Bought a truck with some body damage...

I recently bought my '06 Tundra SR5 4WD with 165k miles. I love the thing. It is mechanically in excellent shape, and drives perfect. This is my first truck but also my first vehicle, as I have always lived in a city/in a country with great trains and no need for a car. I bought it with some fairly mild body damage, but recently took it four-wheeling (with no knowledge of what I was doing, and yes, I appreciate I am an idiot lol), and slid off a hill into a tree. I'll post pictures of when I bought it and now. I picked up a new driver's side fender off Amazon but need to get it painted. I bought the truck for $11.6k for a dealer. Does that sound like a reasonable deal?

Here's what I need help with:

1) Bodyshop said it's very difficult to paint metallic paint to make it fit the rest of the vehicle, so they want to do pretty much the entire driver's side which would cost $1500 (please note that I'm pretty much broke right now so this is just not an option. Is it even true what they said about the metallic paint? They are definitely trying to rip me off.

2) Is the other body damage even worth fixing? I bought myself a fix-a-dent repair kit with a glue gun and a suction cup dent fixer. Have so far tried the suction cup (hasn't really worked but didn't try for long), but not the fix-a-dent. I'm considering buying a set of special rubber/wooden mallets too. Has anyone ever done this/had any luck with it any of this home dent repair stuff? Again, I'm broke so I need cheap options. Also, if body work geeks could give me an estimate on cost of repair of the various parts to the cost of repair on the whole truck I'd be so grateful. Also, do you think the damage on my truck is possible to fix by myself?

3) I want to lift and modify my truck a bit too, has anyone got any advice on this? Should I fix the bodywork before I add the lift kit/levelling kit or do you think that the body work doesn't matter as much? What would your preference be? I plan to use this truck as a daily driver but also as my camping/adventure rig, so I'd definitely like to modify it at some point.

4) Levelling kit or lift kit? I don't want it ridiculously high, just a little bit. I heard levelling kits are more just for show than actually helpful off-road. Can anyone comment on this?

Thanks in advance for all your help, I appreciate this is a very long post.

Dan

Would you repair it?

 

Welcome from NY.

 

Dan I used to use cirtifit when repairing my older Toyotas, sometimes it's easier to replace a panel then repairing.

http://www.certifit.com/

 

If you plan in wheeling it more, dont paint it. Just touch up the bare metal and roll with it

 

Welcome!
1) I believe metallic paint can be a little more difficult to match, but a good shop should be able to get close enough without painting the whole side. Sounds like a rip-off...

2&3) You originally purchased a vehicle with prior damage, so I’d imagine absolute perfection isn’t a must. So I’d guess you could fix it as best you can and drive the hell out of it and still be happy.

3&4) If you are going to really off-road it, do it right. Get some quality shocks and set it where you like. Spacer lifts are not going to give you any other benefit than the look. Your ride and function will actually suffer with a spacer type leveling kit.

 

Daughter of an Auto Body Shop owner here. ‍♀️

It’s common to have to paint and blend into the panels on either side of the replaced/repaired panel, especially on older vehicles. Otherwise your one door will stand out from the others. The brand new paint will not match your existing paint that has fading and wear from over the years. It’s labor intensive removing, prepping, painting, and re-installing all these pieces, hence the cost invovoled. Not a rip-off. It just is what it is.

 

If you are going to off road it, get rid of highway tires

 

So you bought a truck with some character lines & took it out off roading. I'd say fix it yourself to good enough if you'll be going off-road again. If you want a pretty truck, pay the pro. Is that fender a bolt on? I've never looked. If it's bolt on, remove the lights, remove the fender & just reshape it from the backside so it doesn't interfere with the door. Touch up any raw metal, buff, polish, & hit the trails! Oh - better tires! And you can sell the replacement fender. Good luck.

 

Hey guys, thank you for all your replies and sorry for such a late update.

In the end I just bit the bullet and got a new fender, and got it painted by a pro. The colour is perfect and I can't see a divergence from the original paint, even in the sun!

I took the truck in to the garage for an alignment because when my friend and I fitted the fender, we noticed that the inner shoulder of the tire was severely worn. My friend (who is a mechanic) said it was probably an alignment issue, so I booked it in for an alignment. Turns out the problem is actually with the steering rack bushing, which is worn and needs to be replaced. There is also a slight leak in the steering rack, but this is minor. To replace the bushing costs in excess of $450. On top of that, I need to replace the front two tyres, but definitely don't want to keep the highway tyres anyway, so would rather upgrade to ATs this time round. Only trouble is I'm pretty broke right now. Has anyone got any suggestions for what I should do to cut cost without risking safety? Cheers.

 

You're going to toss those front tires anyway, so drive as is until you can afford to fix the bushing. Do that before or the same time you do the tires. Hopefully your mechanic friend will help you to replace the bushing for the cost of parts & beer.
Is there any warrantee that covers the truck / bushing? Since you got it at a dealer - maybe. Check your paperwork just in case.
If you learn to read tire date codes, you might try buying tires from a junkyard. I've done that when things were tight & the tires were fine for several years. Also, there is a used tire chain around here called Plan B Tires. Never bought from them myself, but they seem busy always.

Reading date codes:
https://www.tirerack.com/tires/tiretech/techpage.jsp?techid=11

 

If it's just the bushings that attach the rack to frame, do it yourself. It's doable if you already have the skills to replace a fender. Your mechanic buddy should help ya out. Let the leaky rack go for now if it just seeps. Dripping is a different story.

Not sure what size you have or want for tires but look for some some used tires on here or Craigslist. Or throw your spare on one front side and just buy one new one for the other front. Stick the worn one back under for a spare.

 

Guys, you are great! Thank you so much for your quick responses!

They quoted me something like $1600 to replace the steering rack, so it will have to be let go till it's more urgent.

As for the bushings, my mechanic buddy suggested I get another quote from somewhere else before he can find time to look at it. I'll take it in to check if I need an alignment and give them no information, and see if they find the same stuff. I do trust my garage as my father-in-law has been going there for over 20 years and knows them, but it's also their responsibility to tell me if anything is even slightly worn, as I guess it's a liability issue. The urgency of replacing the bushing will hopefully become more clear when my mechanic mate has time to look at it.

In terms of tyres, I'm looking for stock-sized all-terrains. I don't have a lift (and at this rate of expenditure won't do for the foreseeable future). I've been eyeing BFG ATs or Cooper Discoverers but they're really expensive (around $200 ea from my research), so the second-hand suggestion is a real good'n! I'll also consider getting another Michelin Highway tyre to replace the worn one for now.

The main trouble is, this all came at a really bad time (as I'm sure is always the case). I have a big road trip planned at the beginning of next month. My best friend from London is visiting and we're gonna do an big ol' road trip from Scottsdale AZ to the Grand Canyon, where we'll camp for a few days, ending the trip in LA where he'll fly back home. I'll then either drive 3 hours north to visit friends in Paso Robles for a couple of days, followed by a 9 hour drive back to Scottsdale, or just drive 6 hours directly back home. Before that, my wife's entire family is coming into town (this Sunday), followed by some friends of ours from Germany. Basically, I'm struggling to think of when I'm gonna have time to slip away and get this all seen to.

I guess I should get it done before I make the trip, as not doing it could be dangerous. But I can't help asking the question; how many miles do I have left with the truck in its current state before it actually gets dangerous? If I post a picture tomorrow is there anyone on here adept at telling how many miles are left on a tyre? I'd ideally like to stretch this out as long as possible due to time (and cash) constraints, but appreciate this is probably an idiotic approach to truck maintenance.

 

Thas quite a road trip with known bad parts.

Amazon has the bushings for 25 ish bucks. Watch a YouTube video on how to replace. You can do it with basic tools. I've done it, you might need some larger metric sockets, I think like 19 and 22mm. It's been awhile. But it's basic. Throw your spare on the worn side, worn one back underneath. Get aligned, 80 bucks max.

Boom - 80 bucks alignment, plus 24 bucks bushings, and a 6 pack of beer. For 110 bucks you're back on the road.

If you can afford the cost of the road trip gas money, you can afford this approach.

 

Excellent plan! Thank you, kind sir!

What are the bad parts? I haven't yet planned the route.

 

The rack on 1st gen trucks is easily doable in the driveway. $400ish will get you a new rack from RackDoctor and you can hit the bushings while you're doing it. Plan for an afternoon and you should have plenty of time.

 

And $200 a tire is par for the course unless you completely cheap out and get garbage highway tires. I spent about $900 total on mine. They've been fine so far.

 

Or you shop for deals. I got my Kumho AT51s on the truck for less than 500.

 

Welcome from AZ!

 

Chicks dig scars!

 

Sorry, I meant bad truck parts. Thought at first you were trying to make the trip with bad tire and bushings.