Deer in the headlights....

[bennettmotorsports]

So I hit a deer on Nov 8, 2011. I haven't had a lot of free time or a garage but I have gotten it pretty far in my spare time. And working around the weather outside.

Photos - Before. These are photos when I bought the car before I loaded it on the tow dolly. When I bought it, the water pump seized up and broken timing belt. The head was screwed and all the other junk that goes with it. I bought the car for $600 with 154,000 miles. Spent about $300 doing the water pump and such. I just put $300 worth of tires on the car. I have also changed the heater core so it is nice and warm.

Price List

$219 - Bumper, hood, fender, 2 doors and inner wheel wells
$15 - Primer
$5 - plastic trim clips
$11 - headlight bolts
$8 - Tapes, blades and other misc
$23 - bumper lights
$94 - headlights (new with headlight bulbs)
$11 - parking light bulbs
----------------
$384 so far





The night it happened. I was heading to do a job at a local mall (I am a contractor computer tech.)





















These are photos of the donor car at the local u pull it. It is the only 2nd gen they had. Luckily they had all the body panels I needed.





The pile of parts after we got them pulled.











The teardown








My 11 year old helping do some fiberglass work on the front bumper. There was a crack about 5 inches long in the center of the bumper.





Various stages of the rebuild. Shot over several days.











































So far this is where I am at. I think I will drive it half primed until spring or when I can find a garage and spray it properly. Basically I need to finish priming the front bumper and put the "grille" back in.

[LilSparkPlug]

Nice work so far on it! Impressive for having done it all in a driveway

[UriahRR]

Pretty nice man, should have 02'd that front end, but I see you kept it totally stock down to the air intake box, so looks good in that sense.

I did the same thing with my car a loooong while ago, the headlight looked amazingly like a clone of yours. Deer(Deers?) do a LOT of damage from a little tap. Nice job reviving it.

[bennettmotorsports]

Pretty nice man, should have 02'd that front end, but I see you kept it totally stock down to the air intake box, so looks good in that sense.

I did the same thing with my car a loooong while ago, the headlight looked amazingly like a clone of yours. Deer(Deers?) do a LOT of damage from a little tap. Nice job reviving it.

The only donor car I could find around here with reasonable parts was the 00. The cheapest I could find any parts other than the 1 u pull it was crazy. I called like 5 places a front door with glass was $200. A front bumper was $150. A hood was $125. Fender was $75. Those were from different places. I called and priced everything at many different places.

Also when I got to this one which had only be on the yard for 6 days, everything was gutted but what I needed. The interior was gone. Both passenger side doors. Engine and trans. When I was done there was the trunk lid, front and rear windshields and some of the suspension components.

[DodgeEvo]

Looks good and your likey to fine a donar car. Don't have to many of donar cars around here.

[occasional demons]

Meh, I would still put a thin coat of color over the primer to seal it. You don't want the primer absorbing all the winter grime. Otherwise it would be best to sand it all off before going with real paint. The paint shop would prolly do that anyways, to guarantee their work.

If the plan was to leave it in primer, then it wouldn't be that important.

[ianguilly]

Nice work, I give you points for not trying to rattle can paint it.

[Jenni]

nice work!

wow- that junkyard jack stand looks very dangerous!!

[Midnight_Rider]

As others have posted, nice work considering it is being done in a driveway. I like that you're keeping it stock (surprise, surprise... ).