Hate to see this Chris,but I'm glad it wasnt any worse...good to see work has already started...NC claimed some damage to my vette....guy backed into it when I was inside the gas station in Asheville on the way home from GS Nats trip. He actually waited outside for me,needless to say I was shocked. Hope your Buick comes out just as good/better than before...hope to see it next yearDave
Back in September my wife, kids and myself took the Riv and went grocery shopping. While we were in the store the couple parked next to us were taking pics of my car and all of a sudden a guy and his wife in a black dodge truck backed into my Riv pushing the bumper in then his bumper hooked the corner of mine and when he pulled forward it proceeded to pull my bumper outward. He then took off as the couple were trying to flag him down. We came out of the store minutes later to find out what had just happened Luckily for me the man's wife got his full plate number and the stores video surveillance got the whole thing on tape. The cops charged him with a hit and run and fleeing the scene of an accident. I had an insurance adjuster come out and asses the damage. I'm still waiting to find out what Hagerty is going to do, fix or replace the bumper.
Bummer, as I just recently SOLD a complete 1972 front bumper....with original brackets and all original hardware. I would have given you my front bumper for free......for this cause. Glad you are having her repaired....glad it was not worse.
Just thought I'd post an update. Got a couple sets of headlight bezels from guys here on V8Buick, as well as a very nice fender from hugger. All body work and painting is done; now just have to reassemble everything and do some color sanding. And of course, still waiting on the bumper.
Somehow, I missed this thread until now. I know how it feels to hit a deer, or any other animal, with your vehicle. Worse yet when its your "baby" that you hit it with. You feel sick for the animal and for the damage. After I was hit head-on years ago by a huge horse, then a deer a short while back, I drive like a "grandpa" at night, especially with our old cars. We live in the country, so we see a lot of deer. I'm glad to see you were able to procure the parts you needed and that your body shop is getting your Buick done at, what I consider, a timely manner.
I oversee large transit fleets for work and currently have 4 E-450's down for Deer related collision damage just in PA alone in the last month. I have invested in deer whistles for all of our vehicles in PA, OH, and NY, hopefully it pays off.
Well guys, I got the car back from the body shop, and while I'm happy with the paint and body work, and the bumper from BuickSkylarkPart.com looks great, I'm not too happy with the gap between the hood and fenders. The body shop guy says the radiator core support I got from The Parts Place is slightly wider than the factory one, so this is the best he could do with that core support. Does that sound plausible to you guys? Anyone have any suggestions for making the gap better? Or will I need to try to get a different core support to really fix this problem?
If the core support was wider wouldn't there be gaps between the headlight bezels and grill also then?? Maybe they're blowing smoke up your butt cause they didn't want to take the time to readjust the fenders?
Yep they are a little wider,..dobe one a few months ago,..once you bolt the support to the fenders provided there aren't shims there,..then that's it,..your only option is to cut some material off the top tie bar and re weld or you sink the area in on the fender side
You could slide the support over about 1/16 to 1/18 and split the difference to make it less noticeable,..
That's not unusual for aftermarket sheet metal to be "off sized" We see it at work quite often, doors, fenders too long/short.
Thanks for the feedback, guys. I took the car back to the shop today and told them about hugger's suggestion of cutting the core support and then welding it back together. They're down with that idea, so hopefully that goes well and that gap gets shrunk to something more reasonable.
They will also need to ream out the 3 holes behind the headlight door to allow it to move but being a shop they will see that,..now you can also just drill the few spot welds out over the headlight then take the material out under the rad support plate that would be best and easiest imo
