Ouch - T-Boned...

[long_tall_texan]

I did not get t-boned. It was me that hit someone. I was fine, no injury, nor was the girl driving the other car. I had a girl in a Mazda Tribute (Mazda version of an Explorer) pull out in front of me on Tuesday evening. She just did not see me coming. I hit her dead straight on right in the center of her driver's side. Here are pics of my KJ. Don't have any accident pictures, or pics of her car. It was not my fault. Police report says the other driver failed to yield right of way, and driver inattention.

Not sure why the airbags did not deploy. I was probably going 35-ish when I slammed on the brakes. Happy to say the ABS worked great, but it is kind of hard to stop a KJ in 20-30 feet from 35 MPH. So maybe I was not going fast enough for airbag deployment at time of impact. Anyone know what speed they are supposed to engage?

Lucky for me, I had just gotten my KJ aligned 6 hrs before the accident. I have the alignment spec printout from Firestone that they got it corrected to. I am going to make sure to get the post repair alignment spec sheet too. Then if it is not as good as it was before the wreck, I will make them re-do until it is right.

Question I have for y'all here... My wife said it looked crooked driving behind me. So I had her drive down the block and I followed in another car. Looks like the rear wheels are tracking 3-4 inches to the right of the front wheels. Is that frame/unibody twisting/damage? And can that be fixed so that it is all back in line correct? What really stinks is that I just had it aligned that same day. Grrrr! Just glad no one was hurt.

Any suggestions on a reasonably priced aftermarket bumper? What are my bumper options that could be ordered and shipped ASAP? Is Arb the only one that actually has bumpers ready to ship?

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[kj924]

Ouch! Glad no one was hurt.

 

[Marlon_JB2]

Ouch! Glad nobody was hurt. Airbag deployment depends on a heck of a lot more factors than just speed, and judging by the damage, you'd have been better off without them as you may have gotten hurt by the explosion had they deployed.

 

[HoosierJeeper]

Ouch...glad everyone is OK....

 

[hyde]

Wow, I am amazed at your calm nature in response to this mess.
I know about the crooked jeeps, I see them all the time, they are like those tiny dogs running with their rear legs few inches to the left or right of their front legs.. I hope it gets fixed and done properly. Glad nobody was hurt.

 

[long_tall_texan]

Well, I figure getting all mad and out of sorts won't gain me anything. Yes, I am upset it got wrecked. I just don't want ti to be totaled, and I want it fixed right. We shall see...

 

[Corwyyn]

Good to hear that you and the other driver came out unscathed. I wish my Pathfinder had looked that good when the drunk idiot ran a stop sign and I t-boned him in a 40mph zone a few years back

As for the tracking I would hazard a guess that the uniframe is probably tweaked, most likely up towards the front since that is where the majority of the energy would have translated but it might be farther back. Just make sure the shop looks it over real good during the estimate. And go see a chiropractor to make sure YOUR frame is in good alignment as well

 

[ChiefRudy]

Glad to hear you're okay. Your KJ looks pissed off now

I seriously think some and i really do mean some women should get extra testing/classes when it comes to driving or something. I was cut off three time this week by women all on cell phones. Then a 4th one I almost T-boned ( I sh*t you not) about 20 minutes while going home. She made the turn in front of too soon to try to beat me. Well if I didn't slow down. I would have mowed her down.

 

[flair1111]

hate to hear that man. i think ild roll over and die if i ever wreck mine. glad your ok. and that second pic looks like a girl with a bad eye brow plucking.

 

[Bikeflyer]

I have often thought they should do drivers exams like aircraft. 50 hrs with instructor and periodical proficiency reviews with instructor. So many bad habbit drivers would be caught I think. Just my 2 cents on that.
The jeep looks remarkably well for a square on with speed impact. The good news is that usually for somethin of as high a value as our kj's are, they will likely fix it. Most unibody 'frame fixes' that I have seen were in the 3-4k range. Unfortunately my last unibody to be victimized was less damage than that but they said 4k and the value was 4.5k so they totalled it. Did it bend the radiator or rad support?

 

[Luke]

Man... I don't like to see that.... glad your OK LTT

 

[ShadowedXistence]

Looking at your second picture, it appears that your driver side wheel is straight while the front side of the passenger tire is angled outward... Take a look at it...

 

[long_tall_texan]

Well, It took them a little over 3 weeks to get it all fixed. Cost her insurance almost $8000 to fix it all. Looks good now. They broke the passenger front window regulator when removing the door panel, so they replaced it with the new upgraded one with a new window. The re-tint was horrible. I had them take it to the tint shop that originally did it for the dealer and it looks great now. And, I got a lifetime guarantee on the work they performed. They used all OEM replacement parts. No aftermarket. I told them they could use aftermarket body panels if they could give me sheetmetal thickness specs of OEM versus aftermarket. Once I asked for that, they said, "We will just use OEM. Aftermarket are typically thinner metal."

Also, It was a good thing I had just gotten an alignment 5 hours before the wreck. They had it aligned once, and then told me they couldn't get it all the way in because of the lift. Then I told them it was perfect before the wreck and had the spec sheet to prove it. They asked for a copy of it and took that back to the alignment shop. The second alignment got closer to nominal on all of the specs than they were before the wreck. WooHoo!

Here are some after picks. Had to re-trim my bumper cover after I got it home. And by the way, trimming the bumper is much easier with a 4-1/2" angle grinder with a cutoff wheel. I only used my Dremel the first time and it took forever, this time, I had it done in 30 minutes.

Before bumper trimmed:

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Bumper Trimmed:

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[kjweston]

Damn clean looking kj. I like.. a lot icon996.gif

 

[AlexDisaster]

what kind of headlight bulbs do you have?

 

[long_tall_texan]

EuroDezigns 8500k color temp bulbs. They havea very slight blue tint at night, but not the really blue ricer look. I like them a lot.

 

[kb0nly]

Nice to see its back on the road!

 

[wheeee32]

Glad to see your KJ back on the road. It's such a long wait when your KJ is out of action. I only had to wait a week for mine to be repaired from a sideswipe but it was an agonizing week.

 

[long_tall_texan]

Enterprise gave me a brand new Impala. Had 27 miles on it when they gave it to me. Had 2700 when I returned it. At least I got to drive a new car, but it was just not a Jeep. Glad to have my KJ back.

 

[HoosierJeeper]

Looks great! Love the color!!!