Oh, I could probably get away with gluing the fractured parts of the bumper cover but marital politics necessitates a new one

 

LOL Politically correct!

 

Ok, time for an update.

Replaced under the hood components:

New Condenser, Radiator, radiator cap, water pump, extension pipe, thermostat, #1 fan.

Repaired: #2 fan, ECM Connector housing, driver's side radiator bracket.

Discovered a leak in the upper rad hose. Tried to patch it but the patch sprung a leak. Darn. Have a new one on order.

Flushed out the heater core. Rear heat works well, but the front is still not warm. Could be not enough coolant in the system yet or could be the blend door. I would rather it be due to not enough coolant. I'll find out when I get the new rad hose.

Changed the transmission fluid and filter.

Once I reinstalled the ECM and Battery, I had to give the battery a jump to start the van. The van runs and all of the gadgets on it work, so the ECM survived the deer. The wiring harness did too, apparently.

Took it for a spin around the neighborhood in order to cycle through all of the gears and gadgets and try to get the coolant to circulate (this is when I discovered the upper rad hose leak). With the body parts still missing, it felt like I was in Mad Max movie:





Lord Humongous says, "Just walk away!"

 

Way to go! Now try and find a bumper cover with fog light openings?

 

Hey! congratulations! You saved yourself a boatload of money. How much do you have into the rebuild so far?

 

Ready for paint.

Upper rad hose installed. Now it's just a matter of getting the air out of the coolant system. Front heat is getting better, so I think I may get away without messing with the blend door.

The bumper, although it does have the fog light cutouts, is not an exact match for the old bumper. The salvaged grill pieces from the original do not line up with the mounting holes in the new bumper. So it looks like glue and tie wraps to the rescue.

I'm guessing once I get it back from the paint shop, I'll have around $1500 in it. I took this opportunity to expand my tool set a bit. I bought some ratcheting box wrenches(8mm thru 19mm), some flexible extensions and some ramps.

 

1500 is a steal to get it on the road again. Congratulations!

 

Yup, have to give credit where it is due. Good save and you did save a ton over bodyshop pricing.

 

Very nice job!!!

 

Kinda hitting this way late for this advice... but my favorite thing to do is find the right color used body parts out of the junk yards. Buff them out and assemble, no paint necessary. Even room left in the budget to have a paintless dent repair guy go over the whole car. I've found that more often than not the body shop paint job won't outlast the original. I've also found that the aftermarket panels aren't usually as well made or fit properly without "adjustment".

Kudos for tackling it on your own! Not too many people will get off the couch long enough to make that stuff happen.