live so my daughter could drive it before she graduated high school this past weekend.

It was a surprise that I brought it down and its in her mother’s garage, only access is my ex, my daughter, and her boyfriend but the boyfriend can only get in when my ex or daughter are home.

He does go over often to work on his truck..

Sunday evening the car was perfect. Yesterday my daughter calls and says her bf discovered some damage.

Daughter is upset that I want an answer and I’m upset because it looks like the bumper of bf’s truck busted up the grill and hammered the headlight door.

Unfortunately for him he has a history of doing stupid stuff so my first inclination is that because no one else has a vehicle with a bumper that could do this and he was there, its just hard to believe nobody knows anything.

So tired of **** happening when I try to do something nice..




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[67drake]

So it was damaged while parked in the garage, and nobody knows how it happened? This kind of crap pisses me off. When my kids screw something up or make a mistake, I don’t get half as pissed as when I’m lied to.

[dstryr]

Exactly, his truck is an older Chevy 2500 diesel, its was sitting in the driveway and I measured the bumper height, checked the bottom side of the the corners of the bumper and yes, there's a 'clean spot' on under one corner where it looks like it rode up over my bumper. The truck bumper is chrome so my bumper isn't going to scratch his or really leave any mark. Unbelievable! : \

I suppose it could be worse but the point is this kind of thing doesn't just 'happen'...

[Heybuck]

Originally Posted by dstryr

I suppose it could be worse but the point is this ...

You're dammed right it could be worse.... Be careful you are not talking about a future son-in-law!!!!

So what you have here is a daughter who believes everything her boyfriend tells her (above what her dad says), or, a dumb cluck boyfriend who hits your car and doesn't even realise it thus saying it wasn't him!!!

I feel for you mate.

[steve v]

You know what they say, No good deed goes unpunished!

The good news is the damage appears to be fairly minor.....a little more to the drivers side & you may have had a bumper pushed back into your fender to deal with.

I'd be finding a better place to store it, not much respect or trust at the ex's garage.

[form74]

Somebody needs a good talking to / Beating

[NeighborsComplaint]

Tell the boyfriend to come clean or he doesn't see your daughter anymore. You have the leverage.

Make him pay for it when he comes clean and then tell him your daughter deserves someone better than a liar and hit the road.

[77 Canamman]

Originally Posted by NeighborsComplaint

Tell the boyfriend to come clean or he doesn't see your daughter anymore. You have the leverage.

Make him pay for it when he comes clean and then tell him your daughter deserves someone better than a liar and hit the road.

X2..

[Chris65LeMans]

My condolences.

Others are suggesting starting a family war over it - I don't think that's the route I'd take.

[Fullsize455]

This is why I do not trust anyone, be it friend or family or anyone. I've had similar things happen twice, once to my Bonneville and once to my daily driver. My Bonneville was parked on the street in front of my house, and my neighbor's idiotic daughter in law backed into it, tweaking the front bumper, breaking the corner and marker light lenses and cracking the front header panel. She wasn't going to say a word about it, but thankfully my neighbor saw her do it and came out to apologize and gave her me info. She of course denied it, but when she came back over and her paint matched up perfectly with what was left on my bumper, she finally got all irritated, fessed up and offered me $100 to fix it on account of it being "such an old car it's barely worth fixing anyway". After a prolonged battle where I finally did end up calling her insurance company, she finally ponied up some real cash to fix it right.

If the car is in her possession, she's responsible for it, very simple. If she wants to pay to fix it out of her own pocket to cover her boyfriend, that's her business, but if you actually hold her to that, odds are she will come clean about it. She'll probably cover her boyfriend all day long as long as it's just words, but when it comes down to real cash her tune may very well change.

No chance I'd be letting her get away with it though. I'd demand it get fixed ASAP, period.

[68 461 Bird]

You are fortunate it happened while parked in the garage, should be covered by home owners insurance, I would think.

I dont know who you have this 69 RAM Air Judge insured with, but Grundy made me sign a disclaimer stating any child of mine under the age of 25 would not be covered in the event of an accident while driving it.

Why you would let such a valuable car in the possession of your ex and then let an inexperienced 17-8 year old drive such a fast car, is beyond comprehensible to me. Especially since you state its been in storage for 12 years which makes me believe she has no experience driving the Judge.

Not a smart thing to do in my book, but yes a nice gesture on your part. Good luck with the repair, find a reputable RESTORATION shop and not an every day collision shop. (If you do not do your own work)

[dstryr]

Originally Posted by 68 461 Bird

Why you would let such a valuable car in the possession of your ex and then let an inexperienced 17-8 year old drive such a fast car, is beyond comprehensible to me. Especially since you state its been in storage for 12 years which makes me believe she has no experience driving the Judge.

Not a smart thing to do in my book, but yes a nice gesture on your part. Good luck with the repair, find a reputable RESTORATION shop and not an every day collision shop. (If you do not do your own work)

Every situation is different.. take the bf out of the equation and my worry is zero. I taught my daughter to drive... not just sit behind the wheel and push on pedals and turn knobs.. but to do her own thinking and think for everyone else on the road. She drove my 440 6bbl road runner a couple years ago before I sold it and her car is an 07 Mazda 6... plenty fast and top ends way past this GTO, and she's earned my trust 100%. And she's been pulling her horse trailer with my truck for 2 years on her own, said once she learned to hook it and back it into its parking spot on her own she could have it any time she pleased, which is actually quite often.

She's super responsible, watches her money, respectful and honestly know she had her doubts about what her bf told her... she just flat out insists there is no proof, no orange paint on his truck so is a little upset that I'm sure it is the bf.

In the barrel racing world she's a beginner but has earned a ton of respect from the adults in the sport and equine world in general... integrity, doing what's right, doing favors and things she doesn't have to do but just does because they need done. Really I admire her sense of right/wrong/fair/unfair and that she picks her battles and keeps her life at zero drama..

And she's right, I know there's no 'proof'... just 2+2.. that's why this sucks.

Also trust my ex, there's zero reason she'd mess with it. And why is it in her garage? Because I was supposed to close on a house last week and have it out of there but the seller effed up the inspections and the septic system did not pass... small amount of work needed but I'm not closing 'til its done correctly. The trades are slammed in this area.. 2-3 weeks sometimes just to get a look...

[NeighborsComplaint]

I'm confused. First it was a dad/daughter bonding thing, but now it sounds like you had no place to put the car and left it with your ex.

Has the car been driven by your daughter or her boyfriend on their own or has it just been sitting there parked the whole time? If the damage occurred at your ex's, wouldn't broken parts of the grill be on the driveway or the garage floor? If not, someone went for ride and did something stupid which may be why both are tight lipped about it.

I went through this when I split up with my GF. She keyed my car in her garage and then parked it outside claiming someone must have vandalized it. I let her bury herself with her story when I called the cops over knowing full well I could see all the paint chips that were on the floor in a perfect outline around where the car was parked. The police got a real kick out of it and she paid to have the car repainted on in lieu of my pressing charges for felony damage to property.

[Fullsize455]

Originally Posted by Chris65LeMans

My condolences.

Others are suggesting starting a family war over it - I don't think that's the route I'd take.

Expecting someone to take responsibility for something isn't starting a war. But on the flip side, letting them get away with it on account of being family is just as bad, because it will keep happening.

As with all things in life, when people are held accountable, they either shape up or they screw themselves. When nobody holds them accountable, they are emboldened ro keep screwing up because they know they will get away with it. Doesn't matter if it's friend, family, stranger or neighbor, if someone causes damage to my vehicle, they're going to pay for it. In this case, with nobody fessing up, the responsibility falls on whoever has possession of the car. That will either motivate her to find out the truth, or admit the truth if she already knows it.

[Greg Reid]

Originally Posted by Fullsize455

In this case, with nobody fessing up, the responsibility falls on whoever has possession of the car.

Doesn't that depend on whether they asked for the car of if you asked them to store the car for you?
Still seems to be up in the air right now as to which case fits.
So dstryr, were you loaning use of the car as a favor or were they allowing you to leave it there so that they were doing you the favor?
Sorry about your car but as has been said, could have been much worse.

[GT182]

Take him aside and let him know you KNOW what hit the car.... HIS truck. If he comes clean and pays for it then by gones are by gones , nothing more said about it. Keep family out of it.

If he doesn't come clean then let him know all hell will break loose. But don't throw any punches as he'll have you arrested for assault. You can count on that. Stay as level headed as much as you can. If he throws a punch or two make sure you have a witness or two.... other than your daughter.

Stay cool and keep your stick on the ice.

[dstryr]

Originally Posted by NeighborsComplaint

I'm confused. First it was a dad/daughter bonding thing, but now it sounds like you had no place to put the car and left it with your ex.

Has the car been driven by your daughter or her boyfriend on their own or has it just been sitting there parked the whole time? If the damage occurred at your ex's, wouldn't broken parts of the grill be on the driveway or the garage floor? If not, someone went for ride and did something stupid which may be why both are tight lipped about it.

I went through this when I split up with my GF. She keyed my car in her garage and then parked it outside claiming someone must have vandalized it. I let her bury herself with her story when I called the cops over knowing full well I could see all the paint chips that were on the floor in a perfect outline around where the car was parked. The police got a real kick out of it and she paid to have the car repainted on in lieu of my pressing charges for felony damage to property.

Okay, short story, last year when my kid was a junior another kid had a clapped out chevelle and my daughter was bugging me to bring the car down. Actually she grew up with that car and my 69 road runner, though the GTO was stored for a bunch of years. Daughter and I got it out in Osage, IA April 2017 and went for a cruise and had a blast. I had no place to keep it here in DSM, IA and talked to my ex about 6 weeks back about bringing it down and putting in her garage for a few weeks until I closed on a house I am still trying to buy.

Yes, my daughter drove the car to school a couple of times. Yes, I trust her and yes, I still worried a little about someone being jealous and screwing with it in the HS parking lot. And yes, I added her to my Hagerty coverage.

Yes, she has permission to take it out on a nice dry day. I don't care if she goes 10 miles or 10 blocks to go buy a mountain dew at the local gas station. Its what most of us did when we were 18. Being a girl changes nothing, she can drive and hold her own. She's earned my trust.

We had her HS graduation reception in her mother's garage/house/back yard. The car was in the front yard under a shade tree and untouched. Its beat up as you can see anyway so I wasn't too worried. I put the car away Sunday evening after taking down all the tables and chairs. The bf joked that I got it in straight this time because on Sat night I didn't.

So this happened sometime after 8pm Sunday evening and 7pm Tuesday. The car has not moved. I'm sure the pieces of the grill are in the valance pan somewhere but didn't stay long enough last night to hunt for them.

I really can't hold my ex responsible, I mean it was my idea to bring the car down and it meant as much to her as it did my daughter to see our young gun drive it. But I do believe the bf did it, accident or whatever, whether he knew it when it happened or maybe was backing up and thought he had plenty of space. I may never know. Like has been said before there's no paint traded and really, no proof..

[dstryr]

Holy **^#

My ex just called said the bf came into the house last night acting weird and closed the blinds on the sliding door facing the garage... she asked why and he said he wanted some privacy, like his truck was getting him down bc it needs repairs. And.. it was dark in the driveway when I got there so I didn't see the paint flecks on his bumper.. but the ex just sent pics because She sees them. Just got the pics, no surprise I missed seeing them because it was dark underneath the open garage door last night. In the daylight they're all over the bumper and floor of the garage.

She's going to talk to him before saying anything to our daughter because it will be much better for him if he admits it to my ex. If he doesn't, then she'll tell our daughter who will know in a new york second that he wasn't being honest and she'll rip him to shreds.

Stay tuned. As much as this pisses me off its going to be entertaining when my daughter finds out he lied to her.. and as far as fixing it... I'm really hoping the door brackets are only bent and the inner grille can be replaced. Not something I look forward to screwing with and relatively inexpensive, and no way am I excusing this. My trust level with him just died like a fart in the wind.

[steve v]

The hideaway doors are just sheet metal & you may be able to pull it back into shape after you pull the inner grill & headlight door grill. The broken grill piece can be glued back in place if it didn't get lost.

Hopefully the bf will come to his senses & fess up. If he does you might get him involved in helping repair it with you & it may turn into good life lesson for him.

You'll get some one on one time with him that way too, maybe some good can come out of this?

[dstryr]

Originally Posted by steve v

The hideaway doors are just sheet metal & you may be able to pull it back into shape after you pull the inner grill & headlight door grill. The broken grill piece can be glued back in place if it didn't get lost.

Hopefully the bf will come to his senses & fess up. If he does you might get him involved in helping repair it with you & it may turn into good life lesson for him.

You'll get some one on one time with him that way too, maybe some good can come out of this?

That would be the best outcome though there's a history of him being dishonest, mainly because he does really stupid stuff IMO looking to come out the hero and then when things go belly up the stories start while he tries to save face....he's not a thief nor a clock watcher.. knows how to work but wish he'd have some goals and work towards them.

I'm not sure if this situation warrants another chance.. my daughter called it off with him last summer for a few months so he could do some growing up and pull his head out, so to speak.

The door it is jammed into the outer edge of the opening so I didn't mess with it last night while I was wound up... today would be a much better time! Hoping you're right that its only bent