Thoughts on fixing this myself? Hit a deer

[sveach]

I hit a deer, but just barely...slammed on the brakes and he just bounced off of me, but it was enough to do a little damage. I'd rather try and fix this myself. Looks like I'd need the new piece on the front side since that's broken. A couple small parts, covers, etc. It doesn't quite look like any sensors are broken, headlight seems fine, etc. While feeling around inside the fender area from the bottom, this piece was loose and bouncing around. I pulled it out so it doesn't fall out driving down the road.

What do we think - doable? I'm handy enough, but anyone know if I should expect a lot more damage once I get it all taken apart?

 

[AWAR]

If you have comprehensive I would take it to a body shop. You will be amazed how much that will cost to repair properly.

 

[99WhiteC5Coupe]

Comprehensive coverage for repairs usually do not increase your insurance premiums.

 

[DieselMonk]

That aluminum panel, I don’t think so. It doesn’t behave like regular car metal. But if you fix all the plastic parts there are paint less repair guys that will bend the aluminum back to factory.
If you got insurance, you file a claim that a deer ran into you. That shouldn’t affect your premiums. Let them duke it out how to fix the car.

 

[Trainmaster]

If you can drill out pop rivets, you can fix this yourself. It's up to you. I can fix that for $ 1000 and I'm no wizard. Here in New York, the job would cost perhaps $ 8500 at a body shop, and if I made a claim on my comprehensive policy, my rates would increase $1200/year for five years.

The work is not difficult if you do mechanical work. The bumper cover takes an hour to remove in the street. Then you have to disassemble and reassemble the end cap onto the bumper cover. It's held together with the big (1/4") pop rivets from the back, so you need a big rivet tool to install them. And you'll have to paint the new end cap...

The hardest part is amassing all the individual parts before you start, without leaving anything out. If you don't have everything you need, you'll be left with an undrivable, disassembled car while awaiting some silly spacer or bracket. Look it over really well before you start!

Good luck. I've had my bumper off a couple of times...

 

[HILLY]

Insurance.

Once you start adding up the costs plus fixing it hopefully right, it's not worth it on your own.

 

[ranger22]

That’ll buff out!

-sorry, I had to be that guy.

 

[BigOleFordFan]

Well, I had a similar damage on my '011 last year, but from a guardrail that I mis-judged how close I was to it....

Filed an insurance claim & took it to one of their preferred shops....a tidy little bill of $3700, mainly because they found some additional damage behind the bumper, of which they covered all except for my $500 deductible, and the work came with a lifetime warranty on the parts & labor too

 

[Trainmaster]

Once you start adding up the costs plus fixing it hopefully right, it's not worth it on your own.

I know a fat guy who says that's why he pays a "pro" to cut his grass.

 

[HILLY]

I know a fat guy who says that's why he pays a "pro" to cut his grass.

Not sure what you're getting at...

Just based on the pictures, a replacement bumper is probably around $1500 to replace depending on what can be swapped over. Plus the prep and paint added to that.

He's lost one of the radiator shutters which indicates a decent enough impact that the structure behind the bumper took impact indicating possible further damage beneath the skin.

Fender may only need just retweaking.

Now for the unknowns that can't be determined just by looking at the pics and may not become apparent after teardown. This is where costs add up to more.

Not sure on the status of the headlight, but if the very least a mounting tab or two is broken, that's about another $1500.

Is the grille damaged? ($500-600).

It's not so much a "can you do it?", but what is it adding up to...

 

[5280tunage]

One smaller benefit of doing it yourself if you can, without submitting a claim is the immediate loss of value once the VIN is marked as being in an accident. I recently had a young teen girl nail a front fender with her lifted Wrangler that had a lot of other damage to it, and luckily I found a body shop that did a little aluminum repair and a couple other things for cash, no insurance claim. I didn't want to lose 10-20% value right off the top.

 

[Danm355]

I hit a deer here in NY a few years ago and I didn't think it was that bad but I called the insurance company and they sent an adjuster out and he wrote up the damage that he could see at $9,000. When the body shop got into it they found more things that needed repair and of course the insurance had to approve it witch they did. That was 5 years ago and my premiums never went up and it only cost me a $200 deductible.