Rear ended w/steel bumper....A Story of Redemption

Good read and well done, but how are you? The truck is fixed, but how is your back? Pains? I think I'd keep the truck for awhile with so many replacement parts especially if you owe nothing on it.

 

Excellent. Well done all around.

 

Ditto!

Wow that civic was jacked!
Glad you got your truck back op! In for the DV claim results.

 

It's odd that shops no longer straighten frames. I'm only 52 and back when I was doing body paint and repair every single shop had floor pots and hydraulic rams. Frame damage like that is super simple to repair with nothing but the afore mentioned pots and rams plus a plain old every day tape measure, hammer, and maybe a torch.

 

Just curious what impact straightening a frame has on strength. I mean if you bend a paper clip and then bend it back, that is a potential weak area. When frames are straightened in the automotive industry, do reinforcement plates get welded on or anything?

 

Frames aren't made of high strength steel. Some parts of unibody type cars are made of HSS alloys and you don't put any heat to them.

 

So I've read on the internet - so it must be true - that the issue these days is body shops won't use heat in frame repair and will only cold work because using heat can result in a restored frame being weaker than the original. Similarly there are limits to what cold working can achieve with out similar weakening. Presumably this is all driven by liability concerns from some stage of insurance. Implication was this true of more than just unibodies but again no direct knowledge myself.

 

So some Googling brought up another reasons frames are more likely to be totaled these days with the same damage that would have been straightened in the past - air bags. In the past there was no problem with making the frame stronger during a repair. So if you know you did something to weaken the frame you could reinforce it and over engineer it in the process. That screws with air bag deployment sensors and triggering logic these days and so the tolerances for restoring the frame to the OEM strength and both being not significantly weaker or stronger are much tighter than in the past.

 

Yes, that bumper is still for sale. Will send you a PM.

 

Thanks for asking. Chiropractor is taking care of me. I should be good to go. The truck has been paid off for years so the plan right now is to keep it.

 

Yikes, what a horror show in terms of time taken..but glad it all worked out.

 

If his tires would have gripped when he turned left before impact, he would have hit the Camry coming the opposite way head on....could have turned out real bad!

 

Could be (although I really doubt it because the metallurgy of mild steel is far from a mystery) but with the damage caused by this type of collision that shouldn't be a consideration. Same thing with the air bags. That just isn't how air bags work. My guess it is as simple as the art has been lost and nobody has pots embedded in the shop floor anymore and techs have been trained to rely on frame alignment machines instead of what is between their ears and a tape measure. Just like the art of using lead has been lost. This shit really is very simple and perfectly safe.

 

Glad everyone was ok. Very informative post. Thanks for all the valuable info. Sorry for the ordeal.

 

Boobs, bro. Boobs are the shit

 

Thanks for the feedback....glad to pay it forward with others in the same spot.

 

As someone who dealt with DV, in Maryland, where they dont enforce it, I was only able to get $1800 back after getting rear ended in my 2017 GTI. VW estimated a $3500 loss in value. Took what I could get.

But Im sure the shop loved that project.

 

Wow what a fiasco, one of the things that scares me the most about racking up mods. I drive some pretty bad roads and if you wreck a 2nd gen it's not like you can easily replace it.

Glad to see you finally got it back on the road. Reminded me that I need a dashcam.

 

GOOD LORD!!! I just read every word.... lol. Yeah you also have a 3rd option...

option 3- Never sell the truck, (it's bad ass and like new) If the new vehicle bug strikes, go get a new one and have 2 tacos One toy and one DD.

I'm like you when it comes to vehicles...I always want something new. Been through almost 20 vehicles and im 28. I have my 2016 Tacoma TRD OR 4X4 and its not going anywhere! I Love it!

 

Great read, glad it seemed to work out in your favorite even after all the headaches. It's a beautiful, badass Tacoma.