sixteenXnine

iTrader: (2)

Well, as my '00 GXE literally falls apart before my eyes (struts/mounts, exhaust, tranny), my Pearlescent White '00 GLE on the other hand rose from the ashes like a phoenix after a serious alteration with one Odocoileus virginianus.

After the wreck (the hood saved our lives):

After the repairs:

We were coming down Rte 364 on our way to Penn Yan.... I was taking my gf to dinner to help her get her mind off of our financial troubles and BOOM, at 55-60mph we hit the biggest buck I've seen in years.

$6.5k in damage Thank god the buck was so tall that he cleared the bumper and did not set the airbags off, as the car would have been totaled.

lol, I was still able to drive it to the restaurant... folks at the establishment definitely blaked at the vehicle as it leaked a bit of coolant and battery water, bt hey, I wasn't gonna let some buck get in the way of taking my lady out to a nice dinner, lol.

Anyway, at the shop the car was re-assembled. The rocker panel and door were repaired, and the hood, bumper (light damage but replaceable), headlights, fender, battery, air intake, radiator, and lots of bracketry were replaced.

The garage felt that they could find better headlights for me than the stock '00 units, so they found me some halo projectors. They also almost put a Kombat bumper on me, but at the last minute a Keystone bumper came in and fit fine.

I was also at the time searching for tires to put on for the winter. In all my years here in central NY I've had no problem in winter with any FWD car, regardless of the shape the tires were in, so I had no problem getting all seasons.

So I picked up some 245/45R17 Fuzion (Bridgestone/Firestone) high-performance all seasons. They look nice, and yeah, they ride and handle damn good.

... and I had some nice rims to put on the car. I actually really like the 16" GLE 5-spokes, but I figured I'd put them on my GXE. Sitting in boxes were the 17" 350Z rims that I bought from fr33way.

Furthermore, my Megan racing catback setup was finally shipped last week.... too late to be put on at the shop, but it'll go on later this week for sure to replace my relatively brand-new OEM setup (I'll put that on my GXE which has a rotted out exhaust).

I gotta re-do my GAB mod as well, or maybe I'll put the home made CAI on that now sits in the GXE.

Rolling out of the shop after completeion, Anne and I were like "wow". Sure, it's not lowered, and it needs a tint job and a spoiler, but hey, it doesn't look like a model year 2000 car any more, that's for sure.... hell, I think it looks more modern than the new Sonata/Kia Optima! I think THIS is what the '00-'03 GLE's should have looked like on the showroom floor, lol.

Still-tight leather seats and light tan interior, GREAT looking paint job, Bose system in perfect shape, OEM suspension with a "just right" feel (relatively no wear or problems), an FSTB, a soon to be installed GAB or CAI plus a hard to get catback, SMOOTH 4AT, big paws (245's), nice 350Z rims... man, IMO this car is pretty clean looking. More mods to come but I'm sure happy with it right now.

Check out the photobucket slideshow. I know plenty of nice Maximas are present on teh int4rw3b but I haven't seen any white GLE's with 350Z rims UNTIL NOW!!! lol



Please give me some feedback on the looks of this car... let me know what you think a daily driver GLE like this would benefit from. ... and yes I do plan on getting a Stillen lip.

Metal Maxima

iTrader: (30)

Looks great, dude. Glad to hear all came out well.

I hope insurance payed for all of this!

sixteenXnine

iTrader: (2)

Yeah insurance did pay for repairs... heck, teh adjuster een broke our windshield opening the hood and had to buy us a new one...

Ya know, after doing some reading about large deer (wikipedia articles etc...), I have realized just how close we came to a grisly end. I'm sure if that hood didn't crinkle and deflect that stupid ruminant, it would have came right through the windscreen @ 55-60mph. Seriously, this thing was huge... it was running super fast trying to cross, and actually was crossing at an angle, so I got an interesting view of him. When he hit, he flew at an extremely level height for a long long time, flipping so rapidly that his legs and appendages were a complete blur. He descended at the edge of the road, and then bounced so hard that he made it back up to his original altitude and flew over the embankment.

I'm sure glad the car was at stock ride height.

I'm keeping the bumper btw. It's repairable. Maybe I'll mod it with some fiberglas and put it on my GXE.

Professor

iTrader: (4)

Wow car looks incredible after that, just 3 nights ago i had a near miss, i made a small thread about it, IT gives me chills seeing what it has done to your car, i swerved off the road and went into a ditch or something and only blew out a tire and bent a rim, I woulda been destroyed inside if i would of hit that deer and see what it could have done, glad your ok and Thank god for insurance.