Why I hate deer... Options

[richee3]

Well... I got my first Celica when I was 16. I had a truck for the first 8 months I had my license. Single cab short bed '99 Dodge Ram, 5.9 liter V8. That thing was BA. But I never really wanted it or it's 12 miles to the gallon. So my parents sold that and bought my first Celica, a '96 ST auto from a retiring schoolteacher that my stepmom worked with. She kept that car immaculate- oil changed every 2,500 miles, detailed once a week, door dings fixed within a week. That was her 3rd Celica, and she only sold it to buy a convertible Solara when she had grandchildren on the way and decided a car seat in a Celica was impractical. I went through a bad phase with that car for a month or two... The pictures will explain it.










Don't worry, I got rid of the underglows in a hurry. I was young and stupid then So another couple of months went by uneventfully, and then school started back up. I had to park near some bad drivers. One day, I checked my mirrors and started backing out. In the time it took me to let off the brake and turn my head from my mirrors to look out my driver's side window to make sure nobody would be driving through behind me, a girl that parked behind me floored it and got out in the aisle, and I backed right into her in my shiny 3L2 Celica. Did $125 worth of damage to the paint, no biggie.


With my nice little Autozone exhaust tip there... It actually looked decent on the car.


Saved up the money to get it fixed and made an appointment. My appointment was for a Monday to drop the car off at the body shop. The Friday night before that, I was driving home. I had 3 hours to make a 5 minute drive, so I was in no hurry. I was driving about 45, watching out for deer. But the problem is I was watching the field to my left rather than the yards to my right. There was a deer lurking in a group of trees in one of the yards. I owned that car 5 months to the day when this happened. This was 1 mile from my house.


My dad is an avid deer hunter. He was pretty upset about the car until he saw the deer laying in the ditch. Then I was pardoned and he made me load the deer up in his truck.























That twisted the frame and blew both airbags. $7,200 in damage. We could have gotten it fixed but decided not to when we were advised that unibody cars are never the same after a wreck like that. So we sold that to the insurance company. I ran a CARFAX on it a couple of months ago, and it has been rebuilt and is being driven in Chicago now. So we drove 3 hours to buy the only decent Celica we could find after waiting for 2 months. That brings me to my current black '98 GT 5-speed.






I started a new job in this car, and a year ago next month, a deer broadsided me in the middle of town. Who gets hit by a deer in the middle of town?!?!?!





$3,250 in damage this time. There was more damage than you see. The window wouldn't stay rolled up, the mirror was jacked up, and the fender had a few dents too. So while that was in the shop, I found out about a '96 ST auto coupe, still running, for $400.









Wrecked, but rebuildable. So I snatched it up, intending to rebuild it, which with estimates I got from the FS thread, I could have done for $1,000. Then I would have had a beater Celica to get me through college and a nice one for the weekends. But I decided I didn't want to pay insurance on 2 Celis, so I parted the coupe out for a hefty profit.

Got my black Celi back, all fixed up and good as new. The last few months, not too much has happened... until tonight. I deer jumped out of a cornfield at me. One that put all the others I've hit to shame. This sucker was huge. Dad would be proud lol. But I didn't kill this one. Barely even hit it. I just got the back legs, which sent it flying through the air into the ditch, with me laughing the whole time. It's bad when I've hit so many deer that I laugh about it.





The bumper is a little messed up, but nothing major. I feel kinda bad for my cars. They go through a lot for me I think I need to move to the city. Oh wait... I hit deer there too!!!!!!!

This post has been edited by richee3: Jul 23, 2009 - 8:46 AM

[richee3]

Death, I'm glad I could give you a good laugh.

Ruroniarc, I've got a MAK-90 sitting in my gun cabinet. Haven't shot it in a while. I'm thinking it's about time I got it out again. What do you say, I drive and you stick out the moonroof gunning the deer down?

Ferdi, my bumper actually looks like crap. Whoever owned the car before me hit something and had it repainted pretty cheap. So there's layer after layer of paint peeling off. It looks good from 20 feet away when it's dirty, but up close or any time it's clean, it shows really bad. I'm sure your bumper is MUCH better than mine.

So here's the extent of the damage to my car... You can see in the first picture that I posted where the passenger side of the bumper got bent down a little bit so it didn't sit flush with the hood. I was able to bend the support bar back so that almost sits perfectly, so that part isn't an issue. But the bumper seems to be pushed out from the driver's side high beam headlight, and the hood is sitting up from the bumper right there.






EDIT: I cleaned my car up earlier this week, but I didn't have time to get pictures before driving at night and hitting more bugs, and it rained last night so the car looks terrible again.


I have practically no experience with body repairs. But I should say that the deer jumped out from the passenger side of the car, leaving the driver's side to take a lot of the impact. I was looking at the car this morning, and it looks like rather than the bumper being pushed out, the headlight is just pointed down really far, and the hood isn't messed up. Instead, it's the bumper sitting lower. So in everyone's opinion, do I take the bumper off and try to fix this myself using basic tools like a rubber mallet, take the car to a body shop, or just leave it like it is because only 6gc owners will notice that something isn't sitting right?

SECOND EDIT: I figured out how to fix it best!!! http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/JDM-FRONT-N...sQ5fAccessories

Lol. Just kidding. I'm too poor for that

This post has been edited by richee3: Jul 25, 2009 - 2:39 PM