What's this gonna cost me?

What are you basing that claim on, that body shops don't want to do body work?

 

Based on similar damage i did to a 4runner v tree incident, i would guess closer to $4k if a shop does all the work. Likely replace fender and some brackets behind it at edge of light. Bumper cover is plastic so i would expect shop would want to replace that too which adds its own remove/reinstall fee, paint fee, assembly fee etc.

You can likely leave the bumper alone and just do the fender (replace and paint). Buy an oem fender at dealer and find a local guy to paint match on the cheap. Might get it for $600 total if lucky and can do remove/install yourself.

Or just hammer it out a little and call it good enough.

 

Bumper cover is being removed, disassembled, and painted even if repaired. The only cost difference between fixing it and replacing it is the cost of the part vs. the cost of the repair time needed.

EDIT: List price for a new OEM bumper cover is $273.41. The bracket that attaches the bumper cover to the fender is $31.61. New OEM fender is $310.92.

 

Well I got the estimate. They want to replace the Fender the bumper cover because it's cracked at one of the mounting points. The headlight has one broken tab. They gave me the option to not replace it but I'm going to have it replaced just to fix it right. I could've got an aftermarket fender and saved $43 and an aftermarket headlight assembly and saved $65 over OEM. I felt that was really not worth it in the grand scheme so OEM parts all the way around.
Estimate was $2,815. I'm on the schedule for the work in 2 weeks paying out of pocket.
Sucks but I'm fortunate enough to be able to get it fixed. I wasn't sure if I wanted to make a claim with insurance or not. For now I think it's better not to to keep my low rate.

 

Yeah, if the bumper cover cracks at one of the mounting points where it attaches to the fender bracket, it's junk. No good way to fix it. Aftermarket headlamps are trash. Sheetmetal is hit or miss, mostly varying degrees of miss. No brainer to go OEM here.

 

Did I win the office pool?

 

I like hot rods.

 

Not a lot of hot rod shops doing collision repair work.

 

I went to an independent good Ole boy shop I used before and trust so I'll be good. Thanks

 

You and @23MGM were the closest to the actual retail price.

 

Yeah, it sucks... Just pay it and move on... Save the big insurance claim for if and when they're going to buy the whole truck, at least you earn the rate increase then.

 

Let's hope that big claim doesn't happen ever but that's my plan. I'm feeling better now that I got an estimate, it's scheduled and I'm fortunate enough to have money set aside to just take care of it. Like you said move on and put it all in the past soon.

 

This reminds me when I had my 05 f150 and lived at an apt complex. It was a stickshift and I had to parallel park in my space. Parked and got ready to get out , thought it was in neautral.....it wasn't.......dumped the clutch and was ready to turn it off .... went flying in reverse in the old dumped clutch no gas kill it style and slammed into the car behind me . Sucked so bad lol

 

Yikes. That does suck and would make me feel as stupid as I do now for my accident. I know I'm not alone in that. Heck even yesterday at the body shop an old 91 year old Marrine vet was picking up his car. His story was he left it in gear left when he went back inside to get his watch. He was saying he wasn't sure about driving now. I told him don't feel bad I'm half your age and I banged in to the corner of a garage. I'm to the point with it I'm starting to laugh about and roast myself for this. Getting the repairs set up right away was a good thing to start putting it behind me.

 

What I'm saying is, most (not all) body shops don't want to do it the old school way. As in pulling/pounding out dents, sanding, filling with bondo, shaping, sanding more, painting.... Or cutting off a portion of whatever and welding a new section in, sanding, finishing, etc anymore.
It's much easier for them just to replace a whole fender , quarter-panel, tailgate, hood,etc.

 

Well I really don't want to get into a side conversation over what body shops do and don't do these days compared to the good Ole days. From my perspective as a customer the damage to my fender is too much to be worth trying to straighten it out and have it look good for any reasonable amount of paid labor. It's just sometimes better to get a new one if it's available. Toyota parts from my estimate aren't horribly priced. Plus I wouldn't want body panels filled in with Bondo either. I'd maybe think different if it was a classic or antique vehicle that body parts weren't easy to obtain. Labor cost is the other thing that varies so much by region and shop. Where I'm getting my work done the labor rate is $60/hour. I am sure at dealerships and other places like Cali and bigger cities it's double that.

 

30 years in the industry, ASE Certified Master Collision Tech, been in shops all over the country. My current group at work reviews over 100,000 repairs each year, from every insurance company and from shops in every state + Canada + Mexico + PR. Shops fix things all of the time. Your perception may be what you stated, but that's not what's actually happening in the industry.

 

Well as of yesterday it's all fixed up looking great again

 

Looks great!

 

very nice ...