I decided to drive my car to the office one day last week and had a little problem. I was following a van in the left lane that was moving too slow for me (About 35 in a 45 zone), so I turned my head to see if I could get over. Maybe 1/2 of a second, that's it. When I turn back I see a deer trying to avoid being hit by the van and not making it. The deer actually fell down right in front of the van. I had a nice space between my car and the van, but I still had nowhere to go and no time to change lanes.
I managed to yank the car as far left as possible without hitting the curb, but it wasn't enough and I caught the deer with the right front wheel right across the front shoulder and rib cage. We are talking about 14" to 16" of deer going under a car with 5" of clearance max. At first, it felt and sounded like hitting a curb really hard, but then the sound changed to a loud continuous crunching as the deer went under the passenger seat floor pan. This was followed by another softer curb feeling as the back wheel made contact.
I stopped about two blocks up and got out to look the car over and under. I was stunned to not find any horrible body damage to the nose or fender. The only problem I could see was the intercooler shroud took a hard hit and the car was coated in blood on the nose and all down the passenger side. I stopped by a car wash and blew off everything I could and went on to work. I also had the "road kill" rolling grill smell going nicely by the time I got there.
I finally got the car off the ground today to survey the damage. The intercooler scoop is mangled. The right side air dam is sort of OK, but it ripped the painted fender liner (Or whatever you call it) that's under and behind the nose. It's the white piece that's right under Razor's alky pump! There is a long continuous line of paint chips where the nose wraps around and meets the fender. There are paint stress cracks in the nose cone around the emblem and the right headlight area. It looks like the nose was obviously lifted enough to crack the paint, but not enough to tear the plastic.
The downpipe took a smack right in front of the flexible section and it's bent upward. My flexible section was straight as an arrow, but now it arches up in the middle and has cracks through the mesh. It also took about 6" of undercoating off of the frame between the cat and the transmission. It's right down to the damn metal. There's a ton of hair and meat stuck in the body seem from front to back. The car also pulls left now.
So, I need some parts. I can get the scoop from Car Motorsports, that's easy but expensive. The fender liner, nose cone, and other basic stuff should be the same for any other F body, so on to the hard stuff. What about the right side air dam? What about a downpipe? I've already emailed Steve about his downpipe, but I'm not sure StateFarm will like that. Anybody got a nice stocker for sale?
Should I paint this car or put up with the stress cracks in the nose? I just hit 50K this year. It was depressing, but I like driving the car so what can I do? The car does have some scratches, chips, and a couple of dings, but it looks really good aside from the wing and the rear bumper which is started to lose the clear coat on top. I'm sure the insurance will only cover painting the nose and blending it half way back or so. I'm also sure that they won't like the price of any of the parts for this. The only thing I have going for me is an uncle who has been running his own body shop for 30+ years and the fact that I haven't made an insurance claim of any significance since 1991 (Before I owned this car).
My dad has great eyes for paint and body work, so he's coming over tomorrow to make sure I haven't missed anything. I want to know what I'm talking about before going back to the body shop. I also want to have prices on the parts that they won't be able to buy from the normal sources.
I managed to yank the car as far left as possible without hitting the curb, but it wasn't enough and I caught the deer with the right front wheel right across the front shoulder and rib cage. We are talking about 14" to 16" of deer going under a car with 5" of clearance max. At first, it felt and sounded like hitting a curb really hard, but then the sound changed to a loud continuous crunching as the deer went under the passenger seat floor pan. This was followed by another softer curb feeling as the back wheel made contact.
I stopped about two blocks up and got out to look the car over and under. I was stunned to not find any horrible body damage to the nose or fender. The only problem I could see was the intercooler shroud took a hard hit and the car was coated in blood on the nose and all down the passenger side. I stopped by a car wash and blew off everything I could and went on to work. I also had the "road kill" rolling grill smell going nicely by the time I got there.
I finally got the car off the ground today to survey the damage. The intercooler scoop is mangled. The right side air dam is sort of OK, but it ripped the painted fender liner (Or whatever you call it) that's under and behind the nose. It's the white piece that's right under Razor's alky pump! There is a long continuous line of paint chips where the nose wraps around and meets the fender. There are paint stress cracks in the nose cone around the emblem and the right headlight area. It looks like the nose was obviously lifted enough to crack the paint, but not enough to tear the plastic.
The downpipe took a smack right in front of the flexible section and it's bent upward. My flexible section was straight as an arrow, but now it arches up in the middle and has cracks through the mesh. It also took about 6" of undercoating off of the frame between the cat and the transmission. It's right down to the damn metal. There's a ton of hair and meat stuck in the body seem from front to back. The car also pulls left now.
So, I need some parts. I can get the scoop from Car Motorsports, that's easy but expensive. The fender liner, nose cone, and other basic stuff should be the same for any other F body, so on to the hard stuff. What about the right side air dam? What about a downpipe? I've already emailed Steve about his downpipe, but I'm not sure StateFarm will like that. Anybody got a nice stocker for sale?
Should I paint this car or put up with the stress cracks in the nose? I just hit 50K this year. It was depressing, but I like driving the car so what can I do? The car does have some scratches, chips, and a couple of dings, but it looks really good aside from the wing and the rear bumper which is started to lose the clear coat on top. I'm sure the insurance will only cover painting the nose and blending it half way back or so. I'm also sure that they won't like the price of any of the parts for this. The only thing I have going for me is an uncle who has been running his own body shop for 30+ years and the fact that I haven't made an insurance claim of any significance since 1991 (Before I owned this car).
My dad has great eyes for paint and body work, so he's coming over tomorrow to make sure I haven't missed anything. I want to know what I'm talking about before going back to the body shop. I also want to have prices on the parts that they won't be able to buy from the normal sources.
