So after the 10/26/09 accident that left my ram in a state of disrepair, some lady smacked me dead center of the passenger door in a ford escape. The truck has for the past two months been at Dutch valley auto works in lancaster pa for the repairs. It took them a long time to do the work but it was well worth the wait.

The main factors for the extremely long wait time were, getting the parts, and getting satisfactory parts, they attempted to buy parts from different aftermarket suppliers, the parts i needed were a new door, new cab side for the passenger side, and a new front fender and the front chrome pieces ie bug shield, the grille surround and the chrome part of the bumper. The door and fenders that they purchased had inferior sheet metal work and they overall were not pleased with what they recieved. therefore parts were shipped back and OEM parts from Mopar were ordered.

When all parts were in what they did was remove the entire interior from the truck and remove the busted sheet metal that is the door and fender, the cab was then removed from the vehicle and they modified a frame jig to hold the cab in place so that they could remove the floor and cab side, a new cab side was ordered from mopar as well as floor and was dropped and spotwelded back in just like factory. New door and fender were painted and put back on the truck. Cab went back on interior back in and then it was off to get the suspension work done, They found that the steering knuckle was a bit banged up as well as the lower control arm, both were replaced in addition to the wheel on the side of the impact.

I have pics that the body shop gave me of the entire process that I need to put on my computer and then post, I have yet to take any of the truck myself but i've been working like crazy. I'll hopefully have them up by tomorrow or monday. The truck looks fantastic their color match is amazing they had the paint mixed to the factory paint code specifications and it looks great. It's funny I can tell which panels were resprayed just from the lack of orange peel haha. I climbed under the truck to look at the new floor and it looks just like factory everything was undercoated just like from the factory and none of the welds are visible it was literally put back together just like a robot from chrysler would have done it. There is not a single rattle in the dash which is amazing because i've heard the horror stories from people that had dashes removed at dealerships only to be left with ridiculous rattles and such.

The total cost of repair came out to 13,918 and change. Which equated to 120 hours in body work on fixing the cab, 25 hours in paint, and 4 hours of work on suspension including the full alignment. which was about 6500-7000 in labor and the rest was parts, the cab side they bought was ridiculously expensive brand new it was like 2500 bucks by itself. we got lucky on the cab because the cab is assembled in multiple pieces and at first they thought they would have to just cut off the side and try and weld in a new one by making measurements. The cab is actually assembled in four pieces which allowed them to just drill out all the spot welds and such and the side that was bad just falls out, couldn't be better.

For such a ****ty thing to have happened I honestly got a truck back that is better than when it went there. all my door gaps are better, the hood alignment is way way way way better than factory, and the cab-bed alignment is now spot on compared to when I first got it. Plus their spray work was amazing. Drives like a dream no wobbles, no odd sounds, nothing it's like it never happened.

They treated me like gold with all this, every week either the owners, ken and jeff would call me or the project manager Bob would personally call my cell phone each week or twice a week with updates. If anyone needs work done to their truck Dutch valley is the place. I was just amazed at the facilities when I got to see it all, over 20k square feet of floor space with every tool known to man. I'm just so happy to have it back, i'm not afraid to admit it i cried when I got the truck back, I was just absolutely speechless.

 

good review. always nice to see credit given where its due. glad you got her back better than ever

 

they did an amazing job man, they fought hard for me with the insurance and I owe them a helluva lot. I was there with a meeting between them and the adjuster and the adjuster was like well we can get this and this used and ken was just like "um no we're not gonna do this, we do this my way and that's final" It was pretty amazing, altho nationwide really helped me out with this. the lady had minimum coverage and was claiming I ran the light and there were no witnesses so they paid for the repairs up front and they are going to try and get som reimbursement,

but again yea there is no doubt the truck is better than it was before. Their paintwork is amazing I'm just absolutely stoked about it all. They don't half *** anything and it's just amazing.

 

That's good to hear. It's nice to hear something other than a horror story for a change.
Cant wait to see the pics.

 

Put me on the list of people who are anxious to see the pics. Gald to hear it all worked out for you.

 

cant wait for pics and thats good they did a phenomenal job as long as your happy thats all that matters....good testimonial

 

yea man work is killing me i'm actually posting from work lol. Um probably tomorrow i was hoping to get out of work early today and take a few pics of it myself but well it's now 545 and i'm still here and it's dark now damnit....

 

Well, in this economy, it's good to have a job!!!

 

Nice review. Im glad you have your truck back and glad it worked out pretty good. too.

 

Like everyone has said, its good to hear a couple good stories coming out of these situations. I didnt have that same warm fuzzy feeling after my ordeal, but thats another story.

Tell work you need to take a pic break!!!!