New member...first post/ Taco carnage

Hey guys, lurking here for a little while now and been meaning to join up..

Figured I'd start off with a bang and post up after my first fender bender in the truck after owning it for over 3 yrs. Had our first major snow for the season here in central OR, of course right before the Thanksgiving holiday and had plans to head out of town with the GF's family. Wednesday afternoon was leaving town and didn't even make it a half hour of a three hour drive and failed to navigate an off-camber right hand turn and T-boned a panel van. Luckily super low speed and nobody was hurt, impacted the drivers side front of the truck and thanks to my relentless plate bumper, avoided any major body damage but lost the headlight and fog light and front fender's gonna need some work. Airbags didn't deploy, and after a quick assessment the truck was drivable so was able to get to our destination otherwise unscathed.

Bumper took the brunt of the impact and will need some massaging to get it back out to normal, but luckily its the steel version and can be re-worked. If anybody's curious as to how they hold up in a low-speed impact here ya' go... also currently researching body shops in the area if any of you local guys have recommendations.

Cheers!

 

Pic's of the other guys ??

 

Pic of the GF?

Welcome to TW!

 

Pic of the GF would be fine but I thought he said "T-boned a panel van."

 

It's his first post, not going to wait until he gets used to us? Haha.

Welcome to the forum! bumper doesn't look too bad, glad you guys still made it!

 

Starting your first post with a bang. It will buff out. Sorry about your truck. I could be worse. Welcome.

 

A chance for some improvements and mods, glad everybody is ok though.

 

Haha, thanks fellas... Yeah, definitely happy that it wasn't at higher speeds and there were no injuries. It was a sprinter van and the driver's shackle mount sliced right through the slider door, I'll have to post up some pics.

Spent some time today taking a closer look at the damage, didn't appear to affect the frame and luckily didn't get into any of the sheet metal in the engine compartment. Couple of the brackets that support the grill could just be straightened out from what I can tell and of course a new headlight. Gonna call the body shop tomorrow and go from there, have a local offroad fab shop in mind for squaring the bumper back up.

MarX, you're right on the money with your comment- that's how I like to look at stuff like this when it happens, opportunity to make the truck better/ tougher than before.

 

Sounds like good plans. My buddy who I use to drag with a lot, when we broke a part on our cars we always looked at it as an opportunity to improve them.

 

May have to look into adding predator bars during the bumper rebuild, as it'll need new powder coat anyways. Didn't really care for them when I bought it, but thinking now might be a good time to add some extra protection up front.

What're some thoughts on upgraded fogs? Busted up the one housing/bulb, just had the stockers w/my own custom brackets that mounted to the tabs eric puts in these bumpers. Anybody running the kc hilites gravity G4 universal kit in an aftermarket bumper? Don't want anything ultra exotic that would require much additional wiring aside from the stock harness at this point.

 

Welcome!