I'm fine. Insurance rates? Not so much. Truck? Well, I'll let the pictures tell the story. As my boss put it (remember, I work for the SVT program at a ford dealer) "It's not demolition. It's surgery. You'll be back driving it in under a week I bet. You know these trucks in and out and we both know it."

I didn't take a picture on my way out the door, but I have it down to the bare core support left, and all that holds it in is 1 bolt under the battery tray that I can't get to.

20130215_084351.jpg

20130215_091136.jpg

20130215_121033.jpg

20130215_121045.jpg

20130215_134818.jpg

20130215_134827.jpg

20130215_134837.jpg

 

It's a Dakota, not a Ram.... el oh el

 

Oh man magnethead you need to slow down some you smash your Dakota all to much.

That or you need new glasses?

Thats a good smash job

 

fell asleep at the wheel...1 mile from work. GRRR!

Dad said the same thing, thinks it's not worth it to fix.

Needs new radiator, core support, pass fender, hood, grille, and bumper. The accident was at 7:50 AM, got to work at 9:30, worked 2 hours, brought the truck in at 11:30, worked on it for 2 hours, went back on the clock, started back on it at 3:30 and worked till dad picked me up at 5:30. In 4 hours, I took it all the way down to the core support- not bad if I do say so myself.

If I can get a GOOD core support at the junkyard from a truck with the PDC/battery already removed on saturday, I can swap the core supports monday at work no problem, and that's 3/4 of the work. The fender is a bolt-on deal, ditto with the hood (and I'm not even gonna worry about the bumper for the time being). Needs a new radiator which isn't a problem, AC condensor is sketchy at best but I think it's okay.

 

Well it sucks, but at least you hit the right spot and minimized damage for the amount of impact. I'd definitely fix it if I were in you, with all you've done to your truck. Heck I'd fix it if it happened to my truck just cause it's really not a big deal (and I only have liability lol). You can have that done in a day or two once you have the parts.

 

liability here as well b/c insurance would have a heart attack LOL...but I bent his lift gate so that's gonna be on my insurance nickel. (Damage to commercial truck: not good to have on the record)

it's really not bad once I have the parts, right. Dad thinks it'll take 2 weeks, but he's hardly touched the truck. I have fingerprints all over it and know it's MAYBE till wednesday unless more crops up.

The washer bottle got smashed into the alternator pulley and tensioner, belt is wasted as is tensioner pulley, but alt pulley looks good enough to keep using. Washer fluid tank hose tip broke off so that's an obvious no-go, but that's minor in the grand scheme of things.

I figure if I can get a radiator and core support in it by monday or tuesday, I can drive without a pass side fender/hood/bumper enough to get around. If they have a fender I can take, even better.

 

dad says this truck is going to nickel and dime me. He doesnt even know what I've modded haha. My mom does, so her argument is "Half the stuff on the truck is new, or improved over stock! Just let him rebuild it!"

 

looking on carpart.com

$75 for a "blue" RH 2003 durango fender. Doesnt say if light blue or dark blue.

$145 for a black completely non-fog bumper assembly (my HID ballasts are no more, I need to post a picture)

Can't find a price on a core support, think that's going to be a walk-in thing since it's part of the truck itself

Can't find a hood either, would prefer black or my coolor...hoping I dont have to do the re-pro thing again. ditto w/ grille

radiator I'm going to order an OE replacement...

 

rockauto has the support one of these?

 

No junkyards around that have Daks/Rangos? What about good ol craigslist? Didn't notice your radiator was messed up too... When I had my lil fender bender in 2010 I somehow managed to bend the radiator, but it had no leaks so I just left it alone. Didn't try to bend it back and replaced the bumper and valence and that's it. Still got a dented hood, but I don't care lol. You can for sure get your repairs done in a few days. Everything that needs replacing is straight forward.