Deer Strike Recovery

Hello all. Took a deer to the front end of my Tacoma a few weeks ago on my way to work and need some help as I am trying to gather all of the info needed to get my truck back on the road.
Some backstory:
This truck was owned by an older aircraft mechanic and was very well kept and maintained. The engine lost its head gasket and overheated one day around 270,000 miles and he decided against fixing it. It sat around until the dealership asked him to take it away and he offered it to a friend of mine. It then moved across the state and sat for a little while until it was sold to me for a little under $1000. I went to a fairly reputable salvage yard and bought a 90,000 mile 2TR-FE and swapped the engine with a couple of friends on a weekend about a year and a half ago and have been driving the truck ever since and love it.
The steering wheel airbag deployed and both front seat belts locked. The passenger side airbag I keep turned off.
Figuring I will have to have the steering wheel bag and seat belt pretensioners rebuilt, but don't know if anything needs to be done on the computer side. (Sensors?) This is what I need the most help understanding.
I don't think the drivers side inner fender is salvageable, but I plan on welding the radiator support bracket back to the frame and that will tell me if I can bend it back enough to get everything to line up. Otherwise my shopping list seems reasonably simple - radiator core support, radiator, ac condenser, headlights, fender, grille, bumper cover...etc.

Anything else I'm missing?

 

Maybe consider adding a full ARB-style hoop bumper/bull bar. I paid the cost/weight/length penalty in advance in hopes of avoiding a situation like the one you're going through now.

This one is an ARB "Deluxe Bar" on a 2014 Tacoma, model #3423140.

The major negative of a heavy bull bar on front is that the front coilovers will need to be upgraded to a slightly heavier spring rate (and ideally bigger shocks) to handle the excess weight.

 

I wonder if anyone has ever put an arb bumper on a 5 lug
lol

 

Heh. Good point!

 

I think you need to add a drivers side headlight and probably a headlight refinishing kit for the other side.
After all , that’s probably why you hit the deer to begin with. He didn’t see ya coming.

 

It’ll buff out

 

I like the way this looks, as it retains the stock bumper cover.

 

I have 4 deer strikes to my name, and 2 for the wife. All but one in the dark. And many near misses. My thinking is deer are attracted ( or spooked) by the lights when vehicle is moving. Or perhaps it's the illumination of the lights, lighting up their path of travel.

 

It retains just a portion of the bumper cover. You cut it when installing the ARB bumper.

 

This. You make a careful cut & retain only about the upper 20% of the bumper cover or so. The rest is then useless & thrown away. It's a committment, but not as big as cutting body panels to fit a high-clearance bumper on the rear, etc.

 

Your truck has major damage,is it really worth fixing vs cost /value ?

 

Dunno. I hit a deer 8? years ago, less than 100k miles, it had much less damage than this, and it was over $5K for a shop to fix. Both fenders and the hood had minor damage and were repaired. The AC condenser was replaced. Both headlamps, the grille, bumper..... were replaced. The inner fenders were fine. The entire front was repainted. I"m guessing the OE bumper, backing, grille are ~$1K today. A headlamp is probably $300+

At 300K miles you are pissing money away on this. Because if you get rearended the day after you fix it, it's worth what it's worth based on mileage- not much. The insurance company doesn't care that the engine has 100K miles, you just fixed the body and it's perfect... It's irrelevant to them. If it has 300K miles, it's worth $X.

 

Agree, if it's nearly 300K miles it may not be worth fixing. You can get a used 2nd gen 4.0L in good shape with 100K miles for around $20K. Or 200K miles for ~$10-$12K.

Separately: The ARB bumper costs about $1500, figure another $600 to $1200 for upgraded front coilovers (depending on type, etc.). Guesstimate maybe a 5% mpg penalty due to extra weight and aerodynamic losses, it's still a lot less expense and trouble than trying to find competent repairs for a mashed-in front end.

Only major downside (for some) is the massive +6 to +8" length increase and consequent reduction of approach angle for off-road.