Damaged Camper Shell due to Idiot Mistake...

Hi all - last week I was rushing to remove my camper shell after installing a harbor freight electric hoist on a unistrut in my garage. I was just trying to temporarily lift it, pull my truck out, then set it down and get to work on building the frame that I was going to use to lift and store it normally...

Long story short, I wasn't paying attention and didn't lift it from the center of mass and it tipped backwards and crashed into the ground and crunched the two back corners (among other damage). The frame I was building will solve all of these problems in the future as well as lifting from more than one point...but unfortunately, the damage already occurred.

I spoke with one fiberglass boat repair shop and sent them some pics for an estimate but haven't heard back yet. I'm going to reach out to a couple more just so I can get an idea of what sorta damage/pricing I'm looking at - but figured I'd post here for any advice / thoughts.

Here's the main damage:





And here's some additional angles / images of the damage (aside from a scratch on the top):













As best as I can tell, there does not appear to be any structural damage that compromises the overall integrity of the shell, just the crunched rear corners and a chip on the right side with some cracked paint / gel coating due to flexing.

My thoughts are:

1) I can get it repaired and painted $$$$

2) I can just get it repaired and attempt to paint it myself (knowing that in probably 5-8 years or so I'm likely going to have my whole truck painted)

3) I can attempt a repair on my own after many YouTube tutorials and some cursing (probably don't want to go this route)

4) I can get some paint matched car-wrap vinyl and do some light sanding - maybe spray a little primer or something - and then put down small sections of the vinyl on the back corners to cover up the damaged areas until I deal with it down the road when I get my entire truck repainted.

But I figured I'd ask TacomaWorld if anyone has any thoughts or recommendations. I still have no idea what a fiberglass repair shop is gonna quote for this thing.

 

wonder if your auto insurance would cover the repair???

 

Yeah, potentially. My deductible is $500 and I am sure it would raise my rates...no idea what the repair cost will be yet. Still gotta reach out to more shops to get quotes.

 

I would bet that between the cost of someone else doing some fiberglass work, shaping, and a repaint, it'd be near the price of a brand new shell.

While probably not the popular opinion, I'd personally just be slapping some bondo on it and throwing some sort of vinyl design over the back 1/4-1/3 of the shell, especially if I planned to respray the whole truck down the road. Depending on how structurally affected that section is, I'd consider doing some DIY fiberglass on the inside section to try to reinforce it a little. This coming from someone with zero bodywork experience, and an eye for detail thats slightly less particular than others.

 

Yeah - I was hoping it would be cheaper than that but you might be right. The issue is that the fiberglass on those two sections by the rear window are kind of "crunched" throughout the affected area and bent backwards a little bit (hard to tell from the pics). I am not sure if those two damaged sections can be salvaged or if it needs to be cut and new fiberglass needs to be integrated into it to fully harden it again and make it rigid.

If I did it myself and didn't care as much for the perfect curvature, I could probably do something like what you said. There is no structural issue as these sections do not have any weight on them. I would just need to find a way to stabilize the crunched fiberglass so it doesn't flex when pressure is applied.

 

I have no idea. I have no experience in this area, and I wouldn't be looking to do it the "right" way, simply bc I'm just cheap.. I wouldn't make a decision before you hear back from your fiberglass quotes; I could be completely wrong, and I find I often am