Update on the body work. Truck was involved in a minor fender bender on Feb 17. I was on my way to get my wife from work. It was one of the hardest snowfalls that we have had here in southern mo in quite some time. I was in the turn lane making a left turn. Was almost thru the signal when I saw a car sliding toward me from behind me. I knew I couldn't gun it to get out of his was, since there was cars in the intersection. I knew I would possibly spin into the other cars.
I thought I got clear of the spinning car. When I felt that all to familiar tap, and I got spun. The look in the peoples eyes as my headlights were now pointed at the line of stopped cars at the stoplight was priceless. I got instantly pi$$-d. Pulled truck out of the road into a has station. I figured the guy was just going to bolt from the scene. Luckily he came to the gas station to exchange information. His car was all jacked up from a road sign and the center median curb.
He got me on my rear bumper on the drivers side. Pushed the bumper into the bed and scratched the paint a little. He told me how priceless he little Toyota Camry is. He didn't like it when I told him his car was a dime a dozen. He told me my truck wasn't even harmed, and nothing real special. That got me even hotter. I told him good luck trying to find an 06 megacab dually with only 110,000 miles. Least the truck was still drivable. His car was totaled.
Took it in to get some estimates the next day. I ended going to 3 different body shops. The highest was almost $1600. The lowest was $1200. While they were doing the estimate for the insurance claim. I had them give me a quote for the rust that is showing up on the cab corners, and some other body work to be done. I figure if it's at the body shop I am going to get it all done at one time. The truck has a little damage behind one of the taillights. One shop wants to replace the whole bed side. And the other shops said they would just pull it out and re paint it. Dodge charges $1500 per side on the cab corners. The shop using all dodge parts was wanting to charge over $6000 for all the work. And the other was right in the same ballpark as them.
Found a little body shop that i am going to do the work. (Referred to him by friends) He did the insurance claim, then wrote up an estimate for the rest of the work. He asked what the insurance claim was from the other shops. When I told him what they were going to charge his jaw hit the floor. He said I just don't see how they are $400 higher. I just laughed. When he finished looking at all the added body work besides the claim, he wrote up the estimate.
I asked about just getting a new patch panel for the cab corners, instead of buying the complete sides from dodge. He told me he would just build the panels opposed to buying them. He said he's really picky and is a perfectionist. That's when I knew I found my body man. He said it will take him about 3 weeks and the price will be about $2200 without a tailgate. If I find a tailgate and he paints it it will come in right around $3000. Which to me sounds really good.
So now I am searching for a good tailgate. He won't even touch those ebay tailgates. He said it must be a factory tailgate that he will sand and paint. He said he would start looking for the tailgate for me. I found one locally a new take off for $600, just needs to be painted to match. Just waiting on insurance to do their thing so I can get the body work started.
