Repair help. Hit a Deer with a '99 4cyl.

T

triangles

Member
A deer committed suicide yesterday when I was Driving home on I-75 just north of Sidney, OH. Unfortunately with liability only insurance I'm stuck fixing it myself.


THe passenger side of the front is pushed in 8-10 inches. My aftermarket trans oil cooler is slightly mangled. The AC condenser is the most mangled. The radiator remarkably only has small dents int it from where the AC condenser got pushed into it on one side. By some miracle nothing is leaking and the fan/belts still barely clear the radiator. The truck still rolled straight and I was able to drive the remaining 70 miles home to Toledo.

Does anyone have any information or knowledge if there's much I can do myself as a shade tree mechanic? The right fender is crumpled, the support steel across the front is also garbage. Can any of this be unbolted or will this require cutting and welding?
 
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can't really tell from the pictures but if its just fender/ bumper damage you can pop those out and swap. Post up some better shots and I am sure there are users here who can chime in.
just heads up but inspect your Air filter box for any cracks, if there's any damage that shifted the box there is a good chance there may be cracks on the box. I found some in mines after the PO of my truck nailed a deer.
 
I just did most of the same repairs as you from a deer hit. The fenders unbolted easily. I may have a few parts you could use....send me a pm for what you need. My parts truck has the window washer fluid container and ac lines.
 
I don't have any additional pictures readily available. I've rigged up a temporary headlight to be legal until funds permit me to fix this. I think I'll need a body shop. After looking further, the support steel behind the grill is fubar. Also the sheet metal that the right fender bolts to (as well as the fender) has crumpled. I'll need to replace the aftermarket trans cooler, AC condenser, radiator and radiator fan shroud. They are all mangled but magically not leaking (knock on wood). Somehow the hood appears to be untouched. I'm getting an estimate tonite.
 
I got the estimate from the shop at just under $4300!!! Not sure it's worth it putting that kind of money into a 13 year old truck.... Maybe I can find a doner with a blown engine and swap in my engine/trans.
 
I actually just replaced front bumper, headlight housings and sidemarkers. Everything was easy to replace. If I were you, I would take off as much as possible from the front (bumper, lights, grill, ect.) Take some pictures of your necessary hardware (radiator, frame, pipes, hoses, etc) and then we can better help you FIX your runner and SAVE MONEY at the same time. And then when its all said and done, mount that damn deer's antlers right on your grill. :boxer:
 
triangles said:
I got the estimate from the shop at just under $4300!!! Not sure it's worth it putting that kind of money into a 13 year old truck.... Maybe I can find a doner with a blown engine and swap in my engine/trans.
Click to expand...

get us some pics of the fender and on the inside.. you may be able to just slam an arb on the front and get a new fender and head light housing and call it good

i got hit by a city bus in kind of the same place and the only damage was the the fender cladding,bumper and lower valance , the repair bill on that was $2500
so i took the insurance check and just bought an ARB for $650 which replaced 95% of what was damaged anyways saving me alot of money and made my truck much cooler in the long run as well, lol

be seriously that pic kind of sucks to try and help you with and i'm with you on spending 4.3k on repairing that when you can buy a decent one completely running for 6k or so.....
 
You have your work cut out for you...

I wrecked my baby a few years back and destroyed all the body metal from firewall-forward. I had never done an ounce of body work in my life.

Luck had it that I was able to find a rolled '98 Runner with a good front end (and running engine!). I had to use a wire wheel on the grinder to remove all the undercoating at the innerfender-firewall seam, then drill and chisel to disconnect at the spot welds. I removed both sides and core support (metal behind grille) as one peice, transplanted, and re-spot-welded it back to my truck.

It's easy enough to do; just take lots of photos for reference when reassembling. Buy lots of sunscreen and bug spray, you'll spend many days in the sun.

Good Luck! It's worth it! Let me know if you need more detailed help.
 
Click on pictures for a larger view......

Driver side:

Passenger side:

Under hood:

More underhood:

Headlight/airbox area:

Lousy pic of bent AC condenser:

Frame to body mount in wheel well:


I realize it's hard to tell a lot from these pictures as what we want to see is behind all that broken stuff. What the picts don't clearly show is that the metal behind the passenger fender in the area behind the passenger headlight and above where the frame to body mount is crumpled back a couple inches. It will be quite some time probably fall before I can have the truck down long enough to start stripping off all the broken stuff. So I won't be able to upload better pictures until then.
 
mmml came to my house and cut the core support out of my part out truck which would have been the exact part you need. I removed the fenders before he got to my house and he had the section cut out in a matter of a few minutes.

Where are you located?
 
I went to go look at your pics because I had to repair my truck that was in worse shape then yours, I was promptly halted by our web filtering as it found 'nudity' in the pictures wtf??

I would disassemble the front end and get a BFH and go to town to try to straighten out the rest. I used my ATV's winch to pull out some of the sheet metal that was fubar - you gotta get creative when doing it on your own.
 
jakknz said:
I went to go look at your pics because I had to repair my truck that was in worse shape then yours, I was promptly halted by our web filtering as it found 'nudity' in the pictures wtf??
Click to expand...

Must be the indecency of those "under hood" pictures! lol.

I'm in Toledo, Ohio. I may be able to start pulling off the broken stuff over the 4th or maybe this weekend. The BFH may make an appearance.
 
Yeah, a lot of that stuff is not visible, and will work just fine if it's straightened out. It may take a while to get things lined up for putting the grill back on, but better to do that yourself than pay a shop to bend and eyeball it. Keep us updated.
 
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