Purple & Slothgirl's van repair

Driving home late a deer jumped in front of my van. Fortunately there was no one in the passenger seat so no injuries. I only had liability coverage so insurance won’t help pay for repairs. We bought this van less than a year ago for $12,800. It has extremely low mileage and these vans have a reputation for going 300,000 miles with minimal maintenance. Makes it worth fixing up as I can expect to still be driving it 10 years from now. We need to be able to get to all our medical appointments. We need a van because Slothgirl's chemo is making her need a wheelchair with increasingly more often. Estimate from a local body shop repairs would cost $9,000. My brother is a certified master mechanic and said it I could get it to him he could do it for around that. I rented a Uhaul and towed it down to him. After cutting off the hood he assessed there were a lot of damaged components but no damage to the frame or any structural elements. The engine and transmission were still fine but due to broken lines the transmission had lost all the fluid. He’s been working on it in his (very limited) spare time so it has taken a few months. If everything continues on schedule he’s saying I’ll be able to bring it home the 2nd weekend of November.

Here's a look at what we saw after cutting the hood off. No structural damage but a bit of welding being done to replace the hood supports.