As the subject title suggests, I hit a deer the other night.
Dirty bastard jumped out from the right at point blank giving no time to react.
Now you'd think I would have had the whole width of the road because it came from the right, but no! Thanks to BT digging up the left side of the road and leaving some traffic lights, I was on the wrong side of the road having come from Boat of Garten to Inverness via Carrbridge to get onto the A9.
So there I am, a few inches of bush then trees almost touching the road. The bastard came out of the trees while I was accelerating & had just checked my mirror so as I looked up all I saw was a head and a fat bastard body. It was so close in front I couldn't even see it's legs.
I was doing around 30/35mph and was on standard ride height which is lucky as the deer went under the wheels.
Even luckier I wasn't driving wife's plastic fantastic Citroen because it would have been obliterated as it sits low down right about where my fog lights are (were)
So the damage while devastating to me, is contained in a small area...
I was lucky to have a mate giving me a whole bumper & updated fog lamps. However, the donor car apparently spent years in a field so the rust was ten feet deep
This is the bumper I was on about a couple of months ago, the one that wouldn't come off. I ended up removing the headlamps and AC fans & condenser to gain access to the nuts which I then ground off.
It took me a few hours to get enough of the front off the donor to get the bumper, but I won in the end...Although today I haven't been able to get off my arse such is the pain all over. But hey, no pain no gain.
You can see the rotten bolt holes in this picture.
So I spent time and effort grinding off the metal backing and eventually was left with the plastic bumper cover which I hope to be able to fit to my car to get through the mot next week.
I eventually hope to paint it to match the way it was
But state of this
My car is in slightly better condition and the fact the bumper is already knackered means I don't have to be quite so careful as I was with this one.
I'll let you know how I fair. Any hints & tips on getting the clips off the sides? As you can see, these were utterly ruined
Dirty bastard jumped out from the right at point blank giving no time to react.
Now you'd think I would have had the whole width of the road because it came from the right, but no! Thanks to BT digging up the left side of the road and leaving some traffic lights, I was on the wrong side of the road having come from Boat of Garten to Inverness via Carrbridge to get onto the A9.
So there I am, a few inches of bush then trees almost touching the road. The bastard came out of the trees while I was accelerating & had just checked my mirror so as I looked up all I saw was a head and a fat bastard body. It was so close in front I couldn't even see it's legs.
I was doing around 30/35mph and was on standard ride height which is lucky as the deer went under the wheels.
Even luckier I wasn't driving wife's plastic fantastic Citroen because it would have been obliterated as it sits low down right about where my fog lights are (were)
So the damage while devastating to me, is contained in a small area...
I was lucky to have a mate giving me a whole bumper & updated fog lamps. However, the donor car apparently spent years in a field so the rust was ten feet deep
This is the bumper I was on about a couple of months ago, the one that wouldn't come off. I ended up removing the headlamps and AC fans & condenser to gain access to the nuts which I then ground off.
It took me a few hours to get enough of the front off the donor to get the bumper, but I won in the end...Although today I haven't been able to get off my arse such is the pain all over. But hey, no pain no gain.
You can see the rotten bolt holes in this picture.
So I spent time and effort grinding off the metal backing and eventually was left with the plastic bumper cover which I hope to be able to fit to my car to get through the mot next week.
I eventually hope to paint it to match the way it was
But state of this
My car is in slightly better condition and the fact the bumper is already knackered means I don't have to be quite so careful as I was with this one.
I'll let you know how I fair. Any hints & tips on getting the clips off the sides? As you can see, these were utterly ruined
