Repair or Replace?

JimInRadfordVA

Original poster
Member
Feb 29, 2016
195
Radford, VA
I was abour 450 miles away from home on Easter weekend on the way to visit my younger daughter. Stopped overnight in a hotel. Came out the next morning to this:
88299
An Uber ride to Home Depot for supplies and I was back on the road in about an hour and a half. Now I need to decide what to do about the dent in the tailgate. Normally, I'd just live with it, but the crease has opened up the area behind the license plate assembly and I'm concerned about water intrusion. I'm open to suggestions.
 
  • Sad
Reactions: Blckshdw and Matt

tak13

Member
Apr 2, 2019
14
NH
If you can just live with the dent itself, you may be able to get by (at least for awhile) with Flex Seal spray or Flex Tape, or even just push/pound most of the dent out then use the aforementioned product(s). No, I'm not affiliated with the company.
 
  • Like
Reactions: mrrsm and Mooseman

Mooseman

Moderator
Dec 4, 2011
25,257
Ottawa, ON
It all depends on your tolerance of seeing that dent. All the above ate good if you don't care about the looks. If you do, then trying to find a replacement of the same colour would be a good option. You'd need the help of a couple of burly guys though.
 

tak13

Member
Apr 2, 2019
14
NH
I forgot to mention in my post about the Flex Seal (spray or tape) - it would look better if you can do it on the backside of the gash. I haven't used either product myself, but heard that the tape grips pretty tenaciously once applied (I would clean the surface of course - despite the claims of the commercial).
 

JimInRadfordVA

Original poster
Member
Feb 29, 2016
195
Radford, VA
Thanks, folks. Looks like I'll go in from behind and pound it out. I ain't picky about looks.
 
  • Like
Reactions: mrrsm

Blckshdw

Moderator
Nov 20, 2011
10,665
Tampa Bay Area, FL
What happened? Did someone hit you, or did the wheel chair carrier fail on its own and cause the damage?
 

JimInRadfordVA

Original poster
Member
Feb 29, 2016
195
Radford, VA
What happened? Did someone hit you, or did the wheel chair carrier fail on its own and cause the damage?
Carrier was in the full upright and locked position, mounted on the back of the TB. Some jackwagon ran into the back of it, sheared the lift off the mount and smashed it up against the rear hatch. Said jackwagon then left without so much as a "Sorry." I have to imagine that he had some gnarly damage to the front of his vehicle.
 

mrrsm

Lifetime VIP Donor
Supporting Donor
Member
Oct 22, 2015
7,639
Tampa Bay Area
This video shows how a Professional Dent Repair Technician uses what looks like one of the Specialty Hammers and some prying for leverage on a GMC Lift Gate with similar damage to your own. He is using a small Fluorescent Lamp in order to better see the metal curves and contrast as he works a little at a time while tapping with a Hard Rubber Hammer end to coax things back into place... and all without requiring an Expensive Paint Job. This work actually looks very 'Do-Able' by anyone with basic tools and some decent mechanical skills:

 
Last edited:

JimInRadfordVA

Original poster
Member
Feb 29, 2016
195
Radford, VA
This video shows how a Professional Dent Repair Technician uses what looks like one of the Specialty Hammers and some prying for leverage on a GMC Lift Gate with similar damage to your own. He is using a small Fluorescent Lamp in order to better see the metal curves and contrast as he works a little at a time while tapping with a Hard Rubber Hammer end to coax things back into place... and all without requiring an Expensive Paint Job. This work actually looks very 'Do-Able' by anyone with basic tools and some decent mechanical skills:

Definitely more finesse than my 2x4 and a BFH approach! Thanks.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Blckshdw and mrrsm

Sneakycyber

Member
Oct 30, 2017
23
Ohio
I always wondered what happened on my Trailblazer in its previous life. I have the exact same type of damage on the lift gate and could never figure out how they hit that spot and not the bumper. I used a piece of wood, some socket extensions etc to make it a little more presentable.
 
  • Like
Reactions: mrrsm

Reprise

Lifetime VIP Donor
Supporting Donor
Member
Jul 22, 2015
2,724
Stopped overnight in a hotel. Came out the next morning to this:

That pic alone is good evidence that that happened on hotel property.
Did you -
Inquire with the hotel about whether they would cover the damages (doubtful, but doesn't hurt to ask)

Or...

Ask them if they have security cam footage from their lot area?


If you have handicap plates or placard, you might have garnered some goodwill from the hotel (again, doubtful, but worth a shot).

As an aside...love your '00.0' decal. I always wanted to design / sell one of those, until I found out that they existed for a long time beforehand. :duh:

On edit - in addition to the flex tape, I'd go for some JB Weld on the underside, followed by the tape. The tape isn't 'permanent' (in spite of the guy on TV saying it is). Now that I think about it, a butyl tape might fill the bill after the JB Weld - there's a version called 'Eternabond' that RV owners use on their roofs - it's guaranteed 10yrs, and I've *never* seen anyone posting that it 'failed', on the sites I frequent. Actually, the opposite - people want to remove it, and it's very hard to do so.
 

Forum Statistics

Threads
23,273
Posts
637,486
Members
18,472
Latest member
MissCrutcher