>I turned my frown upside down, and chose to deal with the situation in a reasonable way. There is nothing that can be helped, and if the insurance can cover the extra, the rental, everything exceeding my deductible, well that’s just fine.

There’s a learning experience here and it’s this:
The 2006 Subaru Legacy has a weakness; the weakness is an exposed condenser. In short it was the radiator. It sure looked like the radiator, behind the bumper and all, and I know the intercooler and all that is under the scoop.

I had heard of someone doing a little modification to prevent rocks and potentially birds from getting into the intercooler. They purchased some gutter guard from Home Depot, cut out a shape, surrounded it with some plastic molding, and boom, they had a shield for their intercooler. I found the exact guard, purchased it, and set out to protect my investment. My brand new condenser was not going to be dented twice. Given that I commute to CT every day and since rt 91 is some of the grittiest rock slinging fury I’ve ever witnessed, I had to be prepared.

I pulled off the front grill, and cut the wire mesh with some metal cutters I purchased for the dryer pipe. It worked quite well and a little measuring later, I had two 14in pieces for either side of the hole in the bumper. I fit it in and with a little curving and tension from the scrap pieces I had left, they were a tight little fit. I couldn’t resist doing my scoop as well while I was at it.

It adds a little pizazz to an otherwise dark empty space, both in the bumper and in the scoop. I suppose it’s functional in the scoop, but very unlikely. However, if you asked me a month ago if I thought a vital part being damaged by a rock was likely I would have scoffed… so might as well.

I figure the scoop won’t hold up, but it was scrap, and it seems to be sitting OK, so we’ll see what happens. I’ll post a template if all this works and stays. So now my condenser is protected, and it looks a little bit cooler, more custom… and I’m not planning on spending another $650 + initial diagnostic + rental car again.

I’ve also managed to act like a dick protecting my own interest to the two companies I’ve sought business from. I wasn’t wrong in protecting my interests, but believe I’ve probably made a name for myself and fear future repercussions.