Deer vs Ford

[1987cp]

Good grief, that's definitely the bodyshop you want doing your work.

I've had some bumper shocks slide right out of the frame, and others fight me. On the Vic, the crossbolts holding them inside the frame all but refused to come out, the stamped nut things breaking loose from the frame almost immediately and requiring gator-grip pliers on that end to get the bolt out ... plus the bolt wouldn't slide out and had to be screwed and tapped and pried all the way out. Then once I got it out I discovered that there was enough surface rust on the shock itself that it's not going to slide out without persuasion. When I jerked the bumper-and-shocks assembly off the back of the wagon, I tethered the bumper to another car and drove forward to jerk it out. Possibly a slide hammer could be made to do the job as well, or possibly just spin the shock/mount in its hole and pull and spin and pull until it eventually wiggles out.

[Dereck]

Small car vs Deer? No thanks.

Panther vs Deer? Living to post about it on the internet the next day.

Hi

I prefer Sako 75 vs Deer, Sako wins every time


Regards

Dereck

[yucatecd]

The workman is worthy of his hire.

Dear Panthers,
The principal resource for our cars is - you guessed it - people. The last car I was able to repair myself was a 1951 Dodge Powerwagon, so I need (a) a pretty good local mechanic (b) a gaggle of geniuses for mods and very tricky repairs (my shorted ECM had been misdiagnosed by four professionals before Gadget figured it out) (c) a good bodyman (mine's a Korean War Veteran who keeps me waiting for weeks and will talk my ear off, but does nothing but good work and owns a 90 towncar with 25k himself.)If you don't have any accidents you'll need that bodyman for rust every three or four years.

You will find the people you need more easily if (a) you don't ask for work you can't pay for, on the spot when the job is finished, (b) you understand that like yourself, the mechanic and bodyman has bills to pay, a family to feed, shop rental, tool purchases and maybe a hobby to support and when he gives you his estimate it will be much higher than if you bought paint, rented a sprayer and slathered it on yourself.

You are buying a man's time - time he might have spent with his own projects, his wife, his kids . . .. You are paying for his passion for his work and the years he's spent learning how to do it. Lifetime is precious and expensive.

Treat the man right with the respect he deserves and he'll treat you right.


Donald McCaig

[CheeseSteakJim]

Thanks for the comments and suggestions. So the bumper shock should come back out if it's okay? And if not, I can either beat it out, or replace it. How hard are they to pull off a car (if I get one at the junkyard)?

I tried to have it estimated today. Tried. The body shop said they wouldn't even look at it since I'm with Allstate and given the year. He glanced at it and said it's almost certainly totaled, so it would be a waste of his and my time to look at. He also said given it's age, it would take a long time to round up parts for it. So the waiting game continues as I wait for Allstate to come look at it, hopefully on Thursday so they tell me.

After Allstate looks at it, the teardown begins. I'll keep you all posted with pictures. And I'm on dial up, so that means it's a real treat for you!

Another factor in his not wanting to look at it might be because on the shop side of things, Allstate is a bunch of motherfuckers. They get you damaged used parts and then try to get out of paying you for having to fix them. They also take their sweet ass time to send their adjusters out. We had to wait over a week before an adjuster even bothered showing on a Saab I just finished. Other companies are there in 1-2 days.

[MrMarquis]

Fuck Allstate. I had to argue with them for two months before they fixed my damn car after it got hit three years ago. They quoted me a falsely low estimate on the repair, which did not include painting, and then once my bodyshop had my car, they never sent someone out to re-evaluate the damage based on the teardown like they said they would...

Oh, and the Ford won.

[1987cp]

Fuck Allstate. I had to argue with them for two months before they fixed my damn car after it got hit three years ago. They quoted me a falsely low estimate on the repair, which did not include painting, and then once my bodyshop had my car, they never sent someone out to re-evaluate the damage based on the teardown like they said they would...

Oh, and the Ford won.

:lol: I've heard similar stories before. One old pal of mine, and I don't know whether the company in question was Allstate, but he was rearended by a girl while stationary at a stop sign leaving the parking lot at his high school. The adjuster who came to look at his car declared that it was a pure coincidence that the bumper was dented, the bumper mount broke, the exhaust was mangled, the gas tank started leaking, and the transmission quit going into Reverse, all at the exact same time he was hit, and that none of the above damage was due to the collision.


Personally, even though State Farm can be aggravating when dealing with a claim (especially in Michigan!), I've always gone with them in part because they're normally the cheapest. I have no idea where the other companies like Geico and Progressive get off saying their rates are so much cheaper than everyone else's.

[Tiggie]

Allstate man just left. Estimated it at about $1300.

The question of it being totaled is still up in the air. His price book only went back to 1990, which was worth "about $2000." He said he doubts it will be totaled. He really liked the tu-tone and blackout turbines. In the estimate, he included the entire loaded header panel, bumper shock, and an A/C condensor , but stopped short of the bumper.

He said he'd call tomorrow or by Monday at the latest to let me know.

[Pirate]

I've been known to chain those bumper shock to a suitably heavy object, and just back up...

Make sure you use a good strong chain, and don't overdo it. Start gentle and work your way up stopping frequently to make sure you don't pull it out too far.

Screw that wimpy approach to pulling the bumper out, I'd string out 400 feet of chain between a tree and the front bumper, start the car, floor it, and neutral-drop it into reverse. This is a finesse move, of course, because you have to be going exactly 104 miles per hour when the chain runs out of slack; 103 and below, and the bumper won't pull out far enough, and 105 and above, the bumper will literally explode into 60,000 pieces of tiny shrapnel.

So basically, you have nothing to worry about.

[Tiggie]

Finished the car last week... Pictures shortly. It's got a white nose with '91 clears now for those of you wondering...

Bumper was straight. Replaced the bumper shock.

FYI Interchange (for Crown Vic)
- 1988 and 1989+ bumper shocks are not the same. They look the same but the diameter is different going into the frame (1988 is larger)
- Sometime in 1989, they changed the header panel and the parking light bezels. You CANNOT use a 1988-early 1989 bezels on a later header panel. There are clearance issues with the lowest screw. You can grind to get the clearance needed. You can use later bezels on an earlier car without problems. I am assuming the changeover occured in mid-1989. The newer parts have an E9-blah part number, but the 1989 in the junkyard had the original to the car E8 header panel and E8 bezels.

[Tiggie]

Ok. Car has been finished for a while. This was quite frankly the easiest thing I've ever one. Bolt on. I'll paint it this spring/summer... maybe. I might just paint the rest of the car to match.


All torn apart.


'91 Header Panel


Put back together



Insurance gave me $1446.50 for it after they subtracted the salvage. I have $130 in the header panel. That leaves me plenty cushion to paint it .

[Tiggie]

“Aero-Box” 1988-1991 Ford LTD Crown Victoria

Header Panel and Parking Light FYI

Header Panel Differences:
Notice the difference in the parking light attachment points. The differences don’t matter as long as you match the header panel to your parking light bezels. Early header panel bezels will not work with a later header panel. However, later bezels will work on early header panels without issues (you do risk breaking the bezel as the older header panel is not reinforced at the bezel/header panel mating surface).

1988 through Mid-1989
Part Number E8AB-8190-AE


Mid-1989 through 1991
Part Number E9AB-8190-AE


Parking Light Bezel Differences
1988 through Mid-1989 Parking Light bezels have an extra tab for reinforcement that the later bezels do not. The tab must be ground off to use with a later header panel. Mid-1989 through 1991 bezels do not have the ear and will work on both late and early header panels (see above statement about header panels for a warning on the mixing an early header panel with late bezels.

Early Bezel with Tab seen on Left, no tab on right later bezel

Early Part Number


Late Part Number


1988-1990 Amber Lenses vs 1991 Clear Lenses

[King_V]

Small car vs Deer? No thanks. I've seen that enough times to know it doesn't usually end well.

How about this? 1987 Honda CRX HF on wet road, at 40 MPH, versus a deer?

Oddly, damage was similar. Headlight on driver's side smashed and misaligned (it's those kind that use the halogen bulbs, not a sealed beam), what passes for a grill, and the header panel, and the AC condenser, and one of the pipes coming off of it.

Deer bounced off and launched into the woods. I was lucky because it seemed the deer crouched or something at the last second, as it could easily have come sliding up the hood and come in through the windshield.

The sucky part was then finding myself going SIDEWAYS down this dark, two-lane road, moving at approximately 40 MPH, and slowly drifting to the woods at the edge. Pavement ends, about a foot of solid dirt, then a good 18-inch drop followed by trees.

I came to a halt with my front tires just barely starting to go over the edge of the drop. Backed up, I was fine, car didn't look happy, and I drove it home. And back and forth to work until a cop warned me that "even if you only drive it in the day time, that broken headlight's gonna get you in trouble."

Had it not been for the fact that I can't do bodywork to save my life, I might've fixed it and kept driving it. I had no collision or comprehensive on it, though, as the book value at the time was laughable, and I'd only paid $1600 for it when I bought it 50K miles previous to the day of the collision.


In any case, the point of that rambling tale is not to underestimate the small cars sometimes - some of them are tougher than they look.

[Kaysboat]

By the title, I thought this was a poll between John Deer and Ford tractors. However, after I was pleasently surprised that was not the case I have to say, my opinion is the Ford won.

[86VickyLX]

Ok. Car has been finished for a while. This was quite frankly the easiest thing I've ever one. Bolt on. I'll paint it this spring/summer... maybe. I might just paint the rest of the car to match.


All torn apart.


'91 Header Panel


Put back together



Insurance gave me $1446.50 for it after they subtracted the salvage. I have $130 in the header panel. That leaves me plenty cushion to paint it .

Looks like my friend's '91 Vic I just threw together. White header panel, blue fender and gray hood lol. I say you have the best luck since the only thing really destroyed was the header panel. When you paint the header panel, are you gonna pull it off to paint it?

[91grandmarquis]

Should note each different color panel adds 300hp.

Looks good though glad to see it back together.