Danager

The part costs the same... What about the cost to remove to the old boxside, and install the new one? Screws and rivets instead of welding. What about the prep and paint time?

Jerry44

http://www.edmunds.com/ford/f-150/2015/long-term-road-test/2015-ford-f-150-aluminum-body-repairs-part-3-with-video.html

I'm impressed with the way it held up to that sledgehammer. I would love to see them hit their ecodiesel that way. I suspect it would do more damage to the ram. I watched my dad put a pretty good dent near that exact spot on his ram by accidentally hitting it with the handle of a large umbrella!

Its insane that the tail light cost over 800 dollars to replace vs. 100 dollars for the ttaillight without the blind spot sensor. they said the aluminum repair work was over 20 hours of labor and the normal price is 120 dollars per hour. 20 hours seems like a lot. I would have guessed under ten hours easy. Would have probably been almost as cheap to replace the whole bedside considering the part is a little under 1000 dollars. I guess those parts come ready to paint or can you buy body panels that are already painted?

Jerry44

http://www.edmunds.com/dodge/ram-pickup-1500/2009/long-term-road-test/2009-dodge-ram-1500-body-damage-repaired.html

They did have a sort of similar repair to their 09 ram 1500 when they rubbed the side of the truck against a concrete pole. that cost 2,291 to fix but affected multiple panels and appeared to be more of a scrape of the paint than a dent.

Eco-Mica

iTrader: (1)

watch part 2 nuff said. glad I got a 14'

GOBLUEJD

Did you watch? Cause "nuff said" isn't really justifiable and kind of the opposite of what the video explains.

Insurance - Not out of your pocket and this is where costs were more. And BTW my insurance has not gone up for a 2015.

Pay out of pocket (seems its the same as steel).


Also this was already posted above by Jerry.

twotimer

A little vague on the details of the body shop bill. I'm trying to figure out where the extra time in labor comes from? Aluminum panel vehicles are nothing new. Any quality shop has repaired aluminum panels before. In this case we are not talking panel replacement. We need to pop out a dent. There are aluminum dent pullers for that task. It makes easy work of it. Every thing else is standard issue supplies for a shop using quality products. All quaility body fillers, primers and paints adhere to aluminum. It sounds to me like they had their truck fixed at a shop that has not done aluminum repairs before. Looks like a Ford dealer body shop from the looks of the video. Folks, thats the last place you want to be for aluminum body repairs.Heck what was the last aluminum Ford before the F150? A cobra? lol. Find a good neighborhood shop and you will be just fine.

Truxs1

Go her to see all 3 parts of the story.
I really wish they would have done a side by side with a steel body truck so we can see what the damage would be like on both.


http://www.edmunds.com/ford/f-150/20...ith-video.html

68ss396

Sooooo. If you pay out of pocket the hourly rate is half? I'm sure the body shop still made profit or they would not have offered that rate to them. So why don't the insurance companies get the discounted rate to. Oh yeah that's right! Because the body shop would make even more profit off the insurance company. Make me wonder how many times and how often this **** happens. This is why our premiums are the way they are. If all customers, whether paying out of pocket or insurane received the "discount", our premiums would be less. Just goes to prove that when insurance is involved everyone sees $$$$$$$$. Doesn't matter if it's car insurance or health insurance. It's that consider insurance fraud? If any of us did this we would go to jail for fraud.

Nicklar

Never owned a steel car/truck/whatever that would take the sledge like the AL side panel did.

Don't bury the lead here- most people could live with a dent the size of what was left on the AL body- Do the same to a '14 and you are driving a hobo truck with a crumpled and crushed side panel.

Happy driving ! Make sure to park in the back far away from shopping carts and careless shoppers. Everyone likes a good walk into the store.

Truxs1

Check this video out.
You can't repair metal panels this way.
Yes it might take long but check out the work.