Talk Morgan Forums Morgan Sports Cars Classic Morgans (pre-CX) Wildlife accident

Yesterday a deer ran out of nowhere in front of my car. I was not so fast about 70 km/h and I could slow down at least a bit but I was too fast for this situation because the deer appeared directly in front of me. The deer could still run over the road but it was caught in the back by the right front fender. It ran away fast after beeing pararlysed for some seconds. I photographed it. Presumably the animal could still have been injured.

I've been to the police and everything's on record. The mudguard is very compressed and also above the headlight the paint has flaked off. I even had to pull out the wing so that the wheel could be steered. What you can't see on the photo, it is also pressed outwards over the wheel. The chrome cover of the headlight had gone off but looks ok.

Tomorrow I'll contact my insurance company and the garage.
What do you mean? Can one fix it, or do I need a new fender? I know it's not easy to judge from a distance, but maybe you know of similar cases.
I will see what the workshop says but I am curious what you would say from experience.

Oh what a shame to see that....

I would think that a decent bodyshop could beat that out (hammered out from the reverse side). The fender should bend back.

I would say it can be repaired

We had a similar shunt when a van reversed into our Roadster.

Some say that the whole wing back to the rear wheel has to be sorted/replaced?

Ours was an 800 Pounds front end repair at a local body shop - who just needed the paint code - and it looks fine.

Good Luck

I would say that's a pretty straightforward repair, any competent bodyshop should be able to sort that out.

PaulJ had similar damage on his ARP4 when he hit a deer.
Maybe worth a PM to him?

Thanks a lot for reply guys, I should like to agree with you to keep and let repair the wing for a lot of reasons. On the other hand I have seen a moment ago that the wing behind the soldered on lamp housing has a clear compression. You can't see it too well on the photo but it's clear to feel that there's a pointy bump.



A look inside. I'm not sure if this compression is new where the Y-branch goes through.



Finally a picture of the out of sight wing above the wheel.

I would very much like to keep the wing because I'm afraid that a new one will never go so well with the car as this old one does. Ok, maybe one has to dismantle it to dengel it but it would be better than a new one, which still has to be cut up...

Should be a simple calculation for the insurers as long as nothing else unseen is damaged.

Cost new wing respray plus labour.

Cost of repairing old wing respray plus more labour.

Which will outweigh what?

New wing vs increased labour times.

I wouldn't overly worry about new wings I think they learnt their lesson on scrimping on welding.

At the end of the day the insurer will pick what costs them the least.

Sorry to see this Heinz, good luck with whatever the insurers decide, for what it's worth I would have thought they will go for a new wing.

Sorry to hear about that Heinz. Before getting a final quote it may be advisable to have the wheel alignment checked, just to be sure that the crosshead has not been damaged.
I am by no means an expert but my feeling would be that if it was uninsured I would have the mudguard repaired but if you are covered by insurance a new mudguard may be worth considering. There is probably as much, if not more, labour involved in fitting a new mudguard as repairing the old because the old is already cut to size and drilled etc.

I think the inner mudguard should return to its position when the screws are released as it is probably only out of position because of the distortion of the "wing".

In any case I am sure you will get expert advice from your dealer.

Nasty rusty screw on the top of the headlight. Once again showing that Morgan should spend a few more cents per car and use stainless, at least in positions subject to moisture.