Outback vs. deer

[89Ru]

2008 outback 2.5L auto, 217k. Car is totaled by insurance. As I have a lot invested in this car I feel the value is worth more than its presently calculated. Not doing a job like this before, just how fixable is this car? Plan is to remove the bumper and replace the metal framework and broken bits (headlight(s), radiator, condenser). Aside from the obvious damage below, what pitfalls if any are there? 

Early AM drive at highway speeds, was able to slow a bit but still much carnage. Deer stumbled and fell prior to impact, otherwise it might have gone through the windshield. Unavoidable front end impact to large buck, torpedoing the grill and inwards. No airbags or significant bumper damage. Significant hood damage. Radiator and condenser caved inwards. Lots of plastic shrapnel: radiator cooling fan blades/housing broken/Air guide smashed/t-belt cover punched. T-belt appears intact. No obvious fluid leaks. Alt/Bat light on. No power steering. Car didn't cut out. No CEL. Car able to drive away a few miles from impact site to nearby town which apparently is the classic car capital of the world incidentally. Not verified. Kind of impressed that the car is running.

Was able to pull back the crossmember and place a spare alt belt, getting up to operational status fairly quickly. No apparent mixing of coolant and transmission fluid (as the trans fluid looks clear, and not suspecting internal rad damage to the transmission cooler portion).

I'll try to post pics. 

[88SubGL]

Without pictures, it’s hard to know, but it sounds like most of the damage is to pieces that bolt on. If the radiator support is bent, you might be able to use a come-a-long and a tree to help straighten it out.

[89Ru]

https://imgur.com/a/vDzDdMQ

[el_freddo]

I reckon you got off light - and your insurance company is being lazy. To me that’s not a difficult fix unless the engine crossmember or strut towers have moved, if it drove fine afterwards I’d say it’s fine. 

Buy the replacement parts and go to town on it. You’ve got nothing to lose from what I can see from those pics. 

I thought you’d have more carnage than hitting a kangaroo but apparently not. 

Cheers 

Bennie

[lmdew]

Easy fix.  I've done several of them.  While you can pull out the support, if you have a self serve yard and you can cut out the parts you need from a undamaged car that's the way to go.

You can cut out the damage and weld in the new parts.  Cutout more than you need and then trim back.

[Numbchux]

Yep, totally fixable.

Hood, grill, LH headlight and bracket, upper radiator support (still available new from Subaru), maybe latch support, radiator, RH fan shroud and blade, condenser (hard to tell how damaged, and if you want A/C), air intake duct. Maybe bumper cover and/or tow hook cover. 

Upper radiator support is spot welded in, there's a few ways to deal with that, depending what equipment you have access to.

[89Ru]

On 12/1/2024 at 2:40 PM, 88SubGL said:

Without pictures, it’s hard to know, but it sounds like most of the damage is to pieces that bolt on. If the radiator support is bent, you might be able to use a come-a-long and a tree to help straighten it out.

Going to try the come-a-along method first. Rad support is mangled, maybe too far gone. Thanks

[89Ru]

On 12/1/2024 at 8:58 PM, el_freddo said:

I reckon you got off light - and your insurance company is being lazy. To me that’s not a difficult fix unless the engine crossmember or strut towers have moved, if it drove fine afterwards I’d say it’s fine. 

Buy the replacement parts and go to town on it. You’ve got nothing to lose from what I can see from those pics. 

I thought you’d have more carnage than hitting a kangaroo but apparently not. 

Cheers 

Bennie

Awesome, those kangaroos pack a punch eh. Engine crossmember and strut towers good.

[89Ru]

On 12/1/2024 at 10:42 PM, lmdew said:

Easy fix.  I've done several of them.  While you can pull out the support, if you have a self serve yard and you can cut out the parts you need from a undamaged car that's the way to go.

You can cut out the damage and weld in the new parts.  Cutout more than you need and then trim back.

Good to know. Have a friend who can weld if it comes to that.

[89Ru]

On 12/2/2024 at 11:21 AM, Numbchux said:

Yep, totally fixable.

Hood, grill, LH headlight and bracket, upper radiator support (still available new from Subaru), maybe latch support, radiator, RH fan shroud and blade, condenser (hard to tell how damaged, and if you want A/C), air intake duct. Maybe bumper cover and/or tow hook cover. 

Upper radiator support is spot welded in, there's a few ways to deal with that, depending what equipment you have access to.

https://imgur.com/gallery/vDzDdMQ/comment/2433311575

Found a donor, grabbed most of above, after pic.Not sure about getting it painted to match or not. Might keep it two tone.

[lmdew]

Two tone makes it easy to find!

Several folks that I've fixed front end hits for love there two tone Subarus.

[89Ru]

Car is done! Kept it two tone for the win. Purchased new sheet metal including radiator support, center hood stay, and right/left hand radiator panels for about $160. These come painted (black) from Subaru. Or just cut them out of a donor. I counted just over 20 spot welds for the total weld job. Didn't have to completely remove the fenders to access the weld points for the radiator support, just moved them aside. Removing the bent metal wasn't hard using a 3/8" spot welder hole saw removal tool and a drill motor to punch through the spot welds. For the rebuild, these welds are beyond the harbor freight 240V "pinch" spot welder in my opinion due to the lower section essentially welding to a tube. My neighbor has a HF MIG welder that did an excellent job welding the new metal in place. Just cover the whole engine first with fiberglass cloth to avoid hot slag melting the harness. Before removing any metal I marked the outline of the pieces to help line things up. Having the headlights in place helped line up the two radiator panels (actually they should be called condenser panels) prior to welding. The hood latch was aligned with the hood and clamped prior to welding. After welding, put the condenser/radiator/headlights/bumper/bumper cover back on. 

[idosubaru]

On 12/15/2024 at 6:32 PM, 89Ru said:

Going to try the come-a-along method first. Rad support is mangled, maybe too far gone. Thanks

You can just twist, pull, bend them back into shape.  They're not that structurally important relative to the bumper beam, the top radiator support is very flimsy, it's not that stout. I've put on gloves and yanked them by hand forward a few inches before.  Not gonna do that to a bent bumper beam. They're welded in place so the job is 300% harder if you have to cut and weld, which I've done before. 

Yes, totally repairable and easy. d If you want original show room lines it'll be harder than being okay with your hood lines being 2 mm off. 

I'm pretty sure TN Is very favorable to this but You should look into state laws on rebuilding and reconstructing if the insurance sends you a salvage title.  If you're lucky the insurance just doesn't mess with it and doesn't send you a salvage title. THen you dont' have to do anything.  But they're supposed to and usually do.  If they do then you have to get it recertified by the state before you can title and tag it. You have to go through a separate inspection for that in some states. Some are rigorous and some are very easy and pass just about anything. Check that process out. 

[idosubaru]

Also - it looks like you've already fixed it good enough for rural TN if it doesn't leak coolant.  LOL

[89Ru]

15 hours ago, idosubaru said:

You can just twist, pull, bend them back into shape.  They're not that structurally important relative to the bumper beam, the top radiator support is very flimsy, it's not that stout. I've put on gloves and yanked them by hand forward a few inches before.  Not gonna do that to a bent bumper beam. They're welded in place so the job is 300% harder if you have to cut and weld, which I've done before. 

Yeah I had initially pulled the radiator support forward by hand just to get it back on the road. It's pretty flimsy. I ended up deciding to weld new rad support figuring that there was probably some lateral deviation from all the twisting and crimping, and the hood latch would be wonky. 

[89Ru]

15 hours ago, idosubaru said:

 

 

15 hours ago, idosubaru said:

I'm pretty sure TN Is very favorable to this but You should look into state laws on rebuilding and reconstructing if the insurance sends you a salvage title.  If you're lucky the insurance just doesn't mess with it and doesn't send you a salvage title. THen you dont' have to do anything.  But they're supposed to and usually do.  If they do then you have to get it recertified by the state before you can title and tag it. You have to go through a separate inspection for that in some states. Some are rigorous and some are very easy and pass just about anything. Check that process out. 

The accident was out of state and my insurance company said that it wouldn't be reportable to Tennessee. So I'm hoping that I don't need a salvage title and all that headache. Car is in southern Michigan right now so that could be a mess.

Edited January 14 by 89Ru

[ThosL]

A friend had the same problem, thought his Subaru Impreza would not pass CT inspection after replacing radiator and compressor.  I offered to buy it from him.  

[moosens]

9 hours ago, ThosL said:

A friend had the same problem, thought his Subaru Impreza would not pass CT inspection after replacing radiator and compressor.  I offered to buy it from him.  

Tom, here in CT I was able to keep my “totaled due to value,etc.” Legacy but only I can continue to drive it. If I sell the car that next owner has to take it through CT inspection to verify it’s still roadworthy.

So that’s another amazing thing they do in our favor. I was amazed. And of course I’m VERY happy since my 94 is the family truck and just keeps rolling and functioning. 
 

Tell your friend ! 

[ThosL]

8 hours ago, moosens said:

Tom, here in CT I was able to keep my “totaled due to value,etc.” Legacy but only I can continue to drive it. If I sell the car that next owner has to take it through CT inspection to verify it’s still roadworthy.

So that’s another amazing thing they do in our favor. I was amazed. And of course I’m VERY happy since my 94 is the family truck and just keeps rolling and functioning. 
 

Tell your friend ! 

I will; he works as a school bus driver so does not have a lot of money to spend on a new car, and as others have said, you can repair the car so it passes all the inspections.  If the front end, ie tie rod ends, cv joints etc are not damaged then I'm sure it will be ok.   15 years ago I was hit by another car and after repair it had to go through the inspection upstate.

[moosens]

On 1/19/2025 at 8:20 AM, ThosL said:

15 years ago I was hit by another car and after repair it had to go through the inspection upstate.

Maybe that was a more current car? Maybe still being paid off or still had significant value.

 

My case is a 1994 totaled in 2022 or whatever year it was. But for sure the car was over 25 years old.

 

To the original poster, good job! 

Edited 15 hours ago by moosens

[ThosL]

I spoke to him today:

 

"my 2013 Impreza with 185,000 miles. Please let me know if you are interested or what next steps we need to do to see if you are interested. I'll probably start calling junkyards tomorrow but I wanted to check with you first. It doesn't hold fluids – – but after checking on the Internet and seeing testimonials – – I was able to drive it home 6 miles by coasting downhill whenever possible. I'll wait to hear from you."     

2013 Impreza

185,000 miles.

orinal airbags

catalytic converter that passed CT Emissions

remote start

alloy wheels

4 good tires, donut spare

clean interior except tear on edge of driver seat.