Wife hit a deer on her way into work yesterday. She feeds deer on our acreage a LOT. We have a timer actuated deer feeder (which I stupidly put a remote control on), she puts out mineral and salt blocks, etc. She probably goes through 100lbs of corn a week feeding them. We have a regular herd of 10-20 deer in the yard almost all the time. So she was pretty upset about hitting one a mile from the house. Anyway, she cracked the front bumper cover just above where the tow hook inserts, on the drivers side. One of the tabs that holds the headlight on is cracked too. I'm wanting to pull those items off and take them to a body shop for repair. Body shop says they have a "plastic welder" and can fix the ~3 inch crack up as good as new with a lifetime warranty. Same with the headlight tab. So two questions: -Can anyone tell me how hard it is to pull the front bumper cover off? I am VERY well tooled up, so no worries there. But just trying to get my head around the time frame I should plan for the job. Doesn't look to bad on the surface of things, but I know stuff like that can be involved. -Any experience with this plastic welding thing?
Around here the shops repair those covers with a special bumper filler and then paint. It works and they charge around $515. However now you can buy generic covers (ebay has them) and paint (which the shop will have to do in any case). Removing is not a big deal; some screws and clips but the shop can do it all for the same money.
Insurance could help you and you not have to do the work. Have had bumpers repaired before and they were better than before.
Yes, insurance will help, if the cost is over our deductible of $1000. But the estimate to do the plastic weld option is slightly less than that. So if I can cut my costs by doing some of the work myself, I'd likely go that way.
Lol @ feeding deer They are EVERYWHERE here. I routinely have 20-30 deer on the property. Everyone's yard has a bunch of deer. You can spot a tourist because when they see a deer they stop the car and/or take pictures. We just honk or drive around the stupid things. I've had one lick my security camera. Caught that glory on full motion HD video... Tongue coming out and licking the entire lens slowly. Weird... To answer your question, the bumper is easy. When I was retrofitting my headlights I was taking it off and on again sometimes 3-4 times an evening. to get everything lined up properly. There is a screw in each fender. Either a phillips or a hex drive socket (10mm or 12mm???) and it comes out easily. On the top you have a bunch of plastic popups. Just use a flat-head in there to work the centre of each one up slowly then the whole piece comes out. At this point if you lift up-and-out the entire bumper will separate from the top part of the car only held on by the bottom clips and you can rest it on the ground infront of you. This makes it easy to see what clips are holding the bumper on to those little plastic deflectors down below. Same flat head popout treatment and the whole thing is off. If you know what you are looking for, a 2 minute job. If it is your first time, maybe 10-15 minutes because you will most likely be doing the "is it this one, or this one" game with the bolts/screws. The body panels are very pliable, don't be afraid to jostle them to see where they are hanging on.
I guess your state laws are different than mine. In NJ we have laws against feeding wild animals and deer have become a BIG problem with proliferation. The last thing you want to do is encourage them because there will be more and more coming. In NJ, state hunting programs are needed to thin out the population because they devastate plants in fields and forests. Your wife has a good heart but I'd recommend she stop feeding deer because it will only lead to bigger problems and likely more car-deer collisions down the road. Just trying to be helpful.
Yeah, Arkansas doesn't pass a lot of laws like that. One of the last states to try to keep out of your way. But trust me, she has been told by everyone, including me, that she should not be feeding them in the summer time, at least. But she just doesn't care and does it anyway. I love her to death, but logic (and sometimes common sense) is not her strong point. ;-)
