Hot Rods Santa has a little less power this year. (And I have a banged up car)

You guys that think deer are bad haven't seen the damage that a Moose will do!

 

Yes, moose are not good. Long legs and the mass up high. Dangerous.
We don't have them down here in Australia, but we need to be careful of the camels and emus when in their territory.

 

Better than the other potential lumps...glad you're okay @BDUB77...I certainly believe that metal is repairable in the hands of a metalworker...much has been done with much much worse...bambi surely felt that...

 

Hitting or dodging anything can cause a bad situation...deer are pretty capable of being real nasty...and can they jump...this is just a mildly shitty deal...I've only hit one and it did leave a sizeable mark, grill gone and several dents and ran off into the wild blue after a 20 to 30 foot side slide over to the ditch...I'm always watchful and my sealed beam upgrade has given me much more visual at night...I always worry about when oncoming traffic is coming at night with the bright lights obscuring the view...I've saw several deer in silhouette blast across the road in that glaring light with oncoming traffic....scary but seconds could make things spiral downward real fast at 50 to 60mph...

 

This one('37 Ford p/u) tagged the rear crossbar of a semi trailer. While a grill insert was located, no such luck for the fender and shell. It was repaired the old way, hammers & dolly, pick& file, shrink, repeat as necessary.gaps were better than before the hit

 

Wow ! I’m sorry this sucks x10 . About fixing it , yours can be easily repaired . Give it a go , you will be surprised at how it looks when finished .

Deers on the highway really suck , the largest taken in Kentucky was only a short bit from me .

Want to discuss a bad day , hit on one the Harley see how things go south fast . My Buddy in front of me blasted one years ago . Down he goes . He said only thing that saved bad injury was sliding on his billfold . I did not have the heart to explain to him , I missed the deer by a king shot , but he was only by inches . His bike tossed over a few times over the hill in the woods . It was still running when I got to the old dude . Broken handle bars and kicker lever snapped off .

 

Fix it.

 

You know, with the price of fuel these days a lump of coal isn’t a bad gift!!

 

That sucks but repairable for sure. Looks like a perfect hoove print on top of the headlight.

 

I spent some time yesterday, and it is already looking better. Still some work to do…

 

It looks much improved.

Slow and steady wins the race.

 

Almost there, looks like you still have the skills!

 

Take break for a couple days , peck on it again , it will all come together for you before you know it finished as good as it was before

 

I had a bartender friend who hit a HORSE on his way home after closing one night around 1973. Someone let the horses out of a stable late at night as a prank and one wandered into the path of his F250 Ford pickup, think it was a '66.

I saw the truck in his driveway, the cab was pushed back around 12" into the bed and he was lucky it didn't explode, the gas tank was split open. So I ask... did the horse die... his answer was... the horse EXPLODED...

 

Nice work.

 

When I was trucking, I had several contacts with animals. Two or three deer, dogs, skunks, etc, but the scariest was a black angus bull calf on a dark, no moon night. He suddenly appeared out of nowhere, no time to dodge him, stabbed the brakes but too late to make much difference. Good thing he was only about half grown, he was just under fender tall, but the plastic bumper on the CH Mack was destroyed. It was a three piece bumper, took out the center and left sections. This was pre cell phone days, I drove about three miles to the 24 hour fuel stop and called the cops to get it out of the road. The next night, the store guy said some guy came in raising hell wanting to know who ran over his bull calf and they were going to pay for it. The store guy knew me well, he told the guy, yeah, that trucker wants to know who was stupid enough to let a calf get out and they were going to pay for his truck to be fixed. The bull owner left quietly and quickly!

 

I discovered Carter Auto Restyling's videos. He brings back some very bent up metal & fenders to almost new with simple tools and patience. He is excellent at showing his methods and explaining what he is doing. You may find some value in his videos here to make a near flawless repair without bondo or a skim at minimum. He is @66gmc on here.

Also check out his youtube site.
https://www.youtube.com/@CarterAutoRestyling/videos

 

Looks like you about have it back like it was. Looking good!

 

Good enough till deer season is over

 

true story........coming out of Cripple Creek, Colo. at 2am, middle of December, 20 degrees, 70 mph in my ot Mountaineer, I hit an elk. His head crashed the windshield right in front of the steeringwheel. I went off the road. The cops measured my car at 153 feet off the road, teter-totering on the far edge of a driveway. All I could see thru the hole in the windshield when flying thru the grass was small trees on either side. Slow Motion memory of that. When a cop got there (station just 5 miles down the road), he asked if I was ok. I was, so he went to check the elk. He came back and told me he had been an elk hunter since he was 12 hunting with his dad. He told me it was the biggest freakin' elk he had ever seen..was guessing 14-1600 lbs. He asked me if I wanted it! What?? I freezin' my butt off, wondering how I was going to get home. NO, I don't want it. He told me his freezer was full so he was going to call some friends. A half hour later, there were 3 firetrucks, 2 more police cars, and 2 ambulances there. The only one there for me was the original cop, everybody else was there for the elk! To this day, I still haven't a clue how I got home, but strangely remember all the accident details. btw, the only straight sheetmetal on my suv was the tailgate and the roof. What the elk didn't get, the trees did.
Car wasn't totaled, never popped an airbag. I credit that Mountaineer for saving my life. And Yes, the car had the infamous Mountaineer tires that eventually cost Firestone the contract it had with Ford for 100 years.

 

On the way back from Traverse City once, had the same situation happen except he unloaded an entire 15 round clip. His partner and I were giving him a good natured ribbing about it and his dejected reply was: "The worst part is I have to fill out a report on each and every one of those bullets"