Damn Pigeon, chipped my paint!

[Lippyp]

So I'm heading home after a fruitless trip to the nearest car stereo installer to try and find a replacement "stereo release lever"for getting my Panasonic stereo out of the dash (damned Japanese make everything so complicated, whats wrong with screws) Previous owner was supposed to have passed it on along with the manual (neither of which I have) I managed to get a pdf file of the manual emailed to me from Panasonic, but I still cant get the thing out of the dash without either the correct lever thing or something of a similar size and shape and three hands. I only want to connect some new speakers up. Why is it that if I left my window open on the street the avaerage fourteen year old scab-bag would be able to get my stereo out of the dash in approximately 5 seconds flat and it's taken me half a day of faffing about with no result....grrrrr..!

Anyway was giving it some clog up a hill on the way home when out of the corner of my eye I see a pigeon steaming along flat out across the road, next thing, BANG, I look in the rearview mirror in time to see a large cloud of grey and white feathers settling gently to the ground over the bloody corpse. When I got home I checked the front out and it had hit next to the headlight right on the corner of the passenger fender and chipped the paint! I'm sorry now I didn't stop and bring it home and put it in a pie, that'd serve it right for chipping my paint!

[Blue68]

When I was in high-school, my dad and I went fishing in our '69 CST. Moving along after the trip at about 70 mph I see a blur out of the corner of my eye, next thing I know I've got a dove up aside my head after it careens off of the west coast mirror. Feathers all in the cab and blood on my hat. We told my mom I caught it with my rod and real when I cast. She bit, for a little while anyway.

Birds can make a mess. Moral is, it could have been a crow or buzzard. In other words, worse. Still sucks.

[bpmcgee]

Lippy,

Just being technical here, but since the pigeon lost, you hit IT <g>

Brian

[Solarus1981]

On the stereo thing... might want to get two very thin pieces of sheet metal, pull the face and the surround then fish for the hooks, or reach up the back side and push them out with your fingernails.

Sorry about the bad day!

[krue]

Look on the bright side, that's one less flying rat in the world!

[1969 GMC]

One thing I can never figure out is seagulls. There is a large shopping mall near my house, and its basically 20 acres of blacktop, and the ever present swarm of seagulls. No lakes or seas for miles...but a huge flock of em anywho. I drove thru a flock of them once really fast and I hit one, it hit my windsheild and just thumped and it didn't die, but made a huge cloud of feathers.


Another time my mom was coming home late at night in the wintertime, when a great snowy owl just swooped onto the windshield, hit it and broke it, and landed in mom's lap. She screamed and threw it out the window, lol. We saw it later, had a broken leg :-( .

[passthebuck]

Lippyp - how fast were you traveling? Where you giving it some serious wellie?
I met a couple driving across Canada with their bicycles on their roof & they stoped near where I work to go for a bike ride & stretch their legs. Their one tire was flat and asked to use our airhose - a coworker put air & it obviously had something big stuck in the tire 'cause it went back flat fast. Upon closer inspection the tire had a bird beak stuck in it! It had broken off near the nose of the bird & there was no blood on the tire/bike & the travelers couldnt recall hitting a bird... I'll try to get a pic of the tire one day-we saved the section.

[casey]

I hit one with my sons 89 mustang, and it shot over the roof, but didn't see it land, finally got to where i was going, got out, and it was stuck in the rear spoiler, blood dripping down the trunk, it was still alive, my wife was freakin out, I had to pull the poor bugger out and hit it with a rock, to put it out of it's misery, dam birds

[krue]

I've had a quail hit the windshield on my Z-71 right in front of me. I almost had a heart attack! Dust and feathers flew, I had to pull over cuz I couldn't see thru the dust it left on my windsheild.

[COBALT]

...and that's why God created the Mosburg .12 guage...

(here pigeon, pigeon. Nice pigeon...)

['68OrangeSunshine]

I had a bird strike just the other day my self. A couple of white-wing doves tried to cross the road from left to right at an altitude of 36." Darwinism in action! Thump.thump, splat and some bird guts splattered my windshiled. No discernable damage that I can see now, but I haven't been to the carwash.
As far as the car stereo thing-- today's Dickensian waif uses an 18 volt battery operated grinder to cut your dash apart so he can get to the player unit and trade it to Fagin for crack. You are handicapped by the fact that you don't want to screw-up a vintage truck. Best way to get to the electronics is to remove the glove box, the heater controls-- hanging them off to one side, and remove the ash tray assembly. Even then it's still a PITA.

[Blue Beard]

One less to poop on your ride..........thanks.

[Randy70C-10]

If you want to get revenge, go find the pigeon and run it over a couple times. It's great stress relief.

[SWINGSAX68]

My brother had an incident...I haven't had one since I started driving Rusy, yet....lets hope it happens before I get it painted.
He was going along I-35 heading back to our place from outta town, he was behing one of those small Uhaul type trucks, as he described it. Well he saw a puff of feathers from the top front of the cargo area on the truck, so he thinks "what the???" then a split second later a pigeon was on the passengers side of his windsheild. I don't want to get toooo graphic, but the impact caused the poor animal to squeeze some of his innards through well....his poop hole. A few seconds later it was on the freeway.
funny stuff

[Scottri]

I had a friend that was on a camping trip in Mexico. He was driving an old VW bug with the flat windshield. He hit a buzzard that came right through the windshield and puked and pooped all over the interior of the car. He said the smell never did leave the car. He had to drive all the way up Baja with no windshield until he got back to the States. At least the wind kept the smell down. I can only imagine what buzzard puke would smell like considering their diet.

Scott

[oldsub86]

My mother nailed a partridge a few years back with her Honda Civic. We had a heck of a time getting it out of the grill. It went right through the bars somehow and we had to get hold of it with long pliers and pull it out in pieces. She said she saw it go in front of the car and then disappear and assumed she missed it until she got to our place and saw the feet sticking out under the bumper.

[Blue Beard]

Was that a partridge in a pear tree....?

[yellowgmc]

a buddy and i hit a canadian goose with his dad's car once. it was standing in the highway and we figured it will move. get closer and we still figureed it will move. closer. closer closer and BAM! it didn't move. now that was a mess al right. an housr and 20 bucks in the coin op car wash got the car smelling and looking right.

and if you pull your glovebox you can push the two tabs on either side in with your fingers and pull the stereo. you will lose some skin scrapping tho. i pulled my panasonic cd player out like that. took a while but it worked. good luck!

[67sss]

I use to haul pigeons for a living!!!!!!!No joke! We had a 70 chev1 ton,14ft flatbed and pulled a 28' trlr ALL loaded with crates and about 20 birds per crate, about 120 crates MAX. Do your math , thats alot birds. Here's the deal, these were all RACING pigeons. We'd haul them from Mt. Vernon, WA all the way down to the Redding-Mt Shasta area and we got paid to do this, by the mile. So next time a pigeon hits your truck think of it 2 ways; 1- if it has a band on its leg it was grain fed and it will taste great, like chicken, 2- if it has a band on it, the pigeon COULD have cost the guy over $500 as a new born. Oh yea if you find one with a band on its leg, the guys don't want them back cause obviously the bird doen't know how to get home..