I hit a deer at 40-50mph... Front clam respray cost?

[oodam]

Like the title says really.

My car is fine apart from some gel coat cracking that I expect will be easily dealt with with a front clam respray. I have 135000 miles worth of stone chips to deal with anyway so I'm not too miffed.

It certainly bounced!

I'm proud that I was more concerned for the deer than for my car initially, but with Bambi twitching at the road side for only a few moments and then leaving this evil world attention moved to my S1. Expecting a thoroughly smashed in nose I couldn't see any damage at all in the dark. The following morning, the front clam has some light cracks in the gel coat, that's all and then you have to look for them.

Does anyone know a decent spray shop with travelling distance from Dunstable that has Elise experience? What sort of cost would I be looking at? £500 was the number knocking about some years ago but I expect that's gone up since I last looked into it.

I wont lie, the whole experience shat me up. The deer was the size of a fat Labrador and when it came into view I hit the anchors. I hit it square on the lotus badge and it flipped up, span round a few times and landed back again on the nose cone, it then bounced right off onto the side of the road. Had my brakes been lesser it would have been sat next to me.

[icepop]

Wow !!!! Glad to hear you came out unscathed, physically, from the incident, those animals can be quite solid. Well done car, for standing up to it so well too. We have a road in our locale, well known for deer based encounters, and a couple of collegues have had them smash, and near come thro the windscreens.

[Beachbum]

I think you will find that even though the damage to the clam is not obvious, it is still there. What you may find is that the damage becomes more apparent after a few days, as you use the car and the clam naturally flexes, bringing more cracks to the fore.
Would strongly suggest taking it to a specialist for them to check out. Do not use a dealer to do the inspection, their default answer is "New Clam & respray" no matter what.

[sato]

To respray mine along with repairing a small crack by the grill where I hit a grouse was a bit over £600.

To add, that was painting just upto the indent (so below the lights). It would have been more if the entire front was sprayed.

[LBird]

Is Towcester too far to travel? It's just straight up the A5 for about 45 minutes... If you don't mind the trip, I can personally recommend Silverstone Paint Technology in Eastcote (just north of Towcester):

01327 831577
Motorsport & Composite Road Car Repair & Paint Specialists, Fibreglass Manufacturing Services

Top blokes who do an excellent job.

[oodam]

Towcester is fine as far as distance goes, thanks for the info.

[Frimley111R]

As above £5-600. Worth considering armourfend. I don't have it on mine but I'd never consider a respray without it. Having looked at people's clams who do have it it is a no brainer IMO. Problem is that it adds c£400 to the cost.

[theturbs]

OP - it would be worth calling these guys: http://www.finishlineukltd.co.uk/

HTH

[bordseye]

Never mind the paint, how much for the deer carcass? Dont tell me you left it there.

[kji7]

You were lucky, a small roe deer caused nearly £6k damage to my Exige at a similar speed.

It took off like a perfect 7 iron golf shot and left its brains across the clamshell.

[MadProf]

Try this.......mmmm,http://uktv.co.uk/food/homepage/sid/5938,but seriously glad you're ok,that's the most important thing here.

Edited by MadProf on Monday 28th November 09:15

[moretonslumber]

I hit a small sika deer in my S2 a couple of years ago. Hit it square on at about 30mph - it ran away. Initial damage was limited to a small star crack near the badge on the nose - seemed to good to be true. Over the next several months cracks appeared - and grew - until they reached the headlamp and indicator cut outs. Cracks also appeared along the "seams" where the upper panels meet the wings/front panel. I recommend you wait before repairing to see the true extent of the damage. If you repair it too soon you will only fix the visible, superficial damage and then spend the next months gnashing your teeth as cracks appear ruining the repair and surrounding bodywork.