ACCIDENT!: What would you do...
 

vehicle: 2007 sr5 4wd v6. one family ownership, 228k miles, well maintained, street driven. pink slip in hand.

accident: i never get in accidents, and this barely qualifies, and only involved me (fortunately!). at my town's transfer station, parked in front of a large recycling container. sat there in drive for a moment, then exited the vehicle WITHOUT PUTTING TRANNY INTO PARK! seconds later i hear this load POW. vehicle rolled forward about 10-15 feet into the container.

i though, ok, not good, maybe some bumper damage. bumper was cracked a little, and popped off the drivers side. drove it back home to look more closely.

all impact damage appears from the center to drivers side. headlight fasteners had snapped, so light is somewhat loose. lower piece of hood bent in some, touching headlight. some plastic fasteners gone, gap between hood and fender, fender may be slightly bent, fender plastic piece popped out some.

decided to start talking to collision repair shops. went to one local today. they did an estimate based on what they could see. $5200! new radiator supports, bumper and backfill, hood, fender, grille, one headlamp, all the paint needs, battery, ac recharge, misc.

about $2500 in parts, remainder is body labor, paint labor, paint.

given that this is a 15 year old vehicle with 230k miles, and its possible for me to do most of the work to improve the damage/appearance (this just happened, so i haven't considered all things yet). my deductible is $1000. plus the car would be tied up for maybe 2 weeks (inconvenience/cost).

also, some oe parts are not available, like front fender and hood so it would be aftermarket.

should i put in the claim, collect the check, then in the spring do my own thing, and maybe outsource what i can't? i don't feel anything is safety related.

anyway, here are several rainy pics. have fun!

why, on this site, can't i post pics directly from my phone like i do on other sites. only option seems to be one at a time, and then it fails anyway?! i have to email myself the pics, then download to photos, then import (i hope).

you can upload them directly from phone with the tapatalk app

pics, i hope:

looks like one pic at a time.

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thx. is that common? i don't do anything like that for other sites.

this is an older style forum, just how it is. I usually post from my computer, so not sure if there is another work around for mobile uploading

I use ImgBB — Upload Image — Free Image Hosting, you can drag and drop and it gives you links ready to use here.