Forgot to mention my run in with bambi?

[JimT]

Hmm, thought I wrote about this, but guess I never hit the post button.

Well, a month or so back we had snow and snow squalls come through eastern PA. I was being loaded about 15-20 miles north of that big pile-up on I-81. However later that day, or maybe later that week (I don't remember at this point), I was running east on I-84 in PA around mile 15. Heavy snow flakes, reduced visibility, but warm road surface with good traction. I pass a slower truck climbing the hill and start moving back to the right lane when I see a deer shaped shadow ahead in the left lane. 2 in fact. No problem, I slow down a little and stay right while they walk left when BAM, a third bambi (not his mother) decides to leisurely stroll out in front of me with no more than a second before impact, at about 50-55mph.

How do I know it was bambi and not the mother or father? Because it ONLY dented my front grill, cracking the chromed plastic trim, but the intercooler was not touched. Cracked my stock plastic bumper right in the center and blew out the plastic mounting bracket on the passenger side. Hood had only minor damage hidden underneath the front grill and passenger headlight assembly suffered only a small crack in the clear plastic that I didn't even notice for a few days. Everything else was fine.

Ok, so repair time. Needed a new bumper and a new grill/trim assembly. For the latter there was no options expect OEM, to the tune of nearly $2,000. Grr, fine, could have been worse, right?

Bumper... OMG, the dealer wanted another $2,000 for that replacement plastic decoration! This time the aftermarket came through. Ended up ordering a chrome metal bumper, shipped to my house, for half that price. Never would have considered buying a chrome bumper, let alone my surprise that it would be the cheaper option! Only downside, due to everyone's favorite viral scapegoat, there's a 22 week lead time on the bumper. So, if I'm lucky my new bumper should be here around the end of September.

Even the grill assembly took a couple weeks to get here. In the mean time I patched things up on the grill and fabbed up a temporary bracket for the bumper with what I had on hand. Nothing fancy, but good enough that it's hard to tell anything even happened until your within about 20-30 feet.

I did consider replacing the bumper with some grill guard. I think Herd makes an actual bumper replacement, but between the higher cost, added weight and extra steps needed to open and close the hood and the fact that I rarely have encounters with animals, especially anything larger than a deer, I opted not to go that route.

pictures coming...