Sorry to hear about the damages man. I hope you get it all straighten out soon. Yeah I think I'm gonna go that route and do the rear bumper and wilco tailgate myself and get the bed fixed later. My only concern now is getting the tailgate down because it's slightly wedged in and won't drop more then couple inches. Maybe once I get the bumper off I can use a pry bar underneath and see if I can do anything.
Since it's a hit and run it will be covered under collision, not uninsured motorist. There is no way to know if the driver was or was not insured since he drove off. Chances are good that he was NOT insured, but until he is found and investigated it is an unknown.
It must vary by state, or perhaps the laws have changed, because in a previous role I had to be very familiar with policies for a handful of states and if it was a hit and run and the person got away with it, it still went under uninsured/under insured.
I had a similar situation with mine, trail damage from a bumper hit, but I tweaked the bedside enough that it wouldn't open. I put a block of wood in the void below the right side of the tailgate above the rear bumper and gave it a few solid whacks with a 5 lbs sledge and it opens and closes fine and has factory body lines. I used a 1x4 iirc. it chipped the paint a little bit, but you can't see it there, especially after touch up paint.
I actually just did it now getting home from work. I decided to just give it a little more force and it gave way without doing any more damage but sounded like a gun shot going off at midnight. Idk how it diddnt wake the kids lol. So I have the magnum raptor bumper ordered and I really wanna get the willco tailgate but it would probably be dumb to put that stuff on before the body work because they will probably need to remove everything again to re paint the bed panel. I'm going to get a 2nd estimate Friday on my day off. Thanks for asking
That's interesting that it was so loud. Yours must have been more stuck that mine. Mine would have opened, but I didn't want to force it open and damage the paint. Luckily, none of the paint on my tailgate or bed was damaged.I actually just did it now getting home from work. I decided to just give it a little more force and it gave way without doing any more damage but sounded like a gun shot going off at midnight. Idk how it diddnt wake the kids lol. So I have the magnum raptor bumper ordered and I really wanna get the willco tailgate but it would probably be dumb to put that stuff on before the body work because they will probably need to remove everything again to re paint the bed panel. I'm going to get a 2nd estimate Friday on my day off. Thanks for asking
Im interested in that Wilco gate as well. Would you happen to know how hard it is to switcj back and forth? Id imagine im unplugging the current gate and unscrewing the mounting hardware. Looks like no electrical in the new gate.
Yeah it's seems pretty simple. I'm not sure how hard it is to swing back and forth as I only looked at the pictures. I can't find any videos on it. It sure is expensive though.
I did mess the up the paint on rear panel when I forced the tailgate down but I figured the whole side bed panel from the rear light , baseball sized ding and the ripple is gonna have to be repaired anyway so what's a little more body work at this point. So I guess I'm gonna order the willco gate today and I have the magnum bumper ordered already. I'm going to get a second estimate tomorrow on my shop of choice.
No, I didn't remove my tailgate. I Just whacked the bottom of the bedside under the tailgate/above the rear bumper on that side with a hand held sledge onto a 1x4 until the bottom of the bedside moved over enough that the tailgate would open freely. The wood deforms and minimizes the body damage, but I did it somewhere that you can't see and no one will ever notice. Then a few more whacks till it lined up correctly. The thing with metal is it has a memory so I had to actually knock it out a little bit further than I needed it to go and it shrunk back into line. Once again, I don't think mine was tweaked as bad as yours...
I think he was talking about the willco tailgate..
That tailgate is really cool. I wish there was a way that it sealed up.
I don't know if you got this answered yet... Not on my Jeep, but another vehicle: After an accident and after the body shop sent their quote to the insurance and was approved, I was able to work with the body shop to order and install a different grill only paying the difference in cost from the insurance estimate. Now adding additional items may incur some extra labor, but talk to the body shop. The shop guaranteed their own work, so we didn't bother telling insurance, and I don't think they needed to even know.
