Seeking General Guidance

Hello everyone! A vehicle backed into me as I was walking into the store this morning and then sped off. Upon further inspection, I noticed very light marks on the lower corner of the front bumper (passenger side) that I just wiped off. However, I also observed that the passenger fender was pushed upwards and no longer sits flush with the hood, and the bumper has uneven gapping on one side where it made contact. Is this something I could fix at home, or should I be worried about it?

 

Check to see if the rubber bumpers that the hood closes upon are still present.

Edit: Ignore I was only looking at your hood pic, mine looked the same upon one of the bumpers unscrewing and getting lost.

 

Seems to me you have 3 choices here:

1. Do nothing and learn to love it
2. Try to fix yourself and learn to love it
3. Make a repair claim on your insurance and have it fixed by a professional

 

I see what you mean. First, sorry. Huge bummer. Obviously, file a police report.
Second, I might be tempted to live with it. Unless the accident is causing rain water to reroute into a part of the engine compartment that cannot handle it, your life might be simpler without escalating this. Sometimes attempts to fix minor things lead to unintended consequences. Cost, time, aggravation.
That's life advice you didn't ask for. Others will know more about structural issues. I'd consider moving on.

 

^^ This. And hopefully you filed a police report on the hit and run so you can choose option 3 if you want to.

 

I swear I've read on here that someone was able to just push that fender back down by hand with some force. Might be worth a try, can't hurt.

 

I think a lot of that is just crappy body panel fitment that some of these trucks have from the factory.

 

I'd lean heavily on options 1 or 2

 

I could never do #1. Once I knew it was there it would make me totally crazy

 

Your fender did not move, your hood is just not aligned right. Look at the gap between the hood and the top of the headlight. Passenger side there is no gap, driver side there is a gap.

You just need to adjust the bumper stop for the hood to line it up with the fender. Its probably always been that way, but you never noticed as you were never looking for damage until you got bumped.

To expand, the amount of force needed to push your fender up like that would of broken clips and broken the headlight mounting tabs as well as leave a substantial damage on the bumper.

 

My truck is the same way. If you think this is bad, look at the gap between the bed sides and tailgate. And the gaps between the bumper caps and the bumper. And the the bed side caps on top too.

 

If it's going to cost you anything just leave it and wait for the next person to hit you and then claim it when you have there info. It's worked for me in the past with the family wagon, the wife hit a trash can with the fender. Left it alone, 3 months later t boned by a prius on the same side. Problem solved. Fixed on their dime.

 

The fender probably shifted a little when the bumper cover pushed against it. Watch a YouTube video on fender removal. Loosen all the screws and shift the fender until it's satisfactory. You'll be less picky about it when you realize the fender is paper thin and can shift/flex a good inch in some places

 

Battlescar. The women love it!

 

Ask a body shop to look at it and give you an estimate.

You’ll know how bad it really is (or isn’t), and you’ll know how much it will cost to repair.

Then you can make an informed decision on what to do.

 

Passengers side hood corner misalignment looks like mine and every other Tacoma I inspected on the lot yesterday

 

Part out?

 

I bet all you need to do is loosen things up and realign them. A trusted body shop can probably get it spot-on for you. Doesn’t hurt to ask. But definitely file a police report!

 

Should have filed a police report had them look at footage from store parking lot to track down a hit and run . Call your insurance it won’t affect your policy since it was not your fault .

 

Just a heads up OP, some states do not allow for law enforcement to investigate car wrecks on private (store) property (Michigan). So don’t be surprised if you call for help and they turn you away.