SteveH-CO
Well-known member
A few photos from a repair job late last year. My daughter's boyfriend (a very good kid) smacked a Jeep Wrangler and crunched in his father's '01 Dakota. The truck would have been totaled, had it been insured. I dolly-towed it to my house (hood jammed shut) which was a good idea, as the serpentine belt was rubbing on the radiator shroud.
Got the kid's father involved in the teardown, and we removed all the bent parts. Straightened the core support with a come-along and replaced the bolt-on top piece with a junkyard part. Bought a new radiator and A/C condenser, which still held R-134a, but was shaped like a Pringles potato chip and couldn't be reinstalled.
The accident tapped the bumper, and dislodged it. I got some parts at the junkyard, and we ordered a Chinese-made hood and fender thru my Toyota dealer (who can get body parts for anything). Headlight, turn signal, etc. from Amazon. Got a Denso condensor from Rock Auto and evacuated and charged up the A/C with my neighbor, an HVAC tech. Taught the kid how to weld and let him weld part of the core support. He was quite proud of using his new skill (taught 5 minutes earlier) on the truck. Got a local guy to shoot the paint on the hood, fender, and support, and they matched perfectly. Total of $1K to repair, and the kid paid for it all, I believe. He learned a great deal and had much fun working with me on this. We buffed out the bumper scratches and I shimmed it to get it to fit as well as Chrysler ever did. Photos tell the rest of the story.
The kid later helped pay off the ~40 hours I put into this by helping me split firewood and do chores around my place. Most of all, he may have learned the downside of not paying attention while driving and how a body shop (or amateurs like me) put things back together again.
Got the kid's father involved in the teardown, and we removed all the bent parts. Straightened the core support with a come-along and replaced the bolt-on top piece with a junkyard part. Bought a new radiator and A/C condenser, which still held R-134a, but was shaped like a Pringles potato chip and couldn't be reinstalled.
The accident tapped the bumper, and dislodged it. I got some parts at the junkyard, and we ordered a Chinese-made hood and fender thru my Toyota dealer (who can get body parts for anything). Headlight, turn signal, etc. from Amazon. Got a Denso condensor from Rock Auto and evacuated and charged up the A/C with my neighbor, an HVAC tech. Taught the kid how to weld and let him weld part of the core support. He was quite proud of using his new skill (taught 5 minutes earlier) on the truck. Got a local guy to shoot the paint on the hood, fender, and support, and they matched perfectly. Total of $1K to repair, and the kid paid for it all, I believe. He learned a great deal and had much fun working with me on this. We buffed out the bumper scratches and I shimmed it to get it to fit as well as Chrysler ever did. Photos tell the rest of the story.
The kid later helped pay off the ~40 hours I put into this by helping me split firewood and do chores around my place. Most of all, he may have learned the downside of not paying attention while driving and how a body shop (or amateurs like me) put things back together again.
