brandonripple

Well fellas, I hoped I'd never have to say it... but I hit a deer on Thursday. You probably won't be able to find old pics of my truck and I have no new ones.. sorry. It's an '02 Chevy. Single cab, stepside and teal green in color.

Body shop roughly estimated $5000 for repairs. Airbags alone are $3000 of that.

The truck will need an air dam, bumper, bumper cap, headlights, parking lights, AC condensor, radiator, radiator support (everything else around it), grille, grille emblem, 1 (possibly 2) fender, and possibly a hood. I don't know exactly how bad everything was knocked out of whack or exactly what needs replaced. The hood and passenger fender might be ok. The pressure from the airbags blew the passenger window off track. Also, a bolt shot out of something and stuck into the passenger front tire.

I just hope that when it's fixed, everything is done correctly. The local body shop has a good reputation I guess. but I have never seen anything done by them. The owner is also a very distant relative. I don't know him personally.

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I would like some advice about what to do about getting aftermarket components. Basically all of the damaged I would like to get upgraded or aftermarket parts. I want to keep cost under what insurance is paying. I don't know that amount yet. I do know the deductable is $1000. Can I get these components cheaper (or the same price as) than the body shop anywhere?

I'm flipped out, would really like to get this thing fixed up a little out of the deal.

LesPaul

WOW you nailed that deep hard.... either it was big or you nailed it going 100 mph to make the bags go off.... hell hit mine at 70 and only bent the bumper a bit.... not sure about your insurance company... but mine was classified as a force of nature and thier was a $0 deductible.... did you contact your insurance too see what they say???

brandonripple

Actually, it was about a 120 lb doe and I hit it doing 50-55 on impact. It just hit perfect. The deer was in mid-air scrambling for its life. I had no time to react, it was crazy.

I have to call the insurance company tomorrow. With my luck, I'm planning on paying the deductable.

I'd like to get a tahoe grille, aluminum emblem, painted bumper cap, painted airdam, clear corners, and maybe an HD or cowl hood out of this if it needs it!

brandonripple

I found some old pics but it really hasn't changed except that its smashed now...

endo

My 2 cents...

Headlights: Go with Sylvania Xenarc X2020 HIDs. They are a little over $400...example: www.brightheadlights-hid.com I believe the GM parts cost $150/side last time I priced them off GM Parts Direct...so they shouldn't run you much more. These are genuinely street legal HIDs that have custom-designed lenses for the different shape of the HID element....not the typical BS HIDs that you see retrofitted into pickups that throw light into everyone's eyes.

Bumper cap: Get the Tahoe paintable one, and have it colormatched (they'll be painting other stuff anyway, why not?)

Grille: Two options here...either get an all-chrome Tahoe one or get a Tahoe Z71 paintable shell. Personally I'd do chrome rather than painted on a green truck.

Bumper: I'd just go stock chrome, but you can get a Tahoe Z71 paintable item if you're into that sort of thing.

Lower valence (if it's damaged): Go with a Tahoe Z71 item...these have holes for ROUND instead of rectangular fog lights....they'll look good even on a 2wd/street truck.

Hood: GM HD hood or Cowl hood....tons of options here.

TXsilverado

iTrader: (19)

sounds like you smacked the crap outa that doe! you can cut atleast 300 off your cost by going with an aftermarket core support instead of the factory. i went with the factory, but they had an aftermarket core at the shop that worked my truck and i set the 2 next to each other. if there wasnt a gm part number on mine i woulda gotten confused on which was which! i think the gm core was just over 400 at my cost so it would probably hit you around the 500 mark. i want to say the aftermarket core support was just a little over 100.

Dock Rocker

get the air bag from a salvage yard about 1/4 the price

JT-bo

if you have to get a new radiator then you might as well get a 34" from a new truck and get the e-fans. you could get the same radiator size and some LS1 fans for less money but if insurance is gonna cover it then get a brand new setup that will run cooler. My .02

magnetized

iTrader: (5)

I'd see if I could find some of the parts in a junkyard or from a salvage site (car-part.com, etc.) that might save some cost on parts.

brandonripple

Guys, thanks for all the advice. I was thinking I wanted to do all the same stuff, lights, grilles, radiator and all. I just don't know how or where to get everything and still have insurance cover it.

I just contacted the insurance company and there is a $500 deductable on comprehensive coverage. They havn't told me what they're going to pay yet.
Using Unitrin if anyone is interested. Seems to be a decent company.

I am about to contact the body shop owner and ask him about some of the aftermarket stuff. If any of you guys know places to get the aftermarket stuff cheap and quick, let me in on some info.

Thanks!
Brandon