almost as soon as i finished buffing my car after i got it painted, a stress crack appeared right at the top on the left front fender. as the sun and rain did it's thing, it grew. back a couple months ago, i took off the fender to redo it. the very day i get done and get the fender back on, i head home in the car from my shop. 2 miles from the shop, i downshift as i approached a stop sign. at that moment, i see several shiny objects fly from the front of my car. before i had time to think about what it took be, the front end of my car dropped down. i eased off the side of the road, thankfully not turning much. i get out to see what was broken and perhaps vomit some. i could tell the front end was low, but i couldn't immediately see anything broken. i went back around to the side and noticed there are no lugs on the wheel, and the whole corner of the car is held up by the brake rotor which was rolling on the inside portion of the wheel. the lugs had come off, and the rotor had rolled on the rim for 100 feet or so without coming completely off. i guess the fender did just enough to keep it from flying off and there really being some damage. the only thing it did was crack the paint along the edge of the fender roll.

...and i found all five lugs in the ditch.

moral of the story: cars are a pain in the back side.