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

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.
http://i490.photobucket.com/albums/r...0/IMG_0051.jpg


Front view with hood up
http://i490.photobucket.com/albums/r...0/IMG_0046.jpg


Quarter view
http://i490.photobucket.com/albums/r...0/IMG_0042.jpg


Side view of engine compartment
http://i490.photobucket.com/albums/r...0/IMG_0039.jpg


Two horn tips penetrated lower windshield.
http://i490.photobucket.com/albums/r...0/IMG_0043.jpg


Air bag deployed.
http://i490.photobucket.com/albums/r...0/IMG_0044.jpg


The bend in the upper radiator support begins at inside edge of headlight.
(Headlight is loose & mount broken, but it still burns.)
http://i490.photobucket.com/albums/r...0/IMG_0047.jpg


Overhead view of bend in upper radiator support
http://i490.photobucket.com/albums/r...0/IMG_0049.jpg


Driver's side - bend in upper radiator support begins about 1" from fender.
http://i490.photobucket.com/albums/r...0/IMG_0048.jpg


By the Numbers.
http://i490.photobucket.com/albums/r.../IMG_0048b.jpg

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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...

Where's the blood?

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

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

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

ATaylor - that's a fox, my friend. Even at terminal velocity or above a deer would not compress to fit in that tight of a space and still fit there in the morning.

Not to mention, the hair is entirely too fine to be a deer. Deer have wirey hair.. I'm a redneck.. and we have a pet deer out back...

Thanks much for all of the replies.

It's not my only choice, I'm currently using the back-up - a third gen. 99 Escort SE 4-door sedan - 2.0L SOHC & 5-speed MT. The alternate backup is a third gen. 99 ZX2 Sport (Escort) coup - 2.0L DOHC & 4-speed AT. The spare parts car is a second gen. (same as SW) 93 Escort LX Hatchback - 1.9L & 5-speed MT.

Wouldn't consider repair except:

1. It's ideal for my newspaper contract haul route 60k per year.
2. I know it's maintenance and repair history for the last 60k miles.
   (It's got 200k on it now but engine only uses 1/8 quart every 3k.)
3. It's a low population area here so used car choices are very limited.
   Probably 3-9 months to locate another Escort Wagon within 300-500 mile radius.
4. Already have lot's of known good used parts from the '93.

Don't really have a shop. Live in a old fashioned small town hotel - on street parking only. Could commute 25 miles one-way to unheated shed to work on car. Will do at least some of the work myself.

Thanks for the mention of the spot-weld bit, knew they existed but hadn't thought of that yet. Thanks also for the thought on the rivets. If I do the whole thing my self, I'll either do that or tack weld nuts in place and put it together with 1/4" fine thread grade 8 bolts.

The deer didn't go to waste. Varmints have finished a good deal of it already. Didn't pick it up because no place to butcher it.

Don't believe at this point that there is any damage that will affect stearing or alignment. Fender(s) have to come off according to body shop guy for access to the single body panel that connect right and left half of car front; acts as upper and lower radiator support and surface to mount headlights on. There is a ding in the drivers side fender and a previously existing ding in the passenger side fender - but a couple of smacks with a dead blow mallet (while they are off) will fix them good enough. There is a tear in the metal of the upper radiator support (really all part of the single panel). Will make a decision when I get as far as disassembling.

The main sticking point at the moment is that it quit running while driving it off the flat-bed trailer. Kind of bumpy coming down so I assumed it was the inertial safety switch. Battery was drained - had to jump it for 15 min to start and drive up on trailer. Jumped it again to come off trailer. (Think it was drained because mercury switch for engine compartment light was tiggering intermittently?) Put charged battery in today and found inertial safety switch had not triggered. Checked for spark and it's there. Can't hear the fuel pump with the key in the run position - so it's probably a fuel issue. Waiting for a call back now from Ford service department to verify continuity of inertial switch is as it should be - three wires going to and three contacts on the initial saftey switch.

I agree that the BMW didn't hit a deer - not even a little fawn - the fur is from a fox or some such - maybe a dog of some sort?

It's a lot less trouble and expense to hunt deer using a rifle. As for the car not being worth fixing I've got an '88 Escort with 483,000+ miles on it and it's still running. The body looks like hell, but for a car its age with that many miles who cares. If you can do most or all the work yourself it won't cost all that much to fix it with JY parts. As for the starting issue if you can't hear the fuel pump coming on it may have damaged the inertia switch. My '88 got where it wouldn't start when the temperature was cold outside once, but as soon as the sun got on the car it would start. It took me forever to figure out what was going on with it. So one morning when it wouldn't start I was going to check the inertia switch to make sure it wasn't tripped. It wasn't, but just putting my warm hand close to it warmed it up enough for the car to start. Apparently the spring inside wasn't making the connection like it was suppose to, so I went and got one out of a car at the JY for $5. and haven't had any trouble with it since.

As to is it worth it to repair -

About $300 parts and labor for new windshield.
2 complete headlight assemblies @ $45 each = $90
1 Turn signal / marker assembly @ 15
1 Hood @ $125 + shipping
1 Upper radiator support @ $120 + shipping
1 New Radiator @ $120
1 New Electric Fan @ $120?
0 Evaporator (remove all AC for FE reasons)
0 Air bags - I always use seat belt - ride with drivers seat all the way back for comfort pref. Having seen this one go off, I think the airbag is next to useless for me.

or
$300 + $90 +$15 + $125 + $120 + $120 +$120 + $100(misc) =~ $1,000

Pulled the inertial switch and jumpered the appropriate wires - still no fuel pump noise. Spent some time looking at wiring diagrams and service manuals and will trouble shoot tomorrow. First step will be to check a connector block at the rear bumper that has the ground source wire for the neutral safety switch. (Engine stopped about same time as rear bumper bottomed coming off trailer.)

Added a photo at the end of the damage pictures that began this thread.

Once you get the parts off, and get it down to "body shop guys" specifications, take a few more pics before you go ahead and take it to him.

Your no-start issue is probably a ground broken during the accident, once it's taken apart, it will be easier to diagnose wiring, since there are several things in the way right now.

If you're stuck up on the interia switch, remove it from the loop. Hot wire the fuel pump, and see if it kicks. Also, when you're checking for the ground, check the fuel lines, etc.

Check over at feoa.net for parts/parts cars. Shame you aren't in my area - there are thousands of escorts in salvage yards in my area.

New core support and salvage hood/fenders and you'll be rocking. :D

Ouch... At least the critter didn't ram through the windshield.

I also hit a young deer back in 2006. My 97 Jetta suffered VERY similar damages, but my insurance covered it though.

http://www.jeece.net/photo/chevreuil/IMG_2445.jpg

Radiator was bent backward but otherwise OK. Fan shroud was cracked though. Else, all damages can be seen/guessed from the picture (windshield was slightly cracked in a corner due to the hood hitting it). Car wasn't airbag equipped.

It almost cost the price of the car itself (4200$ cdn) to fix it at the body shop, they barely wrote it off as a total loss (car had about 455000 km)! I could have repaired this all for less than 1000$ myself, over a weekend with junkyard parts...

I never found back my driver's side headlight, my guess is that it was *inside* the deer (which has been catapulted in ditch on opposite side of the road, where it was heading). In place of the missing headlight was the deer's lunch (not yet digested wet grass) and a blob of guts (removed at the scene). A year later I was still finding dried stinking grass when working under the hood, and you could smell it on hot days just by standing besides the front of the car.

I kind of dropped out of the thread for a while, but if there are any smaller parts that you would like for me to pick up for you at the JY and ship to you PM me and let me know what all you would like for me to try to find and I'll see what all I can find. There are several older Escorts in the JY's around here. I could probably find some of the larger parts too. but I don't know how much it would cost to ship them. You could just pay me by pay-pal or money order then I could pick them up and ship them to you.

I nearly hit a deer while landing a plane a few years back. I think the damage it would have made would have made your escort look like a tank. Luckily I was still doing about 70 mph and was able to jump over it. Not my smoothest landing but I'll take it.

I surprised nobody here has said this so here it goes....

What an opportunity to aero mod :D

I sincerely appreciate the offer - and I'll keep it in mind - but there's nothing I need at the moment. Thanks again.
Bob

True enough. On the other hand, I live in an apartment - no garage - no yard - and no off street parking. Snow has been on the ground for a little over two weeks now. The prediction for yesterday evening - this morning was a sever winter storm with 2-3 inches. Which we seem to have escaped yet again with a dusting. It's 12:30 AM right now. TV and internet weather are still saying 30% chance of snow. But the temperature is 5F, so probably too cold for an appreciable amount.

Serious aero-mods are coming, but probably not until next May.

FWIW

• ~5% of my highway miles are at 47-55 mph
• ~40% of my highway miles are at 40-46 mph
• ~55% of my highway miles are at 33-39 mph