Deer ran into me. How much work to fix?

[Txtruckguy]

Im not familiar with working on Aluminum. How hard do you think this will be to repair?
I feel like the tail light will be the most expensive part.

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[Tone]

Replace the bed side, and taillight.

Had the same with a F250 that was damaged when some dipstick at Home Depot allowed one of those orange lumber carts to get loose and slam into the bed side. Huge dent.

This is five years ago, but the replacement was $3500. Most likely more expensive now, plus that pricey taillight. They cut the bed side off and re-install new. Looks like your top rail might be bent. Ours was not. Then paint, etc. Took a few weeks.

Shoot from the hip guess: $5500.

 

[Txtruckguy]

Thank you for the reply. That's what I was worried about.
Definitely going to go through insurance. Was hopeful to avoid that.

 

[FaaWrenchBndr]

That won’t be a repair. That will be an entire bedside replacement. That’s gonna be 3-5k or there about. Pricing of bits and pieces is absolutely insane. That tail light alone is probably gonna be 1200 bucks.

 

[Tone]

Yeah, sucks. Shouldn't affect your insurance rate but that's a NY perspective. Our deductible was $1000. Geico was great — no issues, no increase because we were parked.

No expert, but it doesn't look like it can be pulled out. If so, a new taillight might not fit properly because the crease above the light indicates force shoved the bed into it. Or the deer ran all the way down. Don't see any fur or blood.

Good luck.

 

[Txtruckguy]

Not a lot of fur, but there is some. I have the dash cam footage too.

Yeah, sucks. Shouldn't affect your insurance rate but that's a NY perspective. Our deductible was $1000. Geico was great — no issues, no increase because we were parked.

No expert, but it doesn't look like it can be pulled out. If so, a new taillight might not fit properly because the crease above the light indicates force shoved the bed into it. Or the deer ran all the way down. Don't see any fur or blood.

Good luck.

 

[Tone]

Therefore, the deer sideswiped the length and into the light, not the bed shoving into the light.

Knowing the how is great but not much help in the cost of repair.

 

[Eighthtry]

I got my first buck with a 67 Ford Falcon. It was a small 6 point, so I chose not to mount it. The Falcon was a little aggressive and accidently totaled itself in the process. It was all sheet metal though and I repaired it from the wrecker driver's junkyard. Texas Highway Patrol gave the deer to me to dispose. Fortunately the wrecker driver wanted it because there were three good hams and possible backstrap on it. Plus he had all the repair parts in the junkyard.

 

[Brent@ANParts]

Unfortunately the tail light is probably the cheapest part of the repair!

 

[WMiller]

Im not familiar with working on Aluminum. How hard do you think this will be to repair?
I feel like the tail light will be the most expensive part.

Did you ever get an estimate? How much did it cost to repair?

 

[Txtruckguy]

Did you ever get an estimate? How much did it cost to repair?

I did. $5,300.
Ended up having to go through insurance. The tail light alone was $1500.
They removed the entire panel. Apparently its just "glue" and rivets holding it on. So the body shop has to have a special rivet tool from Ford to do it. Truck is supposed to be back today. They had it for 2 weeks.

 

[Tone]

Was right on the money with a guesstimate of $5500.

It's a happy ending. You'll have your baby back soon. Hopefully your insurance rate won't rise. Generally, this type of accident does not raise it.

 

[Txtruckguy]

Progressive was surprisingly easy to deal with. Uploaded pictures for them. They did go to the body shop to inspect the damage, but it seemed like they were worried we were missing something. Approved the repair the day after it got to the body shop. Unfortunately I have had a bad run of luck with vehicles as of late. I had a RV that got flipped onto a car during a hurricane last year. So we will see how it goes. Seems like rates are always going up anyway. But overall happy with the experience (as happy as I can be).

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