So, i plan on fixing my dads 1997 jeep cherokee sport... Well she has 125k miles on her and he hit a deer last year with it... He bought it new in 97-98 and since then has been taken care of very well. Now anyways i plan on fixing this car up as my first car but there are a few issues i need help with. Is it worth fixing? and how much would it cost to fix it if i buy the parts and do it myself? also she needs a little body work (dent in picture and rims are rusty but body seems to have no rust) so should i even attempt to restore her?

first of all make sure the frame isnt tweeked in the front. if it is, it might not be worth fixing. if it isnt, then its a fairly simple fix. you would need fenders, bumper and caps, grill/header panel, maybe a hood (cant tell if its damaged in the pictures). theres probably other stuff im forgetting, i dont know a whole lot about XJs

Remove the bumper, fender and header panel to expose hidden damage and post more pics.

Good on you for taking this on . Takes a lot of work and guts to do a project like this. I did it differently by getting another xj and using the original jeep for parts. Save myself a a lot of time and money in the long run and ended up with a nice rig .

yeah... the cheapest i can find a cherokee is around $700 so with parts and stuff its just cheaper to do it by getting parts i cant find an xj for under $500 and im looking at about $500 in parts at the most

Assuming there isn't any frame damage (shouldn't be with a deer, but make sure to check the rails) it should be a relatively easy fix, bumper & caps (possibly mounts), grill, header panel, lights & signals, fender(s), and possibly a rad support and rad (hard to tell from the pics if they're damaged). should be $200-300 at a junk yard (maybe less, especially at a pick your part), less than $500 with new aftermarket parts (plus some dupli-color since they come in black primer or an additional $400-500 at a body shop if you want a perfect match).

With a unibody the worse damage is always under the sheet metal you can't see.Check all the door gaps on the passenger side vs the drivers side,If they are a lot tighter or touching then you might have a bigger problem then you think.