I jacked the car up and cast an eye over the damage.
The rock had been the size of a small brick. It had been side-on to us, and was of a light brown-yellow colour - virtually invisible in the afternoon sun. It had gone under the right side of the car where it almost immediately came into contact with the sump guard.
This sturdy piece of steel had deftly deflected it and rolled it further aft, where it had come up directly underneath the filler pipe to the auto – and in a trice had neatly removed that, plus the boss it bolts into, leaving a hole directly into the pan.
Unfortunately, it had also modified a small section of the flanged edge of the pan, and appeared to have smashed a portion of the alloy housing above it.
The pieces of pipe I recovered from the road were intact enough to reattach, and the boss was still there – but obviously this would necessitate welding or brazing.
We were not going anywhere without being towed it would seem.
The best thing about accepting circumstances as they are, means you are free to explore the possibilities without agonizing over the hows, whys and wherefores.
One of us should stay with the car, and one should go to find help.
The help needs to consist of a. towing, b. welding.
We agreed that it was best for me to stay out here, so Sue flagged down an approaching car, and the driver was happy to give her a lift to Hawea – the nearest town.
When they left, I moved the jack to the rear of the car, and prepared to undo the rear of the propshaft. I’m not sure whether the warnings about towing autos any distance carry weight, but why risk it.
I wear glasses when working in bad light or at close quarters. This morning when I took my glasses from my side pocket, they were snapped in half. It was sort of amusing trying to prop one half of them on my nose while lying under the car, and I soon gave up on it and did it by Braille. The other ‘interesting’ thing, was that once in the shadow of the car, I began to be attacked by sandflies. This would not be a comfortable place after sunset.
Job done, I had time to contemplate.
Regardless of circumstance, there are always good and bad ways to view things. I do not dwell on the negatives, as they only slow me down. What a stroke of luck that we did not hit the rock up the pass in the dark.! Cool we have only broken down – not had an accident after hitting ice. We are both fit and well and having a new adventure. There is food in the car, and probably bourbon. This is starting to sound pretty cool.
Several vehicles stopped to see if they could assist. One chap in a 4wd offered a tow, but neither of us had rope. An old chap in a van asked “Are you in a spot of bother?â€
I roared with laughter and agreed you could say that, and he said he would give a lift to any blonde with a green windbreaker that he came across. No doubt.
Shortly after he left, a tow truck appeared with Sue as passenger. Looks like I didn’t need to remove the propshaft after all.
Alex the owner/driver carefully winched me aboard, and fastened the beast securely.
It was roughly 2 hours since we had encountered the ‘new plan’ – pretty amazing for out here.
We drove back past Hawea yet again today, and to Alex workshop on the outskirts of Wanaka. He offered to put the car on the hoist immediately and see what could be done, so just as the sun prepared to bugger off, we were under cover.
I donned my overalls - never go anywhere without them - and the car rolled all the way into the shed and over the hoist.
It was soon dark, and very cold working in the open shed, but mechanicals were the main concern. I soon had the pan off, and Alex was happy he could braze the pipe back on successfully. He did not know what we could do with the 1 inch hole in the side of the transmission. Leave that to me I said.
I found a stepladder and fossicked on the floor of the car. Found it. A small piece of "Knead-it". I knew this would come in handy. I used some cleaning agent to clean the edges of the break, and the small piece of alloy that had been saved because one of the pan bolts had been in it. I was able to get the piece to fit in the gap quite well, but the flange on the bottom had been bent upwards slightly with the impact. No problem - as long as the case is intact, we can add extra sealant to the pan when we fit it. Hoping this stuff would still function, I spent some time working it into a paste, then ran a bead of it around the edges of the gap, pressed the bit of the jigsaw into place, and used most of the rest to cover the outside of the entire area. A slight smear on the inside too - but I wouldn't want bits coming off inside the auto. It was so cold I doubted it would harden up, so we found a hot air gun, and Sue and I took turns to alternately warm the auto and our hands. On the hour, I found I could no longer sink my thumbnail into the paste, so I tried filing the surface. Solid as a rock - hopefully more so.! It took a while to smooth the bottom surface so the pan would seal against it, but I was so pleased that it was going to work, I did not mind at all..
Even though the edge was still raised slightly, the repair should be oiltight, and I had not been able to detect any damage to the internals of the auto.
Alex was still not happy with the pan, so I refitted the propshaft while he did a bit of panelbeating. I guess it was about 2 hours in total by the time we fitted the pan with a generous bead of high temp silicon sealant - the cork gasket had been destroyed by the impact damage. We had a look at his computer setup while waiting for the sealant to harden a bit. Alex had a computer on a trolley in the middle of the workshop. He had opened a service manual that listed the torque settings for the fitting of the auto pan on a Marina 1700. Then - courtesy of wireless internet - he went to a site called 'carjam.org', typed in my rego number - and up came our car.! "Your warrant expires next week.." Jeez. I was astounded. Anyone can look up any car in the country by the rego number. The only details missing were the owners name and contact - and for $12 they would be supplied. Very handy for mechanics - but open to abuse by the rest. Must use it to check any potential trademe buys in future.!
We added 3 litres of fluid to the auto and waited. Not a drop. Ran the engine and tried all the gears. All present and correct, and still not a drop. Wow. Don't think its ever been that dry around the auto.
Back on the ground, and we cleaned up. We were prepared for quite a large invoice - but whatever it would be - it was great. In fact, it was less than half what I estimated, and I even offered to pay more, but Alex was insistent that I had done most of the work, and only charged me for the tow, the fluid, and half an hours labour. What kindness. I have no doubt that people tend to think you are of more limited means when you drive an older car - if we were in this years BMW, things could have been quite different. Alex recovers 5 cars a week that have hit rocks - as the freezing temps split them off cliff faces, and then the sun thaws the ice and they drop on the highway. If we had been in a modern car, we would most likely have been staying a week while a new auto was shipped in he said - only older vehicles left the same day.
More positives then.
We thanked the man and headed into the night. Almost immediately I could feel that the auto was not happy, delaying changes and labouring somewhat. We drove towards town until we found a petrol station, and I bought another litre of fluid. Solved.! Grinning, we took the road to Hawea yet again. Alex had noticed a sign at the Hawea pub offering cheap rooms - so there we went. Obviously the universe was wanting us to stop at Hawea.! Besides the cheap clean room, we got a huge meal 5 minutes before the kitchen closed, and they even offered us a free dessert - but we were too stuffed to accept.
We parked the car below our window and hit the sack, laughing over and over at how everything had just come together.
I still had 1/4" of knead-it left.....
..
He agreed to go and get a gallon of juice for me at a reasonable price and all was well. Thoroughly nice bloke too.
One other highlight on the way back was being in the outside lane of the first re-restricted section of autobahn just north of Bonn having just achieved v-max in the alfa at around 135mph when I saw very bright lights in the mirror. Pulled into the centre lane maintaining speed and was passed by a Lamborghini Murcelago being chased by a Ferrari 575 both doing in my estimation just shy of 200mph because they passed me like I was standing still. :shock: 
