2016 XLT. Bought it a couple months ago and have been in love with the truck. Unfortunately, this weekend at the girlfriend's Thanksgiving get together, a tree jumped out of nowhere and gave the tailgate a pretty good shot. (They're bad this time of year in GA) This is my first time dealing with the aluminum and I know much has been said about the repair difficulty compared to steel. Thoughts on how to proceed? PDR? Dealer repair? Buy a new tailgate altogether? Pictures attached. Much appreciated for the help, everyone. I've enjoyed reading through the forums the past couple months. Lots of knowledgable people on here.

 

good pdr guy might be able to get that out.

I had a small dent in my tailgate the dipstick salesman put in it when he left his cordless drill on the rear bumper and then popped the tailgate.

Their PDR guy got it out and you couldn't tell it was ever there.

That's a bigger dent but I'd think a good PDR guy could get it out unless there's a wrinkle in it.

 

Side note - pdr guys work on aluminum all the time - most hoods are made of aluminum - and I have seen some pretty crazy hail damage taken out of an aluminum hood in a Subaru Forester when I worked at a car dealership long ago in a galaxy far far away.

It's harder to work on probably because it's softer so if they aren't used to doing that it could be problematic but I would think an experienced guy could make that look purty again.

 

Definitely check into PDR. You could even go to the local dealer if they've got a PDR guy. He would definitely be used to working with aluminum. They took out a couple of hail dents when I got my truck that they had missed. Knocked it out while I finished up paperwork.

 

Purty is what I'm going for, Mike. Haha. I've reached out to 2 PDR guys. One turned me down and told me a body shop is my only hope. The other guy said he's pretty confident he won't be able to help, but I'm more than welcome to make the 45 min drive to come see him!

I'm still somewhat hopeful. As you said, I've seen some pretty amazing things done with PDR. Just starting to doubt if there are any in my area...

 

Were the dents they fixed on your hood? Worried that mine being on the tailgate will be an issue

 

Previous truck had dents fixed in the door. This truck had 2 in the pillar between the rear window and the passenger side rear door, close to the roof. Then there was one next to the windshield (like literally to touch the dent with your finger you were touching the windshield). The only thing that may be an issue on yours is the size. Location generally isn't a problem.