We had a high wind warning today which is no big deal, get them all the time. Today the Weather Service was spot on. We had winds locally of over 80 mph. And north and west...to over 100 mph.

Driving back from Great Falls today in my 2018 Porsche 718 Cayman I'm dodging wind blown tumble weeds ever 30 seconds. The wind is really blowing.

All winter long the DOT drops hundred of tons of GRAVEL on the Interstate and highways when it's snow packed or icy. The wind, if high enough can pick this up and absolutely sandblast your car in no time.

One of the ares where the wind funnels debris down the interstate in a canyon area is on my route home. BUT ,I can AVOID it, by taking the frontage road along the MO River. Good Plan, I have this beat.

A quarter of a mile before my exit ,here comes a cloud of gravel and dirt, funneled down the interstate directly at me at probably 60-70+ mph. I have no where to go. I slowed to 60 mph and tried to pull to the right to avoid it, but got blasted anyway.

Ruined my windshield. Every square inch has several deep pock marks or a chip.

The damage to the front end, hood , roof and fenders has me absolutely sick. My car is fucking ruined. Hundreds of penetrating pock marks down to the metal it appears. Even have three small dents on the hood.

The DOT drops tons of GRAVEL on the roads during winter when its icy or snow packed. Not sand, mind You. This is 1/4" fucking GRAVEL.

Our windshields get beat to death by it. One usually gets a new WS every Spring.

I should have my head examined for trying to have a nice car in this God forsaken State. If it's not the DOT and their gravel six months out of the year its suicidal deer, or boulders falling on the roads. In the summer it's bugs coating your entire front end in goo.

I swear I give up.

Maybe at 70 yoa I need to finally grow up and give up on the sports cars? Buy a shitty old pickup like the rest of the locals and just let it slowly get destroyed.

That sucks, sorry.
When I worked for Safelite in Salt Lake City, I always wondered why we shipped so many windshields up there. I do believe to Bozeman and another city.
Around here in N.E. Ohio, it's shitty drivers that take a toll on vehicles and not so much the weather or DOT.

quote:

Maybe at 70 yoa I need to finally grow up and give up on the sports cars? Buy a shitty old pickup like the rest of the locals and just let it slowly get destroyed.

You need to listen to the wind man, it's saying "911".

Or do like many others with nice sporty cars they want to keep nice: Buy a beater for bad weather days and other times the nice sporty car might get damaged?

Sorry to hear your car got trashed

Sorry to hear that. I do a lot of road trips and have had my truck or car blasted but so far only a couple of cracked windshields and some lower front valance damage.

A few years ago I got a loaded regular cab / regular bed pickup truck. I'd have gotten the Denali if it came smaller than crew cab (Ford/GM used to build both Lariat and Denali trim levels in a regular cab, way back in the day). Car or truck, the road will extract its toll.

I wouldn't mind road-tripping in a beater Porsche. There is not much enough room to catch a snooze, though. I can stretch put full length in my Impreza, with the rear seats flat. Last summer I scraped up the sides parking in a national forest. No huge loss to its 12-year-old paint.

That would make me puke right there on the side of the road. Sorry you got hit by a rock hurricane.

I would get sick. Sounds like you need a winter vehicle and park your sports car during the bad season.

Worse yet, I bet insurance has to be a killer there due to all the damage that takes place in winter.

FN in MT, I feel for you, and is hardly avoidable when your caught out in the thick of it unexpectedly like you did in such a nice vehicle. That would make me gut sick also.

I'm reminded of a story after Hurricane Andrew here in 92'. My good friend from work thought that if he parked his new car between these two large townhouse's he'd be spared a lot of the brunt of the wind debris. However, what he didn't take into consideration was that those townhouses had barrel tile roofs that though were new and well constructed, nobody ever imagined this particular hurricane reaching category 5 in a matter of a couple hours before landfall.

Needless to say, it ravaged those barrel tile roofs and sent those chunks and chips of barrel tiles thru the air like razor blades. His new car was gashed, gouged, windowless, roofless, and looked like a car from the streets in the middle east that got blasted by an IUD. With no windshield and roof and hole ridden car, he drove it into work that following day. We had to report as we all worked for the power company and had to get started on recovery efforts.

I'll never forget that sight, my first impression was a vehicle you'd see in a Mad Max production, it was totaled. I was actually surprised it would still run actually.

So yea, I can feel your pain, what a wicked Mother we have in nature at times!

Montana is hard on vehicles. I have killed 6 deer, a number of pheasants, destroyed countless windshields and become friends with Dr. Colorchip. I've lived in Montana most of my life and found the good outweighs the bad.

I do have a 2nd vehicle. Yesterday was a nice day so decided to get some seat time with the Porsche. it's sat in the garage for months.

quote:

Originally posted by FN in MT:
I do have a 2nd vehicle. Yesterday was a nice day so decided to get some seat time with the Porsche. it's sat in the garage for months.

Damn, that makes it even worse. I truly feel for you.

quote:

His new car was gashed, gouged, windowless, roofless, and looked like a car from the streets in the middle east that got blasted by an IUD.

^^^^^^^^
Hmmmm. I can imagine being blasted by birth control devices. Horrific!

I eventually came to the conclusion that driving what doesn’t bother me to have ruined causes a lot less headaches than driving what I can afford financially but cannot aggravation wise.

I lived in Anchorage, AK, for 5 years and they put crushed gravel on the road in the winter. In spring or whenever there was a melt, the gravel was hell on wheels, body panels, and windshields. My insurance company would pay for repairing the first 5 windshield chips and I had to pay for the rest. Never had 5 or less any winter.

It's also one reason why I moved my 8.5 year old 4x4 Silverado to Alaska instead of buying a new one. It would've really bothered me to have all of those gravel chips in the wheels, body panels and glass in a new truck.

I wasn't a motorcyclist at the time, but until they got the annual spring street and parking lot sweeping completed it was notoriously dangerous for motorcycles.

You need a daily driver if you don’t have one. Then be like us motorcyclists. I check weather for the day, wind speed being #1, but all of it, before I even put the leathers on. Same for my performance cars. Our winters have nothing on Montana but can get bad. Before winter the bikes are winterized but ready if we get the odd weekend of good weather. Performance car gets to poke its’ head every weekend barring the high winds or ice.

Was just thinking about my wife's old car. Its still in nice condition, after 12 1/2 years. When it was brand spankin' new she took a bullet or something to the windshield. I guess at a bullet or BB because she was on a park road and no other cars were around.

But we ignored it until it began to run, which it never did. Still have it and gave up on giving it to grand kids to drive to school. Older son vetoed it because it has an engine. Can't give a car that runs to a kid, they'll kill themselves.

Its such a pain to have a windshield replaced. I don't trust the repair guy and insist on a factory glass.

The OP has my sympathy on this. The only solution to his problem is to stay at home.

Same crap here in Colorado. I swear they put small boulders on the road, not sand.

Sorry to hear your car was blasted. That sucks a lot.
Moving forward, after it is repaired, take a look at Xpel protection film. It is pretty incredible. The chips and scratches will be protected. It does assist in the prevention of dings as well. It’s pretty amazing stuff.

I don’t work for, and I am not compensated by Xpel. I just like their product.

https://www.xpel.com/shop/pain...n-film/ultimate-plus

Will insurance cover your damages?

quote:

Originally posted by Beancooker:

Sorry to hear your car was blasted. That sucks a lot. Moving forward, after it is repaired, take a look at Xpel protection film. It is pretty incredible. The chips and scratches will be protected. It does assist in the prevention of dings as well. It’s pretty amazing stuff.

I don’t work for, and I am not compensated by Xpel. I just like their product.

https://www.xpel.com/shop/pain...n-film/ultimate-plus

Interesting.

What kind of vehicle did you use this on, and what was the cost?