Stopped at a red light, the guy behind me didn't. Nobody was hurt, thankfully! Bent my bumper down and pushed the radiator in his Esteem well into the block. Looking like the only damage to my truck is the bumper mounts... the bumper cleared the body and didn't touch the spare tire.

Less than $30 from fordparts.com... hardly worth the hassle with the insurance company but I want them to at least look at it before I do anything. Trucks FTW!

 

They must have hit you just right. You are lucky there wasn't more damage done.

 

Those brackets must have a weak point at them joints. Both of my dads brackets bent there before he bought the truck and my aunts have bent at that same location twice now. It's amazing how the frames almost always come out winning on these.

 

get some 1/8 inch 2x2 angle and make new brackets. much stronger thats what i made mine out of and tractor supply has a 4 foot piece for about 8 bucks

 

I agree I am very very lucky. I think it's because his front end was lower sitting, it caught more of the bottom of the bumper and caused it to rotate. But, that's speculation on my part.

If anything, I'm going to get the exact same brackets and bolt them right back up. They bled off a good deal of energy doing what they did, and the way they folded caused the bumper to roll around the body panels. I know it'll never happen the same way twice, but at least I know what to expect of the brackets now.

 

haha my frame didn't come out winning lol.

but you're lucky dude, new brackets and thats it, i got rear ended and it was $9,500

 

Definitely lucky! I'd put the same brackets back on, anything heavier/stronger might have made more damage if they didn't bend like that.

 

Lucky you. When I had that happen to me over a month ago, it bent my frame :(

 

I'm itching to go pick up the brackets and just put them back on... I hate how my back bumper looks. But I know I shouldn't touch it until the inspection is done. The frame does not look bent at all... but I'm wondering if I should push for an alignment anyway. I'm definitely mechanically-stupid when it comes to suspension, but I don't want to overlook anything... esp. if they're paying for everything.

This whole process was interesting. Just found out that my auto insurance did NOT include collision coverage, even though I specifically asked for full coverage when I bought this truck. It has a lein against it, leinholder on the policy and all... how the @#*! do they overlook that? Needless to say, I do have collision coverage now. (I know, my fault for not noticing that on the declaration. But still!)

 

It looks like the bumper got back and touched the bed. Isn't that a scratch right behind the exhaust tip?

 

you def lucked out for sure! thank god for steel bumper parts!

 

Haha, no. That's just my crappy-**** wax job. Seems no matter how much I go over it after I'm done waxing, I still get random white streaks a few days later. Buffed that out right after I took the pic. I may have to troll the cleaning/detailing forum to see what I'm doing wrong there.

 

Built FORD TOUGH!!

 

Ummm yeah. You got lucky. But I would still let an adjustor look, to be sure.

 

the brackets are meant to crumple during impact. they are actually design that way to lessen damage to the vehicle

Yeah, and next time he gets rear-ended he will need more then just a bumper, guarantee that it will bend the frame

 

Just an update for those who encouraged me to wait... had the adjuster look at it this afternoon. They cut me a check for the mounts and a new bumper! DEFINITELY worth the wait! Think I'm gonna put the mounts on it and see how she looks... the bumper does have a small ding in it but it's still straight and doesn't really look that bad at all. Heh.