Good To Be Back On The Forum

SparkySparks · July 26, 2011

So I have spent a little time away from the forum for the past month and its good to be back. I got married July 2nd so leading up to that and the honeymoon and getting caught up with work things are finally getting back to normal. That was the good, now for the bad.

Two days before the wedding I'm out with my grooms men and we are picking up our tuxes and some cigars. When we headed back to my truck I noticed the passenger side rear bumper was pushed in and touching the bed of the truck. I thought no big deal I will just pull it out and deal with it after the wedding (it was dark and I couldn't see how much damage was actually there). I pulled it out and it was mostly straight and we went on our way.

When I got home my buddies pointed out the bumper was raised up a little still so I took another look at it and noticed a dent in the sheet metal where the bumper touched and a deep scratch in the paint. The passenger side of the bumper was also higher in the middle of the foot pad. At this point I was getting really mad but had a million other things to do so I just let it go for the time being.

I had a guy coming to detail the truck and he spent 5 hours going over the truck and did a great job. In the middle of him doing the detail I get a call from my (then) soon to be wife that her car broke down. I grabbed my buddies keys and went and got her. When I got back the guy detailing my truck told me not to open my tailgate. He walked me around and showed me how the corner of the bed was pushed behind the tailgate. We also noticed that the side of the bed had ripples in it now.

After the honeymoon I called up my insurance and reported the claim and they made me take my Chevy to a Ford dealer ship for the estimate. To add further insult they put me in a Ford F150 so every time I start the truck I get greeted by a message "F150 BUILT FORD TOUGH". I figured some of you might want to know about the truck. It drives ok but making sharp turns it sounds like the front end is going to fall off. It has a 5.0L V8 with 3.55 open rear and will spin the tires (or should I say tire). I will say it feels a little more peppy (more so because you hear the tires but thinking about it my truck seems to accelerate faster) then my 5.3L with 3.43 rear, the Ford does fall on it's face shortly after you floor it.

I should have my truck back this Wednesday or Thursday and in talking to the shop I might have the black plastic under the chrome in the front painted to match the truck. The shop said $100 to do it but they didn't want to because they couldn't warranty it for life like they do everything else (not sure why, maybe because it is plastic or because it is on the front of the truck). The shop did say they had some new adhesion promoter they wanted to do some test painting with so I might get it done for free cause of that.

I know everyone wants pictures, I will try and get some and post them up.

SparkySparks · August 8, 2011

Just an update (and yes I know I need to add pictures still), I got my truck back and had a few things still wrong. There was a hard line in the base coat so they have to sand it back down and repaint it. It also looked like they got some paint or something on my bed liner and they used paint thinner and a scrub brush to try and clean it off so now my bed liner looks like crap on the passenger side. The shop is going to have the liner redone so I guess it isn't that big of a deal but just sucks it happen in the first place. I think the worst part of the whole thing is the bumper still isn't right. The passenger side is about an inch closer to the truck then the driver side is so they most not have replaced the bent bracket or they didn't adjust it correctly when they put it back together. The shop did say they will take care of fixing everything and I get a lifetime warranty on everything, just hope they can get it fixed right this time. The shop did do a great job of matching the paint.

I finally got ahold of the pictures before the work was done so I will try and post them when I get home along with pictures of how it looks now.