Took a hit tonight, and the custom bumper held up great!

[v7guy]

The uppers are cast? All of mine have been stamped...

[Shdwdrgn]

Uhhh... sounds like I better take another look. I could have sworn they were cast.

[Shdwdrgn]

Oops, forgot to reply back... Yes you are absolutely right, the uppers are stamped out just like the lowers. I have no idea how I got the idea they were cast. Will try to get some measurements this weekend and see if I can determine if the UCA is bent rather than the mounting point on the frame. That would be easy to fix if it were the case (which probably means that *won't* be the problem, damn Murphy).

[Shdwdrgn]

Damn it all to hell, this is just not my year. Tonight coming home from a friend's house we hit a deer out on the highway. I'll get some pics tomorrow morning, but the damage was amazing superficial (unless you're a deer). The deer was killed on impact, hit on the front but mostly on the driver's side. So now the left quarter-panel also needs replaced, plus the hood. The left headlight is completely gone, I'll have to check to see what kind of framework was supposed to be behind it. Other than the body panels, none of the metal behind the headlight is bent. A lot of the force was taken by the bumper and pushbar, but neither of them were bent in the slightest (that I can see).

So now I'll have to pull the left quarter out of the door, which only opens about half way, and then start assessing what I need to buy to get the headlight repaired. Amazingly the fog light wasn't damaged at all, so I as able to turn them on for the trip home so people could actually see my left side. It was a long trip, too, almost an hour and a half drive, and we had *just* left our friend's house.

Doesn't seem like we have any injuries though, I slammed on the brakes as fast as I could and had dropped to maybe around 30 when we hit. Just really annoyed now that there's even more damage to my poor truck, but at least I haven't started doing body repairs from the first accident, so I can get all the painting done at one time and save some money there.

[Shdwdrgn]

The overall damage:




No damage to the framework underneath, just the body panels and all the plastic.


So I know I need to replace the headlight panel, which is a plastic piece that goes all the way across the front. All of the wiring is intact, so no real issues there. I'm grabbing some breakfast before hitting the parts store to see what they can get in by tomorrow, then if I need to I'll hit the junk yard tomorrow. Gotta get the headlight and turn signal fixed before I jump back in to weekday rush-hour traffic.

Obviously the hood and quarter-panel are a complete loss, but I also have a roll in the front of the driver's door, and a ding in the side of the rear door.




I'll probably replace the quarters and hood myself, then let the body shop fix the doors and repaint. I may just get an estimate to repaint the whole truck at this point. At least I hadn't already fixed the damage from the previous accident, should save some money getting everything done at once.

[Shdwdrgn]

Checked the nearby junkyards today, got a few pieces. The one I got parts from also had most of the headlight panel broken, however there was a single large piece behind the driver's light with three intact screw holes. He sold me the whole light assembly for $50, and it'll work until I can mail-order the full panel. I also got both front fenders in 'nearly' perfect condition... a couple spots with light dings that I was able to almost completely clean myself. I think the worst spot is close enough it could be sanded flat now, which tells you how minor the rest is, and I picked those up for $125 each.

Spent the rest of the day swapping the fenders, cleaning up the rest of the debris from the old headlight, and trying to hammer the hood back out of the way of the new light. There are other yards which will be open again tomorrow, I'll make the calls and see if I can find a replacement.





I also discovered after replacing the fenders that the original accident did in fact push in the metal bumper about 3/4 inch. Will have to figure out a way to pull that back out again.


I still have damage in three doors, and the entire grill needs replaced again, but it's starting to get there.

[Trail X]

The UCA isn't all cast, only the tip where it mounts is. The rest is bent sheet steel.

[Shdwdrgn]

Couldn't find any yards around here that had an intact hood, so I had to order one. I'm a bit nervous about getting an aftermarket body part, hopefully it'll be the same gauge of steel. I'll be picking it up tomorrow, and the grill and headlight panel are due to be delivered on Friday, so it looks like I'll have a weekend project.

[Shdwdrgn]

Yay, it's just like christmas! Got word that the new hood was in, so I picked it up after work tonight. When I got home there was a huge box on the front step containing the new headlight panel and grill. After we hit the grocery store tomorrow I'll be busy swapping out parts.

[Shdwdrgn]

Well all of the new parts are in place, I have the hood pretty well centered between the fenders, and the latch is adjusted to a similar location as previously, where I can drop the hood and it will completely latch itself without any free play. HOWEVER... On the driver's side the top of the fender is a bit higher than the top of the hood and there doesn't seem to be any way to adjust this. I've never done body work like this before so maybe I'm missing something? When I was replacing the fenders I did look carefully at the structure underneath and couldn't see any damage on either side, so I assumed dropping the new fenders onto the truck would be a fairly simple matter.

Also for comparison, the framework that holds the grill and headlight panel does not appear to have been bent at all, since both headlights sit in the same position in relation to the front of the fenders (despite this being a concern since the deer basically rolled right into that framework after destroying the headlight). Also the new hood looks like it is resting squarely on the rubber stops at the front corners.

So is there some kind of vertical adjustment for the height of the fender? Or did I just get a fender that isn't quite right?

[EDIT] All right, I didn't realize the bumper stops adjusted up and down. Dialed in both sides so they're equally flush with the fender and that looks pretty good now. The next issue is the back corners of the hood. One side is about 1/8" too high, the other side is about 1/8" too low. I can fudge that by placing washers under the fender on one side, and under the hood hinge on the other side, but that seems like kind of a cheap fix. So again, is there something I'm missing here that is supposed to allow for alignment?