Met a Raccoon (56K no way)

[Blackhawk]

Wasn't sure if this was the right area to post in, but I'm not asking about a problem or body work. My brother was driving home last night when he hit a raccoon and took the bumper cover out.
http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n134/sudden_impulse/DSCN0507.jpg
http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n134/sudden_impulse/DSCN0508.jpg
http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n134/sudden_impulse/DSCN0509.jpg
http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n134/sudden_impulse/DSCN0510.jpg
http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n134/sudden_impulse/DSCN0513.jpg
http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n134/sudden_impulse/DSCN0511.jpg
http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n134/sudden_impulse/DSCN0512.jpg
and two I took just because I was out there:
Rear windshield banner http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n134/sudden_impulse/DSCN0514.jpg
my dirty engine compartment, will get better once it dries out http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n134/sudden_impulse/DSCN0515.jpg

[TA^Guy]

Ouch that sucks. My friend hit a coyote one night going to his camp with his original low milage IROCZ and did some serious damage. Amazing what animals can do to a car.

[Blackhawk]

I love how the fog light assembly got decimated but the lens has that one little crack in it. Proves to me that I'll be getting plastic lens fogs for replacements, but definately better quality and maybe get them on the high beam circuit to illuminate the close stuff better.

[purp99grandam]

Lol that sucks. That racoon pwned your bumper!

[Blackhawk]

My brother pwned him, sent him across the car and he's laying on the center line now.

[XoticGA]

Aww... poor coon :(

[JeremiahCoffel]

So is the raccoon ok or not?

[norbit2]

Guess the first date did not go well. :)

[Blackhawk]

Jeremiah, it died instantly. If it had lived I'm sure it wouldn't have been for long with that hit. I didn't get a pic of the fog light mounting brackets, but let me assure you that it is all gone.

[Big Joe]

dammmm!!

[Blackhawk]

Yeah, on the list of things I need is a bumper, side air dam piece (gonna get two as the other side is broken also), foglight assembly (gonna be pricey unless I grab it from a JY), and front inner fender well. If the bumper we get isn't silver or doesn't match up, I'm hoping to get color analyzed paint for it.

[bballr4567]

Any decent place will get the color very very very close.

Sucks about the bumper but mine has the same problem only it was a rabbit. lol

[GtAudioFreak]

Ouch, man that sucks even worse than i pictured it when you told me about it.

[Blackhawk]

We'll probably end up doing it ourselves or getting help from a friend that has painted vehicles. My dad's hobby is cars and he has painted them many times so it shouldn't be too bad.

[Blackhawk]

Allen, that's because the only damage I had seen at the time was from a mag-light and a few seconds of looking at it before getting my ass out of the cold.

[wiseojelly]

Wow...that sucks

[V6Kid]

That is unlucky, I hit a possum going 70mph. No external damage, but it partially ripped off the black fin that I think helps direct air up into the radiator, and gaurd my underbody from rocks. So, I just took that off. I was lucky, dunno how it didn't rip my bumper off.

[Nighthawk243]

At least it wasn't a bird. Those things tend to explode into a cloud of feathers. Those feathers go EVERYWHERE.

[sudden_impulse]

Let me tell ya, that's not a good feeling, seeing something dart across the road and hearing your bumper crunch. The bumper had enough flaws in it that this new one is gonna help tons. One reason we think it might've done that much is because we're pretty sure the previous owner decided to use the car as a snow plow and ran it into a snow bank.

[sudden_impulse]

With a little blue painters tape and gray primer, it looks a little better, actually like a bumper, but it's no replacement for a new bumper. It looks worse in person than it does in the pictures, but at least it won't flap around when driving.

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n134/sudden_impulse/DSCN0516.jpg
http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n134/sudden_impulse/DSCN0517.jpg
http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n134/sudden_impulse/DSCN0518.jpg
http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n134/sudden_impulse/DSCN0519.jpg
http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n134/sudden_impulse/DSCN0521.jpg
http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n134/sudden_impulse/DSCN0523.jpg

[Nighthawk243]

At least it won't look too bad at 65mph ;).


Anyways, maybe some epoxy and body filler could fix it, or you can to and get another one from a GT in a junkyard and get it painted.

[sudden_impulse]

I've called around, and none of the junkyards listed in the yellow pages have any GA's, much less a silver bumper. There's a place nearby that has a new bumper (unpainted) for $98, and if I can pick up a half quart of color matched paint for like $40 bucks, we've got a spray gun and prep tools here.

[Shadow-D]

Originally posted by Nighthawk243
At least it wasn't a bird. Those things tend to explode into a cloud of feathers. Those feathers go EVERYWHERE.
A buddy of mine and I were on our way to a car show in Scotia a few years back a pigeon was in the road so my buddy figured it would be safer to just center it and we would go over top of it...
Wouldn't you know it that pigeon had other ideas and took off at the last second, all we saw was this big poof of feathers coming up over the hood and the pigeon barrel rolling off to the side into a ditch. We had to pull over for about 10 minutes we were laughing so hard (I'm still laughing just thinking of that sight)

[lowrider2962]

ok ive got 2 stories.

#1 the other day i was going about 75+ and a little bird just flew across the road and hit my windsheild. my friend was driving his f150 behind me at about the same speed not too far back and when we stopped the front of his truck was COVERED in feathers. there were tons in the grille and windsheild wipers and all. he claims that when he had the oil changed yesterday they inspected the intake filter and found 3 feathers in it. its funny cuz i never saw a single feather. mainly cuz it hit the windsheild and went up.

#2 my friend hit a coon with his honda civic goin about 80mph once. it was nothing like wats in those pics. it was worse. there was a huge crack that split the entire front bumper into 2 pieces. 1 upper and 1 lower. not to mention he spun out and ended up in the ditch. hes lucky he didnt flip the thing.

[sudden_impulse]

I'm just glad I didn't try swerving or anything, it'd probably be new car time if I ended up in the ditch, since I don't think blue tape and primer can fix much more than that. Thankfully there's not damage on the side skirts or rear bumper, one piece of body replacement is expensive enough for me.

[Blackhawk]

$20 for 8oz. of paint at National Bushing. I think I may pay more to get it altered to match the seven year old paint job. According to the sheet printed from my VIN, I have alternate paint zero, which the guy at the shop said is the more uncommon blend of silver mist metallic.

[bballr4567]

Yea the SMM has been changed a few times in its life. Its kind of like the white, either its arctic white or bright white. lol

[Blackhawk]

He said it was even different just batch to batch. It wasn't a huge change, just a slight alteration of the mixture. Not even enough to be noticeable like the differently named ones probably are.

[bballr4567]

Yea its weird. If you go to a stealership and they have two SMM there they wont match even if they are from the same year. GM does weird things with its paint sometimes.

[Blackhawk]

I'm going to see how much it would cost to get Bushing to take a picture of my car and try matching it that way. I'm sure the normal paint would be close enough for most, but I have borderline OCD about this kind of stuff and want it to be the best match.

[02G-Dam]

:( poor Coon.. I mean i love my GA and I REALLY TRULY feel for ya.. but poor Coon :((

[99blackSE]

Originally posted by purp99grandam
Lol that sucks. That racoon pwned your bumper!

Originally posted by Blackhawk
My brother pwned him, sent him across the car and he's laying on the center line now.

Ahahaha.

Poor little critter. I smoked one too, didn't do any bumper damage but the tire rolled over him. Him and his buddy were sitting on the opposite end of a small incline, came over that and there they were. His friend hauled ass but he was looking the other way. I was on gravel and doing about 40 mph and locked the brakes up, still wacked him though.

A lady just died last week near where I live because she swerved to avoid a dog. Instinct to swerve I guess, but it sure as hell isn't worth it. You can fix a car, but you, not so much sometimes.

You gotta say screw it and hit 'em most of the time, you just don't know whether it will be worth it to try and swerve and recover.

[Shadow-D]

Originally posted by 99blackSE
A lady just died last week near where I live because she swerved to avoid a dog. Instinct to swerve I guess, but it sure as hell isn't worth it. You can fix a car, but you, not so much sometimes.



Some times you gota say F it. It's not worth it

[sudden_impulse]

Little update. It's looking like the bumper will be the only problem other than fog light mounts. Since there are no yards around here with GAs, does anybody know what else had that fog light mount or could I make one myself? I don't want the stock fogs, just the mounts. All of the other plastic that was taken out is only one piece, so with my dealership discount that comes to about $10, so I bought the other side too and the rubber that protects the fogs from underside damage.

[Nighthawk243]

Alot of the time, its better to hit the animal than to swerve. Alot of times, swerving can cause a roll-over. I have had several family members and friends that would have been much better off in their accidents had they just hit the damn deer instead of trying to swerve.

[Blackhawk]

The problem with deer and these cars is they're so low when you hit one you end up staring at it in the passenger's seat... if you're lucky. My friend's dad hit a deer with his new Suburban and did no damage to the vehicle at all.

[mattlajoie]

I hit a raccoon about a year ago same side. Looks like you had more damage but it was the same kind. Mine only cracked the bumper cover but it still cost $1900 CDN to replace it all through the body shop.

[Blackhawk]

It's gonna end up costing me about $120 US for the bumper, paint, and fender well pieces. I know that's alot less than $1900 CDN, I hope you shopped around for prices.

[[xBrettx]]

what kinda racoon was it!?

flippen monster racoon.

[Blackhawk]

He was a decent size, but it's also because it's looking like he hit right on the bottom of the fog light housing, which seems like a weak spot.

[mattlajoie]

It was a big ass Racoon. Not too sure why it was $1900 i think the body shop took my insurance company to the cleaners but all the parts were brand new replaced with nice paint job. If you want to see some pictures I took they are at the following link:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=1958&l=924d0&id=516261048

[grandgtlauri]

hello can you tell me how good the cold air intake workks compared to ram air

[grandgtlauri]

how does the cold air intake work compared to factory ram air

[Blackhawk]

Almost any aftermarket intake will be better than the "ram air" GM put onto the GTs. The ram air was restrictive and had bends in it, whereas this is a fully straight setup. It's not technically a cold air intake, it's a warm air intake with a heat shield that helps a bit, with the car parked the temperature was 70-80 degress lower than the engine temperature.