Accident of 1991 Chevy S-10 Pickup

On October 11, 2003 this truck was hit by a person backing out of a driveway.  The accident occurred on the Main Road in Hampden, next to the High School right across from the old fire station.  The truck was hit pretty square in the door, but parts of the fender, cab post, and rear bed were also damaged.

About a week later the insurance appraiser came, kinda looked at the truck and then left.  Later I found out he wrote an estimate for the truck for about $3000.  Since the truck was only worth about $2200, they wanted to total it.  However, there is no way I could replace this truck for that much, so I was able to work a deal with the insurance company.  About 30 days later we're now in the process of repairing the truck.  First was finding a door...

The door came off a 1994 Chevy S-10 Blazer.  It has power windows, door locks, and mirrors, all the things my truck doesn't have...well, it does now.  With the exception of the power mirror, which I'll probably sell on ebay (They sell for $200 new), I'll be wiring the door to work.  There be another web page for that project later...for now, onward...

As you can see, it appears to fit quite well, but in fact needed quite a bit of "massaging".  The lower hinge had been pushed in, the rocker panel pushed down, the cab pushed over, the bed kicked over and the striker post moved inward.  All these things were hammered and hit back into place and the door fitted just fine back into the hole.  The fender has quite a bit of damage and was replaced.  It could be repaired, but for the price of a used one ($45) it's just as easy to replace it.  It was starting to rot along the lip anyway...  The wood and bricks on the floor were used to pull out the rear cab post to help the door align better, which worked out quite well.  

 

Above are two pictures, the first of my nice wiring harness job, the second my new fender.  It too is off a 1994, this time an S-15 Jimmy.

I've removed the rusted fender.  The orginal "monkey" who previously did work on this truck did a nice little bodyman trick.  Where the lip had rusted, he just laid the body filler to it, and while it looked good, there was very little metal to be had.  The lower portion of the fender was damaged, and with the rust of that area of the truck, I'm glad to see it gone.

Here is a section of the A post.  This is just below the lower hinge and is one of the reasons for replacing the rocker panel.  When we removed the rocker panel, we must have pulled about 5 lbs of rust and dirt from the rocker.  Continue on by clicking the link below.

Continue on to Accident Repair Page 2

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