Banzai pheasant.

**paullus** · Sunday 13th May 2012, 18:41

In March I had my wheels refurbed and both bumpers resprayed to tidy things up. Had a great job done and I was really pleased with the result.
My route to work is very rural and it takes me past quite a large estate where they hold pheasant shoots. I was on my way home the other evening enjoying the fact that I was using the climate control to cool things down and getting into Eric Clapton when all of a sudden a ruddy great male pheasant walks out in front of me. I hit the brakes and blasted the horn but still hit the blasted thing at about 35mph. I heard the tinkling of glass and looked back to see a cloud of feathers. No point in stopping so I drove home hoping that no major damage was done. I shouldn't have bothered, the blasted bird had smashed the offside foglight off its mountings, split the bumper and the black grille was gone..BLEEP MARVELLOUS!! If it had walked another foot I would have missed it.
Anyway I resigned myself to the fact that more money was going th be spent so I started checking around for a replacement bumper. I got one quote of £200+delivery+VAT from one well known specialist Volvo breaker and the foglights and grilles weren't included. Purely by chance I came across a breaker in Durham called Kevin Brunton car and Commercial Spares who has got a V70 T5 in stock for breaking. He described the condition of the bumper complete with foglights and grilles and sent photographs with a price of £40+£20 next day delivery. I ordered it at 09:40 the following day and TNT Overnight were knocking on my front door at 08:25 the next morning! The bumper is as close to mint as could be expected from a 1997 car. It's being resprayed at the moment hopefully to be fitted next week.
KB Car & Commercial are still showing the V70 in stock if anybody needs anything Telephone:01207 233201. Mobile:07847214722.
I think they're worth a plug for the fantastic service I got from them.

Regarding the pheasant this is the second costly experience I've had at this location. A few years back one flew in front of my motorbike and punched the indicator through the fairing before striking my kneecap. £150 worth of damage to the fairing and a very bruised knee despite the knee pads in my leathers. I was tempted to go and ask the game keeper if I could shoot his pheasants if they are on the road and when he says I can't do it because they belong to the estate I'll ask for the cost of the damage to my car to be paid. In my dreams what!
Cheers,
Steve

**t5 stealth** · Sunday 13th May 2012, 21:14

sorry to hear this mate,
but eric clapton ?

hope you get it sorted as cheap as poss.

**t5_monkey** · Sunday 13th May 2012, 22:16

Have you spoken to therapy frog about all this ?

**paullus** · Monday 14th May 2012, 17:36

Yeah have you heard of him too?

I can't believe that I've only just discovered him and I'm in my fifties.
I love "Motherless Child."

**t5 stealth** · Monday 14th May 2012, 18:59

Originally Posted by paullus

Yeah have you heard of him too?

I can't believe that I've only just discovered him and I'm in my fifties.
I love "Motherless Child."

personally i dont like him,
i think he did one that i liked but i cant remember what it was lol

**ajma** · Thursday 17th May 2012, 17:28

I hate pheasants for this - they seem to know exactly where to go to get hit, and are so heavy that they do a lot of damage. I lost one of my black grilles in the same way - was fortunate that it wasn't worse really.

**Sharkey R** · Thursday 17th May 2012, 17:37

I hit the last one of 4 that were flying, YES FLYING, across the A9 in the Cairngorms last year in a lorry at 56mph. It hit the drivers side mirror and literally exploded in a mess of internals and feathers. The mirror and mirror arm just about survived. I'm guessing as it flew across the road and saw me coming the last thing to go through its mind was its §§§§. It was then that I discovered de-icer and industrial tissue paper are crap for removing pheasant remains.

Anyway hope this might bring you the tiniest of salvation in that for the one that harmed your car, another paid the price!

**M-R-P** · Thursday 17th May 2012, 17:42

When I was about 10, my dad used to pay me £2.50 to wash his van and he'd make it up to 3 quid if I washed the bits of roadkill out of the engine bay and wheelarches lol.

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not even a year

Earnin' my title

Post Whore, signing off till I get home