Dinged the 100, need advice.

[Rezarf]

For the first time in 21 years I ran into something. It happened to be in my new to me 100 series. I simply didn't see a pole in a downtown parking lot this afternoon and smacked a steel/concrete filled pole right on the rear passenger corner. All in all it isn't too bad but it made me sick that such a quick mistake banged up so much real estate. I was backing up and never saw the post as it was lower than the rear window.

I know I damaged:

• Taillight... only the outboard lights
• Bumper is banged up and cracked
• Trim piece moved enought to pull from the rear quarter
• Rear quarter took most of the energy
• Pushed the lower quarter sheet in significantly behind the bumper
• Pushed the quarter into the tailgate, I haven't tried to lower it for fear it wont button back up. (this would likely be the meat and potatoes of the fix, that and paint). Second pic shows the interference.
• The upper tailgate looks like it is now sitting outboard about 3/16"

After being upset and realizing its not that bad, I now have no idea how to proceed. I'll call my insurance in the morning. I guess I need to start rounding up some quotes? Any advice as to the adventure I am entering into would be appreciated.

One thought I have is to bang out/pull out the dent, replace the tail light, bang out the lower sheet metal and spot paint the bottom edge of the quarter as the tail light/bumper/trim give me a good spot to hide any blending. Then get full quotes for the fix and use the money for a rear steel bumper and or other build items... thoughts?

Anyhow, I am a noob at this so any shops you recommend or don't recommend, how to make sure I am getting squared away and not getting taken etc. Thanks!

 

[Romer]

Taillight is easy to replace need the whole assembly though

I would just say that's an omen you need a slee bumper. It would have prevented that and will replace the damaged bumper leaving just the dent below the taillight

You may need to smack that a bit to make sure a new light works. Might also try one of those pullers, I have one if you need it. You drill a hole and ansert a shaft and then smack it coming out. Then a little bondo and touch up paint and you are good

I order matching paint for all my vehicles from paint n scratch

 

[Jacket]

Unfortunately, it seems like you've touched a lot of parts in there, potentially making the quote to fix it pretty pricey. I think you could easily handle the taillight and the bumper yourself, but I'm not sure about that corner bit of sheet metal.

 

[Blindranger]

take the insurance payout and buy that Slee rear bumper and new taillight, leave everything else alone for added character points

 

[Rezarf]

Any good body shop recommendations?

 

[Rezarf]

Unfortunately, it seems like you've touched a lot of parts in there, potentially making the quote to fix it pretty pricey. I think you could easily handle the taillight and the bumper yourself, but I'm not sure about that corner bit of sheet metal.

I'm a wizard with bondo!

I'm actually most concerned about the tailgate and rear quarter now touching.

 

[DaveInDenver]

I have the dent puller attachment for my OTC slide hammer. It doesn't work all that well anyway and on a folded corner I would expect it would be even less effective.

Body shops have these little threaded studs they spot weld on when they're doing pulls that are 1000x better than drilling the hole method. Tack on, pull with a hydraulic puller, quick grind off, smooth and paint. No Bondo needed and no holes to fill that will rust eventually.

On a 100 I would suggest like Matt says, take the payment if there is one, pay a body shop to repair the sheet metal correctly and do the rest yourself with a Slee bumper and the club discount at Stevinson for the parts.

 

[Corbet]

As you are no stranger to a welder you could build a 4x4 Labs bumper kit and save some money for replacement/repair the other bits.

But definitely the classic reasoning for a bumper even for Starbucks runs. Bumper probably would have prevented all the damage and is cheaper than the bodywork to fix this right.

 

[cbmontgo]

Any good body shop recommendations?

Nylunds did beautiful work on my wife's 100 Series when she hit a deer last year. I highly recommend them; have used them twice so far.

 

[Ali FJ80]

sorry to hear, I did the same thing the other day but luckily it just scraped the bumper.

M&M is a awesome body shop down south or SVE in Broomfield is also very good.

 

[Rezarf]

Thanks guys I am going to hit a half dozen shops for quotes. Keep the good shop recommendations coming.

 

[Rezarf]

Also, the tailgate was unaffected in operation, it just scuffed the paint, that is a relief.

 

[wesintl]

ugh.. sorry bro. Mine looks like a golf ball so i feel your pain

 

[Rezarf]

ugh.. sorry bro. Mine looks like a golf ball so i feel your pain

Haha, thanks Wes. It's no biggie, but no one likes to ding up their car when the $$$ could be spent on the fun stuff.

 

[Rezarf]

First quote was $1800