Deer Strike, Insurance won't pay out, what options do I have here for rebuild? (1 Viewer)

[NolaNomad]

Happy Turkey Day!
Recent Deer strike left my7 driver side front end smashed up. Air bags did not go off, all damage seems to localized to driver side front end.
Insurance said it doesn't cover deer strike so I'm SOL.
I've been round and round with the insurance, now looking for out of pocket options.

I attached the estimate from the body shop totalling almost $11,500.
Over $7k in parts, $4k in labour.

Damaged parts are:
Driver side fender panel, Fender liner, fender reinforcement
Trans Oil Cooler
Radiator
Radiator core support & centre support
DR Headlamps & corner marker
Bumper cover and fog lamps
Grille assembly & Supports
Air conditioner assembly

222K Miles on a good condition LX470
Power stop brakes, rotors, callipers, steel brake lines & pads just installed 2 months ago
Just had the rack & pinion replaced
Timing belt done 3 years ago
Heater Tees done
Full tune up & service done 3 months ago
Fan clutch and Belt replaced 3 years ago
Everything works as it should including AHC, flushed 3 years ago.

I've already put some work in the baseline and health of the LX.

-Wondering if it's better scrap the LX and get another one.
-Fix the Lx , but where to find the parts and labor?
-What all is basic to just get it road legal and fix it up over time?
-Anyone know of a Tech in Colorado who can fix using customer supplied parts(salvage or second hand)


To those who have had this experience, what's the best option?

 

[Trunk Monkey]

What's their rationale for not paying a claim, do you not have collision or comp?

 

[aging fleet]

What's their rationale for not paying a claim, do you not have collision or comp?

Animal strikes are covered under your comprehensive coverage, assuming he didn't have that.

 

[hoser]

Do you have comprehensive insurance or just collision? If collision, please let us know the name of the insurance company we should avoid.

 

[zgfiredude]

You can't buy Collision coverage without Comprehensive coverage. It's the Comp coverage that covers everything "other than a collision". The deer strike is a Comp claim. You CAN buy Comp without Collision but not the other way around. This is to the best of my knowledge, but companies do weird things sometimes.

He must NOT have Comp coverage.

 

[suprarx7nut]

You can't buy Collision coverage without Comprehensive coverage. It's the Comp coverage that covers everything "other than a collision". The deer strike is a Comp claim. You CAN buy Comp without Collision but not the other way around. This is to the best of my knowledge, but companies do weird things sometimes.

He must NOT have Comp coverage.

Pretty sure I've had collision without comp, but perhaps I'm mistaken. I thought you needed collision before comp.

Regardless, I'm surprised deer would not count as a collision. If you run into a moving car that's collision. Is a parked car collision? What about a non-registered, non-running car? Or a running car that's in park? What about a pedestrian? What about stray object in the road?

I thought collision was essentially "damage done while operating the vehicle".

I'm not sure what I know now, haha.

 

[Import Driver]

Every way I look at it you're upside down. Very sorry you're in that situation. I would be soooo frustrated.

I look for deer hit vehicles like that to repair and then use as a personal vehicle. BUT, I buy them at auction cheap so I'm ahead on on it. That's where it differs from your siltation. Even if you got insurance money you still may not be ahead much doing the work yourself. That having been said, if I were in your shoes I believe my only choice would be to try to find every part as cheap as I can and fix it myself.

Do you work on your own vehicles? Did you do the timing belt and other stuff to baseline it? Basic body work repairs are pretty simple. Repairing panels and painting gets much more complicated.

I would....
Driver side fender panel, Fender liner, fender reinforcement <-- Buy a new fender or find one at a junk yard (unlikely)
Trans Oil Cooler <-- Buy OEM
Radiator <-- OEM
Radiator core support & centre support <--cheapest available
DR Headlamps & corner marker <-- your choice
Bumper cover and fog lamps <-- Iron man or your choice (OEM is about $650 shipped plus paint and any other broken parts)
Grille assembly & Supports <--Pick a style you like
Air conditioner assembly <--replace necessary parts, then have recharged at a private shop

But you still might be in it $3-5k in parts plus have the fender painted and a/c charged.

 

[TLCJC]

Sounds like liability only policy?

 

[OEMGUY0720]

Check fine print of your coverage, otherwise I’d lawyer up.

Now if you choose to fix the LX, it may take a while to acquire all parts, I would suggest eBay, Amazon, local scrap yard, Facebook Marketplace and OfferUp to get them. You’ll be surprised how these platforms have so much to offer in terms of spare parts. Only caveat is be wary of scammers.

 

[Fairgame]

Get Ih8mud friend to help you source parts and straighten out the front

 

[NolaNomad]

Every way I look at it you're upside down. Very sorry you're in that situation. I would be soooo frustrated.

I look for deer hit vehicles like that to repair and then use as a personal vehicle. BUT, I buy them at auction cheap so I'm ahead on on it. That's where it differs from your siltation. Even if you got insurance money you still may not be ahead much doing the work yourself. That having been said, if I were in your shoes I believe my only choice would be to try to find every part as cheap as I can and fix it myself.

Do you work on your own vehicles? Did you do the timing belt and other stuff to baseline it? Basic body work repairs are pretty simple. Repairing panels and painting gets much more complicated.

I would....
Driver side fender panel, Fender liner, fender reinforcement <-- Buy a new fender or find one at a junk yard (unlikely)
Trans Oil Cooler <-- Buy OEM
Radiator <-- OEM
Radiator core support & centre support <--cheapest available
DR Headlamps & corner marker <-- your choice
Bumper cover and fog lamps <-- Iron man or your choice (OEM is about $650 shipped plus paint and any other broken parts)
Grille assembly & Supports <--Pick a style you like
Air conditioner assembly <--replace necessary parts, then have recharged at a private shop

But you still might be in it $3-5k in parts plus have the fender painted and a/c charged.

Hey Thanks for the reply..
Upside down indeed! Some of these repairs I need to do are a bit daunting and time consuming. I'd still need a vehicle to commute to work daily.
What I'm seeing is salvaged parts on the web, but there's no guarantee they will work, especially the radiator , oil cooler and A/C.
What a mess I'm in. I could jut use the money to buy another rig and used my current one as a doner/salvage (?) I'm obviously struggling to find a solution.

I do see a few LC/LX on Copart, I was told that some of the hail damaged rigs are likely in good mechanical shape albeit with dings in the roof(or....)
The plan this week is to ask the body shop if they can get it running with customer supplied parts and fix the rest as paychecks come in over the next several months. I'd assume the rad/oil cooler/AC and lamps are critical to get tit road legal. Finding the fender is going to be a challenge. I was thinking of Raptor Line the lower half of the truck to colour match the found fender of whatever colour I can get.

Otherwise, I'll search for a local tech to see if anyone around can do the work with my found parts.
If not, looks like I may have to just start from scratch, save up for another rig. Sucks.

 

[NolaNomad]

Check fine print of your coverage, otherwise I’d lawyer up.

Now if you choose to fix the LX, it may take a while to acquire all parts, I would suggest eBay, Amazon, local scrap yard, Facebook Marketplace and OfferUp to get them. You’ll be surprised how these platforms have so much to offer in terms of spare parts. Only caveat is be wary of scammers.

Yessir.. I'm finding most of what I'd need online. May go with aftermarket bumper and headlights. Salvaged rad, oil cooler and A/C online. Shipping is $$. I'd be happy to drive out to a salvage yard and pick my own parts but The LX is obvs inoperable.

Can't find a Driver fender in that champagne colour tho, I may just raptor line the whole thing from the fender down, all around to cover the different colour.

 

[onemanarmy]

buy a blown engine/rusted out parts vehicle and get to swapping. sell the rest.

and maybe you can get a new hood without an obnoxious light bar bolted to it

#profit

 

[2000UZJ]

You could probably save the truck going aftermarket, but that's up to you. I live in the collision industry, and the OEM Parts are killing this.

The shop you selected, is probably not a shop you want to take a 22 year old truck to. I'd maybe get a second estimate from a Crash Champions, or Caliber. Those MSO's will write aftermarket, and as DRP's have better pricing with the insurance carriers. This all comes with a sacrifice of quality, and potential repair quality. Admittedly, these trucks can't be fixed with OEM parts any more, at a non-DRP shop. High Tone Auto Body appears to be a very OEM Focused shop, might want to sacrifice some, to keep the truck.

Put ALL of the parts on the estimate into a shopping cart on PartSouq and see what they come out to. I'm betting it's half...

 

[NolaNomad]

You could probably save the truck going aftermarket, but that's up to you. I live in the collision industry, and the OEM Parts are killing this.

The shop you selected, is probably not a shop you want to take a 22 year old truck to. I'd maybe get a second estimate from a Crash Champions, or Caliber. Those MSO's will write aftermarket, and as DRP's have better pricing with the insurance carriers. This all comes with a sacrifice of quality, and potential repair quality. Admittedly, these trucks can't be fixed with OEM parts any more, at a non-DRP shop. High Tone Auto Body appears to be a very OEM Focused shop, might want to sacrifice some, to keep the truck.

Put ALL of the parts on the estimate into a shopping cart on PartSouq and see what they come out to. I'm betting it's half...

This is definitely the case. High Tone was not a good choice in my case.
However I did ask if they can still do the work with customer supplied parts, waiting to hear back.
I'm preparing to find a local here in the valley that is available to do the work, the truck is not driveable so I have to get tit towed. I want to get it back on the road, fix what I can later when I can recover from the initial expense.
Never heard of Partsouq, I'll check it out, thanks for the tip!

 

[zgfiredude]

You are going to want to get the work done outside the Roaring Fork Valley....you are too close to Aspen and the prices will be crazy most everywhere. High Tone is an excellent shop, but expensive. Look starting in the Rifle area and then down towards Grand Junction. Try calling Rifle Auto Sales....I am not 100% positive, but I believe they specialize in selling collision repaired vehicles. There is a Large body shop there.

I am replacing my radiator in the next week or two, time allowing as I'm doing the work myself...You can have my functioning old one if you want it. I am replacing it simply due to age. I live down in Silt ( near Rifle ).

 

[OEMGUY0720]

Yessir.. I'm finding most of what I'd need online. May go with aftermarket bumper and headlights. Salvaged rad, oil cooler and A/C online. Shipping is $$. I'd be happy to drive out to a salvage yard and pick my own parts but The LX is obvs inoperable.

Can't find a Driver fender in that champagne colour tho, I may just raptor line the whole thing from the fender down, all around to cover the different colour.

Nice. I know it’s a bummer but in time you will get your LX up and running again and may even look better than before with those aftermarket parts. Looking forward to your build.

 

[DuckLN]

Can you make a diminished value claim?

 

[jLB]

Not mine, I’ve never done business with these guys, and this is an older ad….

Parting Out - Lehi, Utah 04 LC 100, 98,99 , 98 & 99 LX,FRESH 02 LX470

Parting out 2004 LC 100, 1999 LC100 and 1998 LX470. LC Parts Yard is located at Japanese Auto Parts in Lehi, Utah. We also have 6 other LC 100 series that have been previously dismantled. From big to small parts, we try to stock them. We save every nut, bolt, clip, and cover, so let us know...

forum.ih8mud.com

 

[saucebox]

Not mine, I’ve never done business with these guys, and this is an older ad….

Parting Out - Lehi, Utah 04 LC 100, 98,99 , 98 & 99 LX,FRESH 02 LX470

Parting out 2004 LC 100, 1999 LC100 and 1998 LX470. LC Parts Yard is located at Japanese Auto Parts in Lehi, Utah. We also have 6 other LC 100 series that have been previously dismantled. From big to small parts, we try to stock them. We save every nut, bolt, clip, and cover, so let us know...

forum.ih8mud.com

Beat me to it. Ask for Stephen, dude's always treated me fairly. I got of my SAS parts and a handful of other things there. I think he's @LC Parts Yard here.