Paint gauge will show you how much paint is on the truck. I have one in my toolbox that is magnet based, but it'll show how many mils are between it and the metal. But I have a ton of experience with body work, out of necessity not especially desire to do body work. Its just the necessary evil you must swallow if you're going to drive older vehicles in the rust belt. Probably any body shop is going to have something to measure how thick the paint is.

The reason why its a gamble, is you have too many unknowns so your risk is high. Getting hit in the rear hard enough will push the driveshaft into the back side of the transfer case and cause potential drive line issues. I'd take it somewhere you trust for an independent inspection, sure it'll cost you something - but you are buying down risk.

If you really want a good truck you need to find something that someone has parked in the garage and drove it as a pleasure vehicle. They are out there, but usually you want to look outside the rust belt if you want that kind of thing. The best way to have a nice old truck, is to have bought it new and kept after it.




https://www.penntoolco.com/pro-gauge...hoCiVoQAvD_BwE

 

sorry if I wasn't clear, it wasn't a rear end collision, it was a T bone situation on the rear end passenger side I believe. that's what it looked like. so the driveline wasn't shoved all up in the transfer cases guts


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HOWEVER, I did the cluster check, and the Serv 4WD light doesn't light up, its the only light that doesn't. It doesn't come on to indicate that you've engaged 4WD either, but the 4WD does seem to work ok. I didn't notice any problems with what I could test but I couldn't get anywhere slippery and didn't want to bust up the transfer case on just a rainy road. so I could only test in a straight line on the gravel shoulder.