4kcsq totalled... :) Dumb Question?

[aparatii at xprt.net]

> Did the bumper shocks get hurt or bent in all of
> this?
> Good luck,
> Al Swackhammer

That's an excellent question and one I would love to 
answer. But as usual I must reply with another 
question:  How can I tell?

They do not look bent or anything out of the ordinary, 
(keep in mind I had never seen them until AFTER the 
incident) however I can see some scratches up the 
smaller post that goes inside of the bigger one, (what 
is that called?  a piston or something??) so it is 
clear they were both put to use and pushed in 3 or 
more inches on impact and then popped back out.  Are 
these a one-time deal that need to be replaced?  Looks 
like a simple enough bolt-on replacement at first 
glance though I hadn't even considered them before, 
let alone priced them. (I just ran outside in the rain 
to peek at them on my lunch break)

When I had the estimate done, the guy seemed to think 
there are "some kind of shock absorbers that will need 
to be replaced" but at that point I had indicated I 
would be using my insurance, so whether he was 'yankin 
my chain' or not is unclear, especially since he 
looked at the car (bumper-on) for a total of 10 
minutes.

The impact was straight dead center on the back of an 
80's buick on a straight section of road, so as stated 
before, the damage was centered in the front and was 
symmetrical to the left and right side of the car.

I would be tempted to say, considering the possibility 
that these may have been designed to withstand the 
occasional smack on the ass of the vehicle who wont 
yield the fast lane, that they look fine... However, 
since I had never even thought about them before I am 
slightly concerned as to whether they are something I 
should be thinking about.

I dont know why I feel the need to be so verbose, I'm 
sure I could have gotten this point across in a single 
paragraph :P  Sorry!

Carl