Daniel Richards

iTrader: (1)

So driving to town tonight to get dinner I see a deer on the side of the road so I slam on my brakes (which is a good thing), the deer jumps in front of me and I clip the back side of the deer with the driver front corner so I pull over to inspect the damage before driving the rest of the way to town but don't notice anything other then a few hairs on the bumper, then when I get to town and turn off the headlights, thats when I see it, this gap between the headlight lid and the fender/bumper.

I know I can close some of this by lowering that corner of the lid (which it needs in order to follow the line of the hood anyway) but is there a bracket holding this corner of the fender/bumper I can just bend back into place or are we talking frame rail work here, I've yet to have my bumper off so I'm not totally familiar with how this area is mounted.

I'll get better pics in the daylight tomorrow.

TechCam97

iTrader: (5)

The metal part of the headlight cover is held on to the headlight assembly by some screws. They may have been shoved around when you hit the deer. Turn your headlights on so the lights pop up and you should see where the screws are, they are pretty easy to get to and adjust.

**EDIT** - I forgot to mention that you will need to remove the plastic surround trim piece from the headlight assembly to see the adjustment screws for the headlight cover. It's not too difficult to get the plastic trim off, you'll see where the screws are.

Daniel Richards

iTrader: (1)

yeah, I went out after making this thread late last night and made that adjustment, I pushed that corner of the headlight cover as far down as it could go (which got it to match the flow of the hood) but there is still about a 1/4" more gap then there should be.

z28SSilvest

You hit a f***ing deer what do you expect? Get her fixed up. Insurance may even cover it

Daniel Richards

iTrader: (1)

I don't see a point in filing a claim, being none of the body panels got damaged, it looks like there is a bracket back there (but I'm not sure, which is why I started this thread), why would I pay 100's to have a shop do something I could potentially do myself (if it is a bracket), my deductible is like 500 bucks and reporting it to the insurance would likely mean a future rate increase, plus I have comprehensive but not collision and my insurance company would probably try to call it a collision like they did about 5 years ago when I came around a blind curve and hit a tree that had fallen in the road (basically it was collision since the tree was in the road, if the tree had fallen on the car then it would have been covered), insurance companies love to find loop holes so they don't have to pay.

Daniel Richards

iTrader: (1)

OK, here are some daytime pics with the headlight cover adjusted properly, it's hard to tell in the pics but the bumper to cover gap is twice as tall under the PONTIAC lettering as it is at the inside of the light.

So, looks like I'll be yanking the bumper this weekend (need to do it anyway for other things) and looking at bending a few things back into spec, I know some people wouldn't bother but it bugs me knowing it's not straight.

96z28_lt1

iTrader: (3)

i have a somehwat similar situation on the passenger side of my car. Someone told me that there is a bracket under the fender. If you remove the plastic wheel well fender you might be able to see the bracket and move it.

Daniel Richards

iTrader: (1)

I know there is one bracket that stretches out and determines how far the front bottom of the fender/ top corner of the bumper sits out from the frame, as I've read about it on here bending and causing the that area to bow inward and will be addressing that issue while I work on this.

96z28_lt1

iTrader: (3)

yeah that is the one someone told me about, my passenger side has been in an accident the previous owner neglected to tell me and now that i own the car and have gone over it i noticed the fender bows out, so im going to be trying that on mine.