Hit a Deer!

Going down a steep hill last night, a deer hopped over a guardrail right in front of me, I had less than a second to react, I hit 'em at about 45 He got caught under the front axle as I skidded to a stop.. managed to drive it less than a mile up the road since the serp belt broke when somthing hit it, i had no power steering, (even 31's suck w/o it) The grille got trashed, the front bumper smashed in flat right in the center, and it cracked the nosepiece in front of the hood, I got the new belt on today and got it home, any tips or tricks on how to get the front bumper off? I don't think it'll be too fun, but im sure i'll manage.. Also, what should I upgrade while im at it? I don't wanna spend too much money, but I wanna upgrade if I can.

TIA

what about the deer?

Hopefully he fried up some backstrap for breakfast the next morning.

I ran over her, she got stuck under the front axle. but I think she was dead anyways, I was going 45+ on impact...

and no, I didn't butcher it, left it there, it pretty much broke in half...

The same thing happened to my Jeep during my last wreck a month ago. That nose piece is the grille surround, and you can get a new one from Quadratec for $89 IIRC. Dealer wants over $200 for it. As far as the front bumper goes, I just used a breaker bar and pliers to bend it to the point that I could take the bolts out. I then had to bend the frame back out where the bumper connects to it. I'm having C-ROK build me a bumper as we speak. I've wrecked 2 Jeeps now because the front bumper is so flimsy, and C-ROK's has a pretty stout mounting system along with it.

I got the grille, surround, and all the lights and everything off today, Going to take the radiator off in a few minutes,
I got most of the bolts out of the bumper, but its still stuck on, why do the brackets have to be bolted AND welded?!
Also, those big torx bolts underneath the tow hooks I havent removed yet.

95WhiteXJ,

It sounds like you are doing the work yourself to fix the vehicle. I take it you do not carry comprehensive or collisoin on your XJ. I grew up in Missouri and the editor of our small town paper told me the Missouri Conservation Department would pay your deductable for and accident you had with a "wild" animal. He hit a deer and that how he found out.

I think there has to be a police report to document it was a deer strike, in Missouri the game warden had to come out to write up the report. If you did that you might get some $ to fix the vehicle.

Why not tomorrow call the "game warden" and ask if they have a similar progam. It a thing i the law that the convservatoin dept was the "guardian" of the wild animals and was responsible for the damage they did, or at least to motor vehicles.

Martin

He in PA you are on your own, they even want you to take the deer with you
A few years ago I was talking to the tech guy from ARB/OME, he had hit a deer that morning in his ARB/OME TJ at 60mph on Interstate 78, no damage, quick trip thru the car wash and some detail work involving hair removal and 'stuck chunks' and it looked good as new

Hey 95whiteXJ,

Since you're planning on removing most of the front "stuff" on your XJ, now would be a great time to get an awesome new front bumper! After extensive searching I finally found a cool and functional bumper for most models of the XJ. Check out BPIfab.com (colorado) to look at some awesome bumpers they build. They ain't cheap (price goes up as you add options) but it combines all the cool features that only one guy or the other builds in their bumpers. You'll see! Pics are good too...shows different models to choose from on an XJ (and its white too!).

Thanks for all the help fellers, I live in PA and I highly doubt since it happens ALL the time that the conservation department will pay to fix my XJ lol. I'm definately at least putting some type of brushgaurd on after this, can't afford to have it happen again. A friend of mine offered me 15 feet of 3" tubing......hmmm......

if you are looking for " deer proof " look no further than an arb front bumper... i hit a 6 point buck doing about 40 the brushguard/hoop portion of the bumper kept the rack out of my radiator and the deer pretty much bounced off the bumper.. hosed the blood off and it was right as rain...

I have a passenger side headlight bezel if you need one.