Hit a 3 point buck with a '94 Escort SW.

[TestDrive]

Hit a deer last Monday AM. Hauled it back on a flat bed yesterday. Believe the inertial safety switch tripped coming off of trailer. Charged dead batter and will test tomorrow.

Current tentative plan is for me to remove - hood, fenders, evaporator & AC related, radiator and related, headlights, headlight mounts and anything else required for access to replace radiator support. Body shop will cut out and weld in replacement support. Body shop will also do windshield. Then I'll complete the project.

Here are the pictures.


Front view with hood down.



Front view with hood up



Quarter view



Side view of engine compartment



Two horn tips penetrated lower windshield.



Air bag deployed.



The bend in the upper radiator support begins at inside edge of headlight.
(Headlight is loose & mount broken, but it still burns.)



Overhead view of bend in upper radiator support



Driver's side - bend in upper radiator support begins about 1" from fender.



By the Numbers.

1. Not damage - ordinary OEM design.
2. The upper edge of the fender is straight. But right at this point you can see the a point of strain (circled in yellow) where the front cross panel connects.
3. First point with a discernible inward bend.
4. The front lip of the upper radiator support begins to fold under here.
5. This is the point with the greatest downward fold.
6. Note the rusted tear in the upper radiator support.
7. The upper radiator support is pushed in toward the engine about 4"-5" here and the shroud of the electric fan is broken from hitting the head.

[Whoops]

With it being a 94, unless you don't have any other choice, I'd scrap that and go buy something to replace it. By the time you get any work done on it by a body shop, your going to have more money into it than it will be worth.

If you don't have any other choice, you could get by, just fine, by removing the hood, grill, drivers fender, radiator. Then you can probably just move the front support back out enough, with a scissor jack between the support and the front strut. You don't have to get that support back to perfect shape, you just need to get it moved back out enough to get a replacement fender, hood, grill and radiator to align so it can be attached. Of course this presumes that it is not busted loose, or broken. If it is, you can braze it in, most likely and it will be fine.

Good luck with it, or whatever you do.

[Christ]

You can remove that thing and put the new one in by yourself, no need for a body shop. You'll need a drill and a spot-weld bit.

Then, when you go to put the new one back in, you can just drill the spotwelds through, and place Stainless steel rivets through the holes. I had to do this on a friend's CRX.

The added benefit is that if you ever do a Motor swap, or anything else, you'll be able to easily remove the front end of the car and pull the engine out the front.

[MetroMPG]

Bummer!

What happened to the deer? I worked for a Ministry of Natural Resources road crew one summer in high school. The guy I worked with kept a "fresh" collision kill, even if only half of it was good.

Hope you get it sorted out.

[Matt Herring]

Originally Posted by TestDrive

Hit a deer last Monday AM. Hauled it back on a flat bed yesterday.

Sounds like he hauled the deer home on a flatbed...must have been a big one!...kidding!

Sorry you hit the deer bro...good luck with the repair.

[Christ]

MetroMPG - I've taken many a deer home in the trunk... friends hit them... after all that damage to the vehicle, it's justified. Stupid deer.

Besides, we're all about not being wasteful, right? So why not use whatever we could from a deer that we know for sure why it died? It's not any more dangerous than hunting said deer...

[OfficeLinebacker]

Where's the blood?

[Christ]

And the hair... must didn't hit it hard enough... :P

[ATaylorRacing]

At least you didn't cream one on the autobahn at 140 or 160 (depending on which site you read) like this bimmer did!

BMW Hits Deer at 160mph on Autobahn - SVTPerformance

[lunarhighway]

reminds me of when a volvo kissed my kadett on the nose

is there any real structural damage or is it just bodywork an the radiator support? my main concerne would be that the structure that supports the fender and the front suspension are hit... wich might mess with your wheel alignment and could cause you to loose a few mpg's... if the holes for the new fender don't line up with thee original ones that might be the case

btw if the damage to the radiator support is not to great you might be able to just bend it back into place without getting a new piece.... of course at the bodyshop they might have a hydrolic tool for that, but the radiator frame is not that sturdy you wouldn't be able to do it with a big lever.

if things aren't perfecly where they where the lights won't perfecly align with the fender and bumper but with a little work you could get things to an acceptable level again. than again if you're going to have the windshield fixed you might just as well have the rest done by a pro as well

all in all it doesn't look that bad really although i can imagine someones pretty mad at a dead dear right now.

these guys where also going pretty fast: plane hits cow

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wsgqlV6cWRo