Need Rear Pass. Lower Tail Light Assembly & Repair Advice Topic is solved

Post by **sleddriver** » 29 Jan 2018, 16:17

Was recently hit in the back, pass. side corner. Took out the lower tail light assembly, dented in the rear-facing frame an inch or so and put a large, shallow "dish" into the rear, pass. side, outer sheetmetal. The other guys small Honda SUV fared far worse. First timem to ever be hit in the rear in the sled!

Q1 is where to get a replacement tail light assembly for a good price?
Q2 is I think I can POP out the shallow dish by removing the interior trim and working in from the outer edge. Never done this before however.
Q3 The collision did blacken/scuff up a small section of the rear bumper. I can clean & respray that. I'll also do a small section up front.
Q4 Not sure how a pro body shop would pull out the dent next to the tail light cluster however. Appears to be a very strong/rigid section of the unibody.

Post by **misha** » 29 Jan 2018, 16:24

Q1 junkyard
Q4 professional body shops or professionals alone have a special tools for pulling out the dents.Might not be cheap though.
They grind the area,weld little hooks and then pull them out with hydraulics.When the dent is repaired,they remove little hooks,grind the area....prime it and paint it.

Something like this:

Post by **sleddriver** » 29 Jan 2018, 17:03

I may get lucky at a local yard. Planned on going there today, but something else came up.

WhatAmIDoing · Post by **WhatAmIDoing** » 29 Jan 2018, 19:42

What about this guy's insurance? They not willing to pay for a body shop? Hope you at least got a good check out of it.

When I bought the car, a similar incident had happened to the driver side taillight. Got a new taillight assembly from a upull for a couple bucks. Had a friend who worked for a body shop work out most of the dent. If I can get ahold of him, I'll ask what he did.

Post by **abscate** » 30 Jan 2018, 02:19

I've got part numbers And prices listed in my part out thread but a trip to a local PnO will beat shipping

skloon · Post by **skloon** » 30 Jan 2018, 09:34

The area under and beneath the tailight is a complicated layer of panels- I used a porta power and some rods to push out the metal- had to drill some access holes so that I could get the layers moving separately you may have to pull your bumper too

Post by **sleddriver** » 31 Jan 2018, 19:43

WhatAmIDoing wrote: ↑29 Jan 2018, 19:42 What about this guy's insurance? They not willing to pay for a body shop? Hope you at least got a good check out of it.

Fortunately, he did have insurance. However, he stalled for 1-1/2wks not returning their numerous calls (1/day) to admit fault, thus holding up payment to me.

Post by **sleddriver** » 31 Jan 2018, 19:49

abscate wrote: ↑30 Jan 2018, 02:19 I've got part numbers And prices listed in my part out thread but a trip to a local PnO will beat shipping

I saw a post from you re: a blue wagon. Is that what you're referring to? No part numbers listed however...

Update to all:
Very frustrating day today re: junk yards...that was exactly my experience of the people I encountered: Junk yard tatoo'd whack jobs. What a HUGE waste of time...in heavy traffic no less. What a bunch of twisted lug nuts....

Now that the $$$ has cleared, I'll be shopping on-line and have it delivered. I've wasted enough time as is....very frustrating

Post by **sleddriver** » 31 Jan 2018, 19:52

skloon wrote: ↑30 Jan 2018, 09:34 The area under and beneath the tailight is a complicated layer of panels

The area I'm referring to is on the outside edge of the lower, right tail light lens. I'll post a photo later. Must be a very strong area.

Post by **abscate** » 01 Feb 2018, 06:40

sleddriver wrote: ↑31 Jan 2018, 19:49
abscate wrote: ↑30 Jan 2018, 02:19 I've got part numbers And prices listed in my part out thread but a trip to a local PnO will beat shipping
I saw a post from you re: a blue wagon. Is that what you're referring to? No part numbers listed however...

Update to all:
Very frustrating day today re: junk yards...that was exactly my experience of the people I encountered: Junk yard tatoo'd whack jobs. What a HUGE waste of time...in heavy traffic no less. What a bunch of twisted lug nuts....

Now that the $$$ has cleared, I'll be shopping on-line and have it delivered. I've wasted enough time as is....very frustrating

I might have booted the part numbers on the larger parts. I’m positive I harvested both lights , top and bottom though

I’m away from stash until Friday , on the left coast