Deer ran in front of me tonight…

LeftyF

LeftyF

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Joined
19 July 2022
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79
I was on my way home from our last car club meet of the year, and a doe ran in front of me with no time to stop. The deer caught the front right bumper and tore the bucket off the right headlight.
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The car is a ‘91 N1. It looks like I need a front bumper, a right side driving light and a headlight bucket. If anyone knows of a North America vendor who may have body parts that would be outstanding. As with all things on this car I’m sure I’ll have to source the parts myself, so hopefully I can find a US or North America based seller.

I choose not to bum out on this as 1) it can be fixed and 2) I drive my cars a lot so I have to accept this risk, especially with the deer population in my area. I can second guess “I should have left earlier” or whatever, but I’d rather focus on the job of getting it repaired. And there was a scratch on the original bumper from the old front plate and a crack in the lower cowl, so that will all get fixed…

Any ideas welcomed!
 
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deer are no joke, and living in NE Pa as I do they are everywhere...its a crap shoot at speed and at night...We may be able to help If we know where you are.
 
We have an abundance of deer here also. I have been using Bell deer alerts on all my vehicles for forty plus years. At speed these whistles emit a high pitched sound that animals can hear before you arrive on the scene. They are inexpensive and can be mounted in a discreet spot. (please don't mount them on your top of your side mirrors or roof of your NSX!) They do need airflow obviously. I have mine on the ends of the horizontal black slat in front of the radiator of the NSX. You don't even see them if you weren't looking for them. Just have to have to check once and awhile to make sure no bugs are blocking off the airflow.
 
The King said:
We have an abundance of deer here also. I have been using Bell deer alerts on all my vehicles for forty plus years. At speed these whistles emit a high pitched sound that animals can hear before you arrive on the scene. They are inexpensive and can be mounted in a discreet spot. (please don't mount them on your top of your side mirrors or roof of your NSX!) They do need airflow obviously. I have mine on the ends of the horizontal black slat in front of the radiator of the NSX. You don't even see them if you weren't looking for them. Just have to have to check once and awhile to make sure no bugs are blocking off the airflow.
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I used to put those on my cars, but have not used them in a while. I’ll be putting them on all of my cars now.
 
You're a neighbor!!! Parts are getting difficult to locate. In years past, I'd tell you just to get the car to Vince's up in Poughkeepsie, but since Joe has sold/retired, not sure how successful they'd be in sourcing the parts. They do have extensive experience in fixing our cars!!! Might be worth a call!
 
I took a look at it this AM with the person I want to do the body work. Looking at the inner and outer fender it looks like the inner structure was moved back a bit. Is it pssible to put these cars on a frame stsightener, or is this not viable due to the aluminum?
 
Body components are available. You just need to make a list of the damaged parts and start looking.

Bumper & Components - Front for 1991 Acura NSX | OEM Parts Online

acura.oempartsonline.com acura.oempartsonline.com

You can do this through on-line discounters or head off to your dealer parts department. Aluminum repair is possible. You need to make sure that you are dealing with a body shop that is accredited to do aluminum repair which is now much more common. If your 'guy' is accredited by the insurance companies to do aluminum repair he should know what is doable. In this particular case I might be inclined to call up the body shops associated with some of the Acura dealerships because they had to go through a training process from Acura before they could do work on the car. See if they have anybody who is still skilled in working on the NSX.

I am not sold on the deer whistle things. At highway speeds the tires make way more noise than those little whistles ever could so its not a matter of the deer failing to hear the car coming. The problem is the deer choose the wrong strategy (jumping forward) for dealing with a car which is approaching at a speed that they are conceptually unable to deal with. Best strategy for dealing with deer is slow down and watch the side of the road like a hawk.
 
Call vinces as was suggested, since Joe left his techs may still be there.If that is a no go ask Greenwich acura who they recommend, as a last resort ask the local Audi R8 dealer who they use, since it is also aluminumimimim
 
Perfect - thanks all for the great info. There’s a collision shop in Danbury that deal with aluminum. They’re going to take a look at it on Friday and see what they think. Once that’s confirmed I’ll see about ordering parts. The headlight itself came through ok, so all I need there is the bucket. After that it will be the upper and lower bumper and the driving light.
 
Heck a fresh coat of paint never hurts...:cool:
 
@Old Guy I'm certainly not suggesting that deer whistles are so foolproof that common sense can be thrown out the window. Slowing down and keeping a keen eye out for animals on dark roads that are blessed with trees and bushes close to the road, are definitely the best defence in avoiding wildlife collisions.
Deer Alerts are supposed to be heard by animals, and get them to stop and look towards the sound. In the many years of using them, I have seen many deer doing just that when I arrive at the scene. If all owners had these on their cars, I suppose they would ignored by wildlife over time. It can get tricky however, when a big buck is standing looking at you, and he's in the middle of the road when you come around a corner!
For less than 20 bucks at Crappy Tire why not give them a try?
 
My worst fear, since I drive long distances for NSX meets…sorry to hear this has happened.

May be a good time to go aftermarket for a bumper. Mode4 (I have this one), Pride, and Kuya Automotive all offer bumpers…
 
Mingus said:
I have repaired scores of cars and trucks that had collisions with deer. Many still had the whistles.
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I think they fall into the category of "couldn't hurt". I had them on several cars over the years, and a few times I saw that they seemed to work, I.E. deer on the side of the road went back into the woods as I got near. I think the car has to be doing at least 30 or 40 for the whistles to have any effect. I'd not bother putting them on my Camaro as the engine would more than drown them out.

IMG_0529.JPG
 
Arkaid said:
@LeftyF Westchester Classic I hope? Dwayne definitely knows what he's doing - had him work on a different car years ago and it's flawless. One of the only body shops I've been 100% happy with.

Sorry to hear that this happened! The deer population up there is no joke...
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I found a great shop that’s done a couple of R8s, so he’s dealt with aluminum cars and comes highly recommended. We’re trying to source all the parts now so they can write up an estimate. My guess is 8k with paint, but we’ll see…
 
We've had deer alerts on our cars for 25 years. Before whistles, three deer strikes. After whistles, zero deer strikes. They are not perfect but at less than $10 from Autozone, cheap partial deterant. Have to place them so they don't get knocked off at the car wash. (Not that I take the NSX through the car wash.) I don't wear a front license plate so that helped with the placement.
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Also, general info for anyone not use to driving on back roads in deer country, if you see one cross the road ahead of you, slow down, because often there will be two or three more deer jumping out from the side to follow.

Good luck with the repair!
 
@ridewhencan Good advice, as there is often more than one deer to look out for. If you look at the instructions for your deer alerts, I think they suggest placing them closer to the corners of your car as opposed to being quite close together like yours. I have mine on top of the horizontal piece below where yours are, and as far to the corners as possible, but still allowing proper airflow. I would also add that there are more than one make of alerts on the market. Some are cheap and look the part. Yours appear to be from Bell (same as mine) and are well made. The other thing to remember is, air flow can be blocked by bugs, although it's not a common issue for me.

I hope you are able get your NSX fixed properly with no hassles LeftyF!
 
Having grown up in Western New York, where the deer are thick on the ground (especially in Fall), I always used the horns. No deer strikes despite some long drives through the rural areas to and from college at Cornell. I'm installing them on the Zero before the road trip to XPO.

Anecdotally, they work for me, but I also have seen the debunking videos where they test them and they don't work. I' sticking with them however. I hope your NSX is back to new soon!
 
Use Duck whistles.You'll never quack up. ( you can paint to match!)


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