Goodbye transmission and thoughts on repairs

so, the wife decided to go and pick up $15 worth of scrap metal in the nicest vehicle we own and does this. She's not even sure what it was because she kept going. Didn't know the extent until she got out to load the crap. Needless to say, I'm still a little pissed.

The damage starts at the rear of the rear door, hits the cab, creases the bedside, the fuel filler door etc. Lasts about 7 feet. From my time dealing with bodyshops and the like, the bedside is berkeleyed. The door and cab could be massaged enough to look right, the fuel filler door is toast too. So.... my guess is new bedside, fuel filler door and a respray of half the truck. 

I'm personally considering filling in the bare metal with touchup paint to stop the rust and say berkeley it. She thinks she wants to get it fixed. Anyone want to hazard a guess on total cost to fix it right and options on another avenue? The truck is 11 years old and other than this beautiful. Insurance will not cover and is not an option. 

Time for a flatbed?

I'd sure get a skilled PDR guy to give it a look. You may be surprised what is possible. If the crease can be made to go away, there's a chance the paint can be blended enough to touch up the scratch and be minimally noticeable. Hate this happened to you. 

¯\_(ツ)_/¯ said:

Time for a flatbed?

Way too nice of a truck for that. It's the super short 5'8" bed, so a flat bed would be silly. 

In reply to conesare2seconds :

the crease goes right through the body lines above the wheel. I've known some really good PDR guys but this is just too much even for them. 

Is a replacement bed an option? Or have they gone unobtanium like so many older trucks have?

In reply to RevRico :

I found 2. both wrong color so they'd have to be resprayed. That was my initial thought too. 

My amateur guess:

• Replace bed side, repair door and can
• Paint bed side, rear door, repaired area of cab. Blend cab and front door.
• R&I trim, door handles, lights, mirrors, etc.

Not sure how much a replacement bed side costs, but looks like  $2500 to me. 

In reply to thestig99 :

That was pretty much my guess as well. Bedsides can be found for ~$700 new. I did find a few more complete beds, all the wrong color on the $1500-2500 range. 

In reply to Bobzilla :

It's a truck. You/she obviously use it as a truck. berkeley it, leave it as-is. By the time you're ready to sell it, if it's still running by that point then rust will have done way more damage than that crease by then - in other words it won't hurt resale value by that point. 

Letting stuff like that go un-fixed on a nice vehicle is what you might call the top of the slippery slope to E36 M3can status. 

I'd fix the truck  and also attempt to fix the driving that caused it.  How do you hit something that can do that and just not notice?

At the minimum, I'd take it in for an estimate.

It depends on the shop/tech's, but I don't know that the bedside would necessarily require replacement. I've fixed stuff like this myself even. 

Vigo said:

I'd fix the truck and also attempt to fix the driving that caused it. 

That has to be the most dangerous suggestion I've ever seen on this forum. 

I can't see the pic...what gives??

Vigo said:

Letting stuff like that go un-fixed on a nice vehicle is what you might call the top of the slippery slope to E36 M3can status. 

I'd fix the truck and also attempt to fix the driving that caused it.  How do you hit something that can do that and just not notice?

 

Oh, she finally noticed, but "when I heard it I didn't know if I should go forward or backward and I was already there so I just kept on." She's such a good driver with it in public. Put her in it in a neighbors yard (or hell, even ours) and she looses her damn mind. 

She's been trying to tell me how great her picking up all this "free" scrap metal is and how she's "making free money". Except for the 2 flat tires when driving over crap to get the crap, the deductibles when she was running across the highway and fell into the median and tweaked her ankle and wrist and now this. She's made $200 this year on this stuff. So far, it's cost us $300. 

¯\_(ツ)_/¯ said:

Time for a flatbed?

I vote to make into The Walton's truck. Aka- the Jed Clampett. 

Oh, she finally noticed, but "when I heard it I didn't know if I should go forward or backward and I was already there so I just kept on." She's such a good driver with it in public. Put her in it in a neighbors yard (or hell, even ours) and she looses her damn mind. 

She's been trying to tell me how great her picking up all this "free" scrap metal is and how she's "making free money". Except for the 2 flat tires when driving over crap to get the crap, the deductibles when she was running across the highway and fell into the median and tweaked her ankle and wrist and now this. She's made $200 this year on this stuff. So far, it's cost us $300. 

Ah, ok.  The whole 'i know im hitting it but i dont know how to get off of it' thing seems to be pretty common. I think it's mostly stress-related, like you say.  People freak out in the moment and can't perform things they otherwise could when calm. I'm sorry if i came off like an ass. 

I've actually done very similar damage to very similar truck. I think i was 19 or 20 and i was in charge of moving ~120 vehicles in a 1/4 acre sales lot. Unfortunately for me, i was following the directions of a spotter that didn't see the problem. But, neither did I.  Working in automotive you get the 'privileged' high stakes learning opportunity of moving a huge variety of vehicles that don't belong to you in all sorts of tight/dangerous quarters and get most of your mistakes out of the way early.. and under someone else's insurance!

Anyway, its a cool truck and i hope you can get it fixed.

In reply to Trackmouse :

No. It's this truck:

That was taken the last week of June this year there on the causeway to Sanibel.

In reply to Vigo :

Nah, you were fine. I'm still a bit pissed that she doesn't even know what it was. If it had been the passenger side, I get it. It's a wide, long truck. things get missed on that side rather easily for a smaller (read: shorter) person. But the driver's side? I mean, it went RIGHT BY YOUR WINDOW. It's a good thing she's my suga-momma. 

Maybe try looking at it more like a casualty of your wife's hobby, instead of looking at it as a "business". 

I have to do the same when it comes to a number of family members.

I can, but she won't. I've been pushing for her to stop the more dangerous stuff like pulling off the interstate and running across 2 lanes to pick up a muffler.... at rush hour. She justifies those actions with "its free money!" I keep trying to beat into her thick skull that its not going to help me when you get splattered all over 865 one night/morning. Just last week there was a state trooper that was injured on a traffic stop because someone playing with their phone drifted over and slammed his patrol car (with all the lights in the world flashing) at 65mph. If that can happen to a lit up patrol car, it's definitely possible that it can happen to her with a turn signal on (she doesn't even use her flashers.)

I don't understand the transmission part of the thread title...

transmission for the C10..... my truck. This is "her truck". Repairing this will eat that fund up. The plan was this winter the SM465 would get replaced with a TKO-600

The bedside does not need to be replaced. It looks like most could be pulled with a stud welder to get most of the crease out and then finished with body filler. A good painter should be able to blend the rear door without having to get into the front door. I would get a couple of estimates stipulating repairing the bedside instead of replacing it.

FYI, 35 years of paint and body experience. My most recent project was painting a 2007 Aston Martin Vantage.

Replacement bed side is going to be between $300 & $500 depending on where U get it the cost to R&R it so probably 1 - 1.5 K for that. The door is fixable and the fuel door is a simple part swap.  That just leaves paint & body.  

$2500 would be a really good deal to get that fixed.  I bet it would be loser to $3,500 as there will be some work in getting the door and the C pillar right for paint and you are basically going to paint about 1/4 of the truck so there are the paint costs as well to think of.  The only fading is going to be in the C pillar so that should make the painting rather simple as long as the color match is good.

EDIT:  Labor rates up my way are MUCH higher than many other places I have found so depending on where you are it may be better to have the existing bed side pulled out and then smoothed with filler.  

I was thinking that even if you have to paint a whole bed they are simple to R&R as a complete unit.  Prep on a bed for paint should only be a couple hours if it is just a scuff, prime, paint & clear.  I wonder how many hours it will take to pull that one out and get it ready for paint and how much filler will have to be used.