It's my lucky day! How much do you think this'll cost me?

So I get this awesome ARB plate steel front bumper last fall to sort of protect me from the very prolific deer here were I to get one in front of me, and what happens? One plows into me from the drivers side coming home from errands this morning in broad daylight. I'm doing about 60mph on the highway, and I see a flash to my left a split second before I think it's going to come in the side window at me. Left all kinds of hair stuck in the bed composite edge, which mostly flew off on the rest of the drive home. From a distance the damage doesn't look terrible bad, but close up, it's not good. Got a deductible of $1K, and I think this will come close, if not over that...? Damage on drivers door, AC door, and bed side.

I don't know if it was a spike buck, or if that scratch was from his teeth or something, for God's sake. (I went back to look for him, because I was going to take him home for the freezer. To my amazement, it was nowhere to be found. I thought sure that a leg or more was broken in that impact)

It's a bright cloudy day, perfect for crappy pictures, so the dents are on the right side of the AC window there.



Still some hair stuck on the composite in this shot, and the white scratches under the dent there maybe




My truck is not a mall queen, as it does see some moderate work, but this is still depressing. Do you guys have any idea how much I'm going to fork out to fix the worst of this?

 

Your truck actually did really good for hitting a deer. It's kinda hard to tell the damage done though. Maybe wash the truck and then take some pictures?

 

I used to live near a Jr. College that had an auto body shop/class. I had an estimate to fix my old El Camino of over $1500 and they did it for around $350.

 

I think this may have something to do with that sticker you have... And it may have been possessed by a demon..

Long story short.. I'd say easily a couple of grand.. Rough guess, depending on where you take it etc.

 

Check for frame damage, visual body damage never tells the whole story.
Kidding.

 

It's been raining nearly constantly this past week, and I haven't been able to wash it since the last storm. I'll do that today and try again with the camera. My camera doesn't care much for black surfaces as it has trouble focusing sometimes, but I'll give it another go.

We have one of those vocational schools around here but I don't have an El Camino to take over there. Seriously though, I don't think they have an auto body shop. I'll check again to make sure.

I love the Darko bunny, but he was more sad than scary, IMO. It'll be off to the shops for estimates tomorrow afternoon. If it's going to be more than $1500, I might as well go with insurance.

Thanks for the comments, guys.

 

That's a steep deductible, but the cost to repair will surely be more than that. If it were me, I would wash the truck, buff out what I could, use a paint pen on the deeper scratches and call it a day. Maybe look into how to fix the large dent on the bedside myself.

 

My guess it's gonna easily be more.

If I were you I'd whip it into a reputable paintless dent repair shop if there's one in your area, and see what they say and have them give you a quote on the dents... You'd be amazed at what someone can do in paintless dent repair "if they are good".. They should also be able to buff some stuff and make it look a little better, I'd do the whole truck to help match... The scratches at door gap are too deep, but could be masked a little if done properly with paint pen.. The dent above the filler lid is gonna be the iffy one..
And with it being an older truck and etc.. That'd be the route I believe I'd go, and just save the money.



But taking it to a traditionally "good" auto body shop, it' gonna be pricey, one of the main reasons, bc they'll end up painting that entire side of the truck most likely.

 

Yeah, it's not pristine (you can see on the left side in the bedside picture the millions of tiny little scratches from my dogs' nails), and I've really considered the paint pen on the worst bits...but those dents are going to torque me to no end. I'll see what I can find in the business section today. If only it'd happened on the passenger side...


My truck is otherwise in excellent shape and only 88K miles. This really sucks.

 

+1

 

tis but a scratch.

Honestly i wouldnt worry about the stuff on the doors. I would reach up / pull the bedside off n see if i could pound it out from the back. But at a 1k deductable, it aint gonna be worth it.

 

$4409.53

 

I agree