Deer vs. '66 Barracuda

A Cautionary Tale for Fellow Mopar Fans:

At 8:45 PM on July 16th my wife and I were on our way home from the "Dancing in the Streets" car show and cruise in Lafayette, IN when we hada very unfortunate encounter with an apparently suicidal deer approximately 12 miles from home. I really wanted to be home before dark but we were delayed because we had to pick up an award that we received. It was only $25 but there were over 335 cars in the show and they only awarded a total of 20 trophies and cash prizes.

The four top cars all received a trophy or plaque. Please note that 2 of the top 4 prizes were awarded to Mopars, a '70 Hemi Cuda and a '70 Challenger 440-6pack. They also awarded 2@ $100, 6@$50 and 8@$25 and we were lucky enough to receive one of the $25 awards.

However, some of our luck and euphoria ran out when we hit the aforementioned deer. We actually almost missed it as you can see from the attached photos so we were still lucky that neither one of us were injured and the damage to the Barracuda was not too severe. My wife did not see the deer at all and I did not see it until I hit it because it came down a wooded hillside that closely abuts the highway and our obsolescent lighting technoloy. The deer also did not appear to be badly injured because it continuing running. The only residual evidence was deer hair, deer crap on the driver's side and on my arm which was resting on the open window sill.

My Barracuda is insured with Hagerty Insurance so I submitted a claim online on Sunday the 17th and via the telephone early on the 18th. I was assigned a claim manager and I was told that I would be contacted by an appraiser ASAP. He also explained that it was also the appraiser job to locate and acquire and refurbish any replacement parts that are required to repair my vehicle. However, if they can't locate/acquire the necessary parts, Hagerty employs a person whose FT job is finding replacement parts.

Last Monday I also took my Barracuda to the same body shop I have used for my 2 previous deer collisions, as well as other damage repair over the last 35 years because I wanted their opinion re the damage and how much of the car would have to be repainted before I met with the appraisers. They advised me that the hood is probably repairable but that it would be easier, faster and cheaper to refinish a hood in good condition and utilize my existing functional hood scoops than to repair the existing hood. They also agreed with me that we would need to acquire both the left side egg crate grill and the grill surround. The identification of needed parts is still pending the removal of the hood because it is jammed over the cowl on both sides. My body shop guy did provide assurance that matching my paint is really not much of a problem today because they use a special( spectoptics ?) camera that can identify the paint formula/code. All I currently know is that it is supposed to be one of two different 2005 BMW charcoal metallic color shades.

I was contacted and visited by 2 appraisers from Town and Country Claims out of Mattoon, IL last Thursday. They closely inspected the car and took numerous photos. The inspection lasted about 25-30 minutes and they were very agreeable and helpful. They suggested I take the car to the body shop I wanted to use and have the hood removed so that we could identify any other damage or needed replacement parts. They also suggested that I bring the car back home to secure it while we are trying to acquire replacement parts unless the body shop had adequate space to store it inside. They also asked me to provide any assistance that I could to locate the necessary replacement parts. Consequently, I mentioned FABO and stated that I would post a thread to attempt to locate any available replacement parts. I told them that I knew the grill parts were unique to "66 Barracudas with only 38,000 manufactured and I believe that the hood was specific for only Valiants and Barracudas so I didn't know how easy they would be to find.

Please send me a PM if you have any of these parts available and I will send you an email address so that you can send me a message with photos and prices to forward to the appraisers for followup acquisition negotiations. Thanks, Steve