O.T. - I'm a collector!, with the front suspension of my car... Options

[SpecialK]

Just wondering what wonderful road debris the members have "collected" cruising down the highways and byways.

I was heading into work at 3:30am in my DD (Mazda Protege' 5 (IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/html/emoticons/rolleyes.gif) ), brain and car on cruise in the fastlane, no one ahead, a couple of cars to my right flank. Came up on an area of highway without street lights when..."What the Fu... (IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/html/emoticons/huh.gif) ...WHHAAAMMM (IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/html/emoticons/ohmy.gif) ! A metal 5 gal bucket, right in the middle of my lane! Sparks flying from everywhere, thought I took out the passenger front tire by the way it was handling. Managed to get it to the shoulder (funny how people get the hell out of your way when you're showering them with hot metal), got the car stopped, saw smoke coming from the passenger front... "SHIIIIIIIIT!" (IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/html/emoticons/headbang.gif) . Popped my head under the front end and found a crumple metal bucket half full of some kind of expandable foam crap (I'm guessing 8lb. density by the wieght of it) wrapped around my control arm, and tearing the shit out of the sidewall and cv boot (IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/html/emoticons/headbang.gif) (IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/html/emoticons/headbang.gif) . Tried backing up...no luck, wedged tight. (IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/html/emoticons/mad.gif) Ended up having to jack the car up and use the handle to pry it loose (don't particularly care to have my head under a car w/o jack stands (IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/html/emoticons/unsure.gif) ), and cut the shit out of my thumb in the process (someone call a WAAAAMbulance (IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/html/emoticons/biggrin.gif) ).

Time for a new tire, and cv boot (IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/html/emoticons/mad.gif) .

Hitting objects with your car beats the shit out of coffee for waking your ass up!

Other item "collected" :

Queen size matress (I-15 in San Diego just north of Balboa)

Damn near collected:

Gas Grill w/propane tank attached (IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/html/emoticons/ohmy.gif)


So what's yours?

[bondo]

I've repeatedly collected the road in my Mustang. Yes, the road. You see, I got these new camber correcting control arms, that also lower the front about 1.5 inches. The end links of my sway bar were not set up for a lower car, so the ends ended up higher, which put the middle lower. (it's an odd shaped bar, with a funky bend in the middle to clear the engine) So not only is the whole car lower, but the middle of the sway bar is lower in relation to the car. Now when the suspension comprpresses, the bar gets even lower!

So I'm driving along, minding my own business, when I hit a dip in the road... *WHAM* Sway bar hits the ground HARD. This bent the sway bar, making it even more likely to hit the ground. Recently I had the hood open, and found chunks of asphault all over the engine. Oops.

(I recently got larger diameter tires and it hasn't hit since, but a big enough dip would probably still do it. A new sway bar is on my list)