Poor Rainier: Part III
Caleb's friend from across the neighborhood calls, needing to borrow our wheelbarrow. "No problem, but I don't have a car here, I rode home with my brother, so I'll just load it up in his car, be right over!" Caleb replies. Caleb raises my tailgate, and loads the wheelbarrow. He runs inside for a moment, announcing his departure, and returns to the garage. He climbs into the Rainier driver seat, er, Leerjet cockpit, and starts the car.
Now, at this point, I'd like to point something out. Caleb's Oldsmobile Bravada is 5ft, 4in tall. My Buick Rainier is 6ft tall. My Rainier is taller than his Bravada.
Our garage door, in it's raised, up position, has a height clearance of 6ft, 2in. My Rainier's tailgate is 3 inches taller than the rest of the car, placing it's total height at 6ft, 3in.
Caleb is used to backing out of our garage, tailgate up. He is used to doing this, in HIS car. His car is smaller than mine (see above specification listing). His car is fully capable of being backed out of our garage, with it's tailgate up, clearing the garage door's up position by 7 inches.
Caleb shifts the car to Reverse, and backs up, confident as usual, ready to fulfill his wheelbarrow transporter duties for the day.
My car is one inch too tall to be backed out of the garage with the tailgate up.
The car smashes into the house. The impact of the tailgate slamming into the garage door begins to fold the entire metal cargo door in two. A large crease begins to form approximately halfway down the door. Caleb realizes the scenario, and stops instantly, Praise the LORD.
It is too late. The damage has already been done. The tailgate is ruined. The glass is salvaged, the rest is a mess. Caleb spends the remainder of the day maneuvering my tailgate to where it will latch, for the 4hr drive back to Arkadelphia the next day.
Dad spent the week shopping for Silver Rainier tailgates. He's good at this kind of stuff, and he found one. It was shipped to the house, and Caleb installed it today. The ole' switch-a-roo. My car now has a new tailgate, you can't tell anythings wrong.
Let's review...
1.) I get nailed in the parking lot
2.) A padlock dents my hood
3.) My tailgate gets creased and dented by a garage door accident.
I love that car. Ironically, the last thing that hurt it was the first thing to get repaired. Hopefully I can have it fully repaired by the end of the week.