Oops...now should I bump out my tailgate?

Misjudged a hitch setup and put a bit of a dent in the tailgate. Could have been much worse- didn't crack the paint (scratches in picture from a previous mishap). I have no experience with body work and took it for an estimate today. Shop said ballpark $100, but I should try to fix it myself first. They suggested removing the plastic tailgate cap and pushing out dent with a screwdriver (?), then using a heat gun to fix the plastic cap. Thought I'd poll the crowd here for tips before I try. Any leads/videos/tools I should look into? Or just bite the bullet and take it to a shop?

 

Depends on your skills and your expectations. $100 sounds pretty cheap to me. I would ask questions as to how well their $100 fix is going to succeed. If as good as new I would open my wallet.

 

The $100 you save could go to a steel tailgate reinforcement cap, which may help cover the dent.

 

$100 is going to buy a PDR man for the one 'panel' the dent is in.

If you're fussy, let him do it. 'Cause my guess is you'll wind up paying him even after you're doing messing with it.

 

That isn't an easy repair to make.

Make it less bad, sure. Make it like it never happened? Not as much.

 

Don't use a screw driver not a good idea there. Research and put some time prior to attempting it. I would check the cost of a tailgate as sometimes these attempts make things worse and unrepairable.

 

For $100, I'd just let them fix it.

 

For $100 I would let the body shop do it right.

 

There is no way ANYONE is going to make that look good for $100. What's going to happen, is they're going to say, "We did the best we could. It looks better. Here's your bill. Will that be cash or card." I would start shopping for another tailgate. Mine is nowhere near that bad, and I'm looking for another tailgate. I'm just not willing to spend the $400 that the wrecking yards want for a tailgate with "2 hours damage". You can get a new OEM tailgate shell for $400. Either way, it's going to need painted=more money. The chances of finding a NICE tailgate in the right color are slim.

 

I'd love to know how they'll fix that for $100, because that's ridiculously cheap for that. Please don't mangle it worse with a screwdriver.

 

I'd live with it. In fact I have the same dent. Paying someone else just $100 isn't going to improve anything. That is almost impossible to fix right, you really need another tailgate. A new tailgate is $400+paint. I found some used ones as low as $250 which I would have paid 3 years ago when it happened if I'd found one in the right color and it didn't need to be painted.

The truck is 10 years old now, I don't even notice it anymore.