Rear ended last weekend

[Goldfishy]

By a young male driver and wasn't watching that traffic light was waiting for the red light to change. He plows right into the 99' GCL at about 20 mph's, his car (older small model Oldsmobile), goes underneath the rear bumper and I knew he was going to hit me, so I braced.

Upon impact, all I felt was the Jeep lifting up slightly, that's it. No whip-lashing, no jarring, no loud noise.

But upon closer inspection of my car, the skid plate to the gas tank was damaged and my rear bumper scratched. His car's damage was a bent hood wth four large scratch marks, both front fenders crumbed, left signal lights hanging by some wires, headlights are gone.

This week, I got three estimates, $1600, $1700 and $1800, he wanted to avoid going thru the insurance, I did verify being discreet, the ins. was valid and in force.

He wanted to pay in cash for the damages and in fact, after running $1600 as a cash deposit with me with a counterfeit pen, it was all good. I would show him all the receipts and if there's any left-over, I'll give him the difference back. I believe in good karma, and had a few good ones, so it's pay-back for me.

It appears with all the estimates, th gas tank was not damaged due to the heavy skid plate, but they wanted to replace it anyways...no leaks, etc. They tried to jar it loose, tapped on it hard, etc. Still no leaking after a week and with a full tank sloshing around, no gas aromas either.

I don't want to take this young kid's money, but wanted to get the GCL back to where it was prior to the accident and it was in very good shape (always garaged, waxed 2-3 x's a year, in shade as much as possible.

I could see replacing the rear bumper and skid plate and bumper absorber, with all new stealership parts. I wanted to save on the labor portion and do it myself.

So the questions are:

-- the bumper and absorber hard to replace?
-- the skid plate itself looks to be a bolt-on job

Anyone replace the above parts easily?

[dksob81]

Yes the skidplate just bolts on.

the Bumper cover is very easy to remove a couple pushpins and screws.