This year really hasn't been my year. **** like this really eats at my pride...

Anyway...minor rear-end collision. I'd say somewhere under 15mph...hard to say; I was in Chicago traffic. The accident happened last week...finally took it in on Thursday. Estimate says $2500, which I think it crazy, because the damage isn't even really extensive. Thank goodness for the bull bar...the damage pretty much got isolated right at that spot. If it weren't for the extra strength and few extra inches in the front, my radiator and support would have been dinged up, as well as non repairable hood and broken headlight and etc...which would have SUCKED!

Besides the bumper and the bull bar, the most damage is the A/C condenser. It only damaged the bracket and messed up the fins. The internals of it is still intact.

Good news:
-Frame is okay.
-Will be getting a newly charged A/C (Great for this heat wave we've been blasted by this past week...).
-Insurance Adjuster docked off $200 off my $500 deductible because he marked the bull bar and light as "Appearance allowance," so the body shop won't replace it under insurance, but lower deductible is good for me being a student.
-Hood is completely repairable...lucky me on that part; I would have been pissed.
-Fender may actually be replaced since there's a lot of rust on the inside making it not worth repairing; up to the body shop what they want to do (The fender was never aligned properly since I got the truck...previous owner must have had an accident).
-Oh and a new front bumper, which is no problem because I never fixed it from the last accident.

Bad news:
-No Bull Bar, unless I can find one really, really cheap....I loved that thing...had it for almost 6 years. =(
-This all shouldn't have happened, but whatever.

 

ouch bro, glad your okay! your truck will be up and running in no time i am sure

 

first off glad to hear it wasn't worse. That is a good looking truck and hopefully you can find another bull bar cheap.

 

looks strangely familiar. except i not has bull bar.

 

screw it i would get the bull bar back from the shop and just put it back on throw some paint on it well i guess it is will still fit on there

 

This looks pretty familiar to me as well. Except I also didn't have a bull bar, so my radiator got pushed in a little. And hasn't been fixed yet. I replaced the bumper cover, reinforcement, grille, and one inner fender well and it cost maybe 5 or 600 dollars. $2500 is ridiculous. But at least you get an a/c recharge. Mine sure has been nice in the heat lately. Good luck!

 

Keep the Bull-bar.
Find someone that could
cut and patch a new bar
into place.
(A muffler shop could bend
a pipe to match for 20 bucks).
It looks like 2 1/2" pipe.
(Maybe 3"). Fairly common at
muffler shops. Granted, Their
exhaust pipe won't be as thick-walled
as what's on there but, you like it and,
it will work in the looks department.
You can also cut off the stock wrecked
portion of the pipe leaving enough at each
end on there to have the muffler-shop
exspand the newly made pipe ends to
simply slip over what you left on the
original damaged pipe then, drill & bolt
it into place. A little rattle-can paint,..
Your done.

 

I just took my bar off to help get in a little closer to do a water pump replacement. I haven't decided if I'm going to put it back on or not. If I don't, it'll be available.

 

Yea, the parts wasn't that much according to the estimate. There is a lot of hours put down for labor though. The hood itself has been estimated at 7 hours in shaping alone. I'm sure the estimate is worse case scenario, so I'll just have to see how much it really comes out to.


As for using exhaust pipe for fixing the bull bar in the looks department...that's actually not a bad idea. It's hard to say because the mount is in bad shape...I don't know how much I'll be able to mend things myself. I can weld the pipe on (probably). I haven't mentioned anything about the bull bar about what I want to do...hopefully they haven't thrown it away yet. But heck, if Earlrabbit can hook me up, why even bother with the fixing?

 

good thing you had that bull bar but overall imo it shouldn't cost you over 950 to having it looking like new that 2500 estimate is ridiculous.. good luck and keep us posted