VicCrownVic's 1998 Mercury Grand Marquis LS

[87gtVIC]

Bummer. Lucky you can find the parts and are capable of swapping them out. Others would be forced to drive it that way or have insurance total it out.

[Mainemantom]

Glad you are not hurt. Nice to find the parts as quick as you did. Deer are stupid creatures. I had one hit my brand new LTC back in 2005 . It was like it dropped from the sky. Shocking experience. Maybe you can find a paint shop that can blend in the parts.

[VicCrownVic]

So far I'm about $150 into the repair effort. Dave, unfortunately, this car actually was totaled a year or two before I got it. The history says left front damage and I can tell that the left fender is not original as is the bumper cover which has a factory sticker with a 2000 MGM VIN (and possibly the hood is not original). (The right fender without pinstripe will now match the left.) I suspect it was similar damage, but the price for repair on the history report was a little over $5200. Yeah, I'm not terribly worried about the imperfections saving that kind of dough. A hood will be an additional $50-$55 depending on where I find it, and if I decide to hold out for a correct color header panel, which I'd prefer over painting, that's another $45 about. While I'm not done putting money into the fix it will still be a far cry from $5200.

Derek, that bastard just kept on going. I braked enough that it probably just got some serious bruising. I don't even recall thinking about braking, I just did while saying MF I didn't even get a good look at it and don't know if it was a doe or a buck, but it was an adult.

Spent some time last night cleaning the new-to-me headlight. I used the same Cerakote product on both headlights before the deer destroyed the one. I actually wanted to replace that one anyway, it had a crack in it. Anyway, the replacement came from a green '98 MGM and was in about the same shape as my headlights before I restored them, so I figured this would would match the D-side well after the same treatment.
The Cerakote stuff does OK. Having never used any headlight restore product I have nothing to compare it to in terms of how well this product does.



Picture before the accident after applying the Cerakote product. (The last picture before the accident.) I didn't get a before picture either time I used the product.



Also, I did not realize how large these fenders are until I tried putting it into the car in the JY parking lot.

[DerekTheGreat]

Ah, that sucks. Guess in order to kill a deer it has to kill the car.

I'm curious about the headlight restore stuff. I'd like to try it on the Tahoe and new to me Camaro. But I've heard the stuff doesn't last very long.

[Arquemann]

Guess in order to kill a deer it has to kill the car.

And even killing a car doesn't necessarily kill the deer...
I dunno what kinda deer you americans got, but here adult deer are really tough.
I've bumped a deer once and got a fender kicked by a moose, I also know a guy whose 5-series Beemer was utterly totaled in a deer collision and the animal just got up and fucked off to ruin someone else's day.

Moose are a whole different thing, they are fucking huge and scary as hell. If you're not driving a freaking lifted pickup truck, those things come in through the windshield if you crash into them.

[VicCrownVic]

Whitetail (white-tailed) deer, is what we have around here. We have moose up north in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan where I spent my college years. (Many other places in the US also have moose, but not the Lower Peninsula of Michigan that I'm aware of.) I've actually never seen a moose. Hitting one of those would put my car in a state beyond my ability to repair if I'm lucky to even make it.

[Arquemann]

Whitetail (white-tailed) deer, is what we have around here. We have moose up north in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan where I spent my college years. (Many other places in the US also have moose, but not the Lower Peninsula of Michigan that I'm aware of.) I've actually never seen a moose. Hitting one of those would put my car in a state beyond my ability to repair if I'm lucky to even make it.

Yeah we've got those too and roe deer(?) aswell, and of course moose and reindeer. I've seen all of 'em, reindeers on trips up north, but moose and deer can be seen off the road every now and then, and I don't even live in the middle of nowhere.
Big or small, they always scare you shitless when driving, only the potential damage differs. Best enjoyed on a platter.

[sly]

This is the reason for the deer launcher bumper on my Expedition.

[VicCrownVic]

No pictures, I'll upload after I get home (Saturday night or Sunday), but it's starting to look better. Staying the night in Memphis, MI and got a head start since the original plan was to start tomorrow. Fender and header panel are on and bumper cover is back on. Lots more bolts to go and then adjustments tomorrow. Driver side is pretty much back together with headlight mounted but forgot to plug in the headlight. Phone (aka flashlight) battery was just about dead (2%) so I called it a night. Managed to get the new-to-me fender mounted without completely removing the hood. Have all the rear most bolts in but none are tight yet. Only a couple of front bolts are in. The passenger side of the radiator support did get tweaked a little. About 1/4" less tweak at the bottom header panel mount bolt and it wouldn't be a problem, but for now only the top mount bolt is in. Hood closes fine but quite the gap on the front passenger side since it got smashed there. Ordered some touch-up paint from automotivetouchup.com, I've used their paint before and it was good enough for me, and some trim adhesive to transfer the trim on the rear of the fender to the new-to-me fender. Should be all wrapped up with the non-paint work tomorrow.

[VicCrownVic]

Pictures this time. Some are not very good because it was dark Friday night when I took those.

Started working on replacing parts on Friday evening while spending the weekend at the in-laws place. Friday evening picture of the fender on with a few bolts in but not tightened.


A couple of really hard to see pictures of how far I got when I finally called it a night on Friday night. The lower Portion of the fender which is normally covered by the bumper cover was a bit tweaked so that P-side of the bumper cover wouldn't line up right. I could tell it was tweaked when I found this fender in the JY, and you can probably tell in the previously posted pic of the fender at my house.



Saturday I managed to get the tweak in the fender close enough, but as you can see in the picture it's not quite perfect. It was too hot and humid for me to want to mess with it further. I must have sweat at least a couple gallons that day. In fact, the spot on the fender that looks like it might bird dropping is actually a sweat spot; the fender, hood, and header panel were all covered in sweat spots by the time I was done. I ended up using some quick detailer to get it off then forgot to take a picture. I also installed a new-to-me radiator support cover since the old (not original) one was in pieces. Cleaning that cover forced me to do a little (not thorough) under hood cleaning.


And a picture from today since I apparently forgot to get a picture with the hood down yesterday after the afore mentioned quick detail. The hood needs to be adjusted, but no point in doing it now when I'll just end up doing it again when I find a suitable new hood. Also, if you look close, you can see a couple deer scuffs. One right below the cornering light and the other just below the outboard side of headlight.

[friskyfrankie]

Looking good!!

[DerekTheGreat]

It's starting to look whole again! Nice job. Although I cast my vote to have it painted with refinish grade paint or take it somewhere to have it painted. The rest of that car is just too nice. My shitty truck will get that very same paint (much like the roof did) when I finally get around to repainting the hood. But while I was satisfied with the color match and appearance of the basecoat, their clearcoat left much to be desired. I even shelled out more to get their premium crap.

[sly]

[87gtVIC]

Getting there!

[Mainemantom]

Looking much better. By looking at the photos of the hood, I would think that damage could be straightened. Might be an option if you can't find one of the similar color.