Conference vmsnet::car$note:carbuffs

this morning on the way to work, I heard a very loud noise, very close.
my first thought was a branch falling from a tree on the roof.
then i noticed the window in the drivers door was shattered, cracks 
everywhere. then i noticed a hole about 3" diameter near my ear.
soon other parts of the window began to fall away.

my thanks to the inventor of safety glass.  i was not cut.

the biggest piece might be 2"x3", but the biggest uncracked piece 
might be 1/4"x1/2".

any ideas of the cause?  i saw nobody near the street.  the sound was 
loud enough that it might have been a gun, but i did not see an
exit wound, and i'm still alive.  there was no snow in the car,
as might have happened if anyone could throw a snowball that hard.
i did not find a rock in the car.  

this happened in eastern mass, near LKG.
the car was garaged, and i think it never got down to freezing last
night.  it was about 40 F this morning.  the windows fogged up when
i left the garage, but they had returned to normal after a while.
it was raining lightly and the wipers were on.

it happened after 4 to 5 miles, car well warmed up, heater on about
2/3, fan at 2 of 4 or 5 positions, smooth paved road.  no changes in
those settings since the 2 mile mark.

the window is being replaced now, at one of the shops recommended
in this file.  thanks for the tips.   but what is the cause?

    
    
    
    Chuck,
    
    Did it happen before school hours? Any snow/slush on the ground (where
    this happened?) I think the glass would have stopped most thrown objects
    from entering the car. 
    
    I'd guess you may have heard a rock, iceball (wouldn't necessarily enter
    the car) or some other object hit the window. I'd be looking hard for 
    a bullet hole too...You might want to call the police in the town this
    occured...and ask if there is any pattern here. Kid's often do things like
    this from the same general area (not that I would know :^).
    
    Charlie 
    

Same thing happened to me last winter.  Kid with a snowball.  The tint I'd 
put on the inside (driver's side rear door) held the glass in place and I 
was able to drive it home.  A few lengths of clear packing tape on the 
outside, warmed with a heat gun, kept it together for a few days 'til I 
could get it fixed.

    
        My own son hit my suburban with a hardpacked snowball just a few
    weeks ago. He hit the side window, and it was so loud inside the
    vehicle it sounded like a gun went off. Kids! He was just trying to be
    funny.....He had a good lesson on replacing a power window.
    
    -john

    a large water balloon works, too!  :-)

    
    Had it happen to me once, but it was not a snowball.
    
    I heard a bang pulled over and ran to the woods, nothin. Then I noticed
    one of those big "tomato stakes" that folks use to mark the ends of the
    driveway so the play does not tear up the grass.
    
    Seems it was laying on the side of the road with about 6 inches hanging
    out over the curb. I drove over the end and it cantilevered up and
    around and WHAP hit the side of my truck. Grrr...
    
    

If it was a bullet, you could probably find an exit hole on the other side
of the car.  Also, check the footwells and seats for a BB.

Jim

    
    Re .164:
    
    A small stone thrown up by a snow blower?
    

      I had my windshield replaced yesterday and am upset about the
      Registry's policy of having the old sticker put back on the new
      windshield.The thing that bothers me most is that the new yellow
      stickers have a new type of coloring that all comes off when 
      the sticker is removed. The sticker is now entirely white with a
      number 2 in the middle. This will obviously get me pulled over.
      Why doesn't the registry change this policy and work it so that a new
      sticker can be attached to the windshield after a replacement?
    
      Rest of story - After I had a place in Worcester install the new
      windshield (recommended by METPAY), they inform me that they don't
      have any of the "replacement windshield" stickers that they attach
      the old sticker to the windshield with.They should be arriving
      from the registry by Friday. Great, now I don't have any sticker
      ,not even a white one, on the car.Grrrr..  Then to top things off,
      as I am driving down Route 2 parts of the moulding start flying off.
      WTFC. I called the shop and they inform me that "that shouldn't of
      happened".No crap. It's back in the shop today and hopefully they
      will get it right this time.
    
                                Rich
    
    
    

     Sorry to hear that this has been such a PITA for you.

     >... is that the new yellow stickers have a new type of coloring that
     >all comes off when the sticker is removed...

     This feature has existed at least as far back as 1984 if not longer.
     It is to keep you from doing things like pulling stickers off newly
     wrecked cars at the junkyard for use on a different car, or getting an
     inspection sticker for one car and then transferring it to another.
    
     Cheers,
     --Dave

    
    re:  tamper-proof inspection stickers
    
    I don't know if you have installed the windshield yourself, but isn't
    the company that installed it supposed to have put a backing on it to
    hold it on which says in big red letters "WINDSHIELD REPLACEMENT" or
    something like that?  I had this done twice and have never been pulled
    over, even though 1) once I had the windshield replaced 2 weeks after
    being inspected, so it was on for a whole year, and 2) I have driven,
    in broad daylight, right through a statie-sticker-sighting party and
    wasn't asked to pull over.
    
    I'd find out about it...
    
    Cheers,
    Mike

    
     re: last
    
     Mike,
    
    You might want to reread .172. Rich clearly stated:
    
    "After I had a place in Worcester install the new windshield (recommended
    by METPAY), they inform me that they don't have any of the "replacement
    windshield" stickers that they attach the old sticker to the windshield
    with.They should be arriving from the registry by Friday."
    
    Rich's point was that the "new" stickers have a new type of coloring that
    completely comes off when the sticker is removed, making it white (and
    very obvious it was removed).I know the old design retained most of its
    color after being scraped off. 
    
    re:.172
    
    Rich, I'm sure it isn't going to take most police long to figure out that
    the new stickers will all be white after windshield replacements (Ok,
    maybe I'm too optimistic ;^).. I guess if it became a problem (getting
    pulled over) I'd spend the $15 on a new sticker. I think the shop you used
    for your replacement has a few problems of their own, judging from your
    experience! Good Luck dealing with them!
    
    /Charlie
                    
    

    Hi,
      The shop has re-installed the mouldings and all seems OK now.
     I am just going to spend the $15 on getting a new sticker.I don't
     want to give the cops a reason to pull me over.I've seen some
     of last year's green stickers on windshield replacements and they
     seemed to retain much more of the color than these yellow ones.The
     guy at the shop also mentioned the yellow ones are much worse than
     before.
    
     The registry needs to change its policy and either have the glass
     shops be able to replace a sticker with a new one (same month is OK)
     or have some type of voucher that would let a regular inspection shop
     install a new one.
    
    
                           Rich

    
          Rich,

 It's not the Registry who really started this policy, it's the inspection
 shops. The Registry gets a very small amount off of the $15.00, if any. It's
 the Inspection station who get paid $15.00 (xx minutes @ $40.00-50.00/hr),
 for taking precious time off their busy schedule. Replacing Inspection
 stickers for free would mean losing $$$$$, which is a no no......

	Example, if your car fails, the station says 3 times you're out, and
 have to pay another $15.00. The Registry policy says, you can come back 100
 times..... Try it, and you'll have to do a lot of arguing, unless you bring
 a friend who's a Registry/Statie and can make life miserable for them ;-)....
 Been there done that. Damn Ford kept failing emissions ;-(......

	My .02, is pay the $15.00, and get a new sticker......

	Norm

    Unless you find that you're getting pulled over constantly (doubt it) 
    because your inpection sticker's mostly white, forget it and save yourself
    $15. I just had a windshield replacement done a few days ago on my 
    wife's car, and I agree with you that the color now is mostly white,
    rather than yellow. As a previous noter said, the cops will soon figure
    this out and I seriously doubt they're going to hassle you about it.

    Previous stickers retained much more of their color; two years ago
    I replaced the windshield twice on my 4Runner within a matter of months.
    On the second replacement most of the green color was gone but it never
    made me a target for police.

    Was the glass company recommended by Met one of the "great, big, huge"
    ones (trying not to violate notes policy and badmouth them)? On one of
    my 4Runner windshield replacements, the molding flew off while on I-93;
    good thing I had the Thule bike rack on the truck at the time to catch it.
    I also had leaks due to this company's installation and certainly wouldn't
    recommend them. On this recent replacement I told Met I wasn't using
    any of their recommendations and went with J.N. Philips instead.

    -Dom

    
    oops.
    
    sorry for not re-reading the notes.  I thought I had gone back to the
    beginning of the string but it seems I did not.  So you get screwed out 
    of 15 bucks.  Cost of doing business, I guess.
    
    -Mike

    re:Inspection sticker color
    
    	You can probably get a highlighter type marker nearly the same
    color and add the color back to the sticker. 
    
    	Ray

    re: .172
    	I just had my windshield replaced by (don't remember name) in
    Worcester as recommended by Metpay. They gave me a sticker that has
    the original expiration month but states that it for a replacement
    windshield. It is not the same as the original inspection sticker.
    
    This carries me over till the month I would have had to get
    re-inspected.
    
    I think the shop you went to just ran out of them ?

    
    Back when I was a starving college student trying to nurse along
    a rotbox '65 Ford, my buddy that worked at the local garage would
    "overlook" some things that other inspection stations would have
    failed the car on; great until he got canned and I needed a sticker
    real bad. Having no money but lots of ideas, I made a sticker out
    of poster board that was the proper color at the time (blue as
    I recall) and just the right size. Had this art student do the detail
    work and put it in the proper place on the windshield with just a 
    hint of Scotch tape around the edges. Looked pretty real, actually.
    
    That thing got me past many cops sitting around munching; they'd
    always give us kids the hairy eyeball and I'd have my fingers
    crossed every time I had to go by one on Gardner's Finest. Just
    about the time I thought I had it made, the damn muffler falls
    off (again). I was trying to sneak it home to attack it with more
    tin cans and muffler mud; of course there's a cop and of course
    he pulls me over. Checks all the paperwork, writes the fix-it
    ticket and glances at the sticker. Started walking back to his
    cruiser and alluva sudden he spins around and takes a good hard
    look at the sticker again. Busted :(  He started yelling so loud
    at me that I thought he was gonna have a stroke. Then he called
    a wrecker and threatened to arrest me, but settled for writing a
    bigger ticket...and left me beside the road with my thumb out.
    
    DAP
        

    re: .182
    
    Just to clarify for anyone in Mass. - affixing a counterfeit sticker to
    your vehicle is a felony.
    
    I understand the circumstances in .182 and I've attached a sticker from
    another car to mine in my own wayward youth 8-), but just wanted to
    point out that it can get real nasty with a fake sticker.

    
    Yeah, it's important to understand that this was offered for
    anecdotal purposes and is not a recommendation to do anything
    illegal - kids, don't try this at home. I'm talking about 1972
    here...t'was a smaller and much less complicated world. These
    days I'da been arrested as SOP, forfeited the car for RICO
    reasons, been denied the right to own firearms for life, and
    probably been audited by the IRS :(
    
    DAP
    

Re: <<< Note 405.184 by CSC32::D_PELTONEN >>>
    
>>                                                           These
>>    days I'da been arrested as SOP, forfeited the car for RICO
>>    reasons, been denied the right to own firearms for life, and
>>    probably been audited by the IRS :(

Only if they hadn't invoked the death penalty "to make an example" of you...

                        Roak

    Back in the year that stickers were yellow ['81 or '82] one of the
    stations put an ad in the free paper with a smaller version of the
    sticker to show they were an approved station. This was at the time of
    [semi]annual inspections. One guy I worked with took the nwspaper over
    to the copier, hit the enlarge button and made a copy. Seems the
    newspaper had used a real stick and shrunk the size. A yellow
    highlighter did the rest of the trick for that year, for him.
    
    For folks that worked in MRO in the late 70s early 80s there used to be
    a 'give me your reg and the money' sticker program run by a fellow on
    the third floor.
    

    re:182
    
    	Must'a been a kid thing. I did the same as a kid but never got
    caught. I even got a parking ticket and the cop didn't even notice the
    faux sticker ;-)
    
    	Ray

    I did something similiar with my dump truck. They went from yellow to
    green to white. I missed the green one so I took clorox and bleeched
    the yellow one white. It worked back in the mid 70's
    
    Steve

My brother got his art school practice at age 14 drawing me a fake Vermont
sticker.  Only 1 wiper worked on my POS '71 Capri.  I was hoping for a month or
2 to look for a new car or fix the wiper (shaft sheared off).

The cop who stopped me removed the sticker, looked at it and smiled.  He said he
had a collection of fakes in his office and this was the best one he'd ever seen.

He gave me a ticket for $50 (In Vt it's $35 for no inspection, $50 for fake
inspection) and told me that after he drove away what I did was "my decision". 
I waited 10 minutes and drove to work.

Sold the car that night for parts.

Tim

    On a somewhat similar note, a college buddy wanted to keep his vanity
    plates for posterity so he "lost" one and applied for duplicates at the
    Registry at his cost. In the meantime they told him to make up a temporary
    cardboard plate that looked like the original. Problem is, he made it look
    so much like the original he kept getting pulled over by the police 
    because the plate was a little too perfect. 

    -Dom