J Lent

I was sanding below my taillight on the lower bedside & saw some bubbles in the paint. I sanded deeper & found that that whole lower section of bedside was mud! I have been scraping it out all morning with a razor blade & the metal has some wave to it, but solid. I am getting rid of all the mud & going to straighten the panel with hammer & dolly. This truck was sold to me by a dealer who said "It was never in a accident & never repainted". I think I got lied to because as I was sanding, I saw silver, primer, silver, primer.....thats a repaint. Anyone think this could have been sent out the door by Dodge?

I'll try to get some pics boys.

DNRCustoms

no....way a factory job.... Either the dealer had know idea or they pulled a fast one on ya.... Sorry to hear about you'r luck... Good luck straighting it all out!!

ClayBob

Nope...thats been done after the factory. Long as the metals good, straighten it and nobody (except us) will ever have to know. The "bubbles" mean the repair wasn't done correctly the first time - so good catch. Sorry for your luck but a little body work done correctly with last forever.

torquefan

It's possible that the vehicle was damaged in transit, or on the dealer's lot, before it had ever been sold, hence no mention of it on a Carfax report or such. Manufacturers allow a small amount of damage to be repaired on a new vehicle. Any greater damage than that, and the vehicle must be sold at auction or as "used". It happens from time-to-time and the dealer you bought it from (I assume you bought it used) may have had no idea. If you were curious, you could probably buy a Carfax report on the truck and see what was on it.

J Lent

Good point. I got all of the mud out & it isn't to bent up at all. There are a few dips/dents here & there, but thats all. I don't see why the body shop would have built the mud up 1/4" thick? I pounded most of the dents out & now it looks very good. I don't think I'll need any mud to smooth it out, urethane primer should straighten it right up.

omlambu

And if the repair or accident was never reported by the police or insurance company it will not be in Carfax. My truck was obviously in an accident it left a crease in the front end coolers and you can see where the fan hit the rad and rear bumper was tore off. But, the dealer I bought from swore it was not in an accident or had any body work even though I pointed all that out to them. By the way, I got a Carfax and it was clean.

SIXSLUG

The dealers don't know anything about a used truck and won't tell you the truth if they did. When I sold my Jetta a few years back I told the guy who bought it that it had been in a 25 mph rear end accident and a limb had fallen on the hood. Repaired by a local reputable body shop known to both of us and he bought it w/o trying to beat me up on the price.

The joker I bought my Tahoe from told me he owned it since new and never had been involved in an accident. Well after my wife got rear ended again the body guy mentioned the work on the front end was well done ! I said what do you mean and he said the entire front end except for the hood was almost brand new. I was a little steamed. People don't have to lie as much as they do.

The dealer I bought from said the same thing, he didn't think my truck had been wrecked but said the original owner didn't mention anything but offered to contact him and ask. I didn't care I bought it anyway.

Dealers are shmucks.

Sounds like your truck was repaired in a hurry by the thickness of the bondo.

Kurt

rattlerbob5.9

Very common area for damage someone backs into something and bends bumper then the bumper tags box corner .
Usually not to bad to fix you have good access with taillight out and it is very open underneath.
Lots of mud indicates a cheap sleezebag repair or a quickie.

Silver R/T

paint stripper will remove bondo pretty well if you want to use that.

J Lent

Looks like that is what hapened, there was a dent which lined up with the bumper. There were also 6 dents in the lower panel behind the wheelwell. I was able to get in there really easily & pound them out though, well worth the time. There was some small rust pits behind the taillight also, I ordered some Picklex to take care of that though. I am going to have the bedliner sprayed on the inner side of the bedsides also....no more worries when I'm done.

J Lent

Yep, I used Permatex stripper & a razor blade...slicker than SSSSHHHHH.

Fueling around

I had a similar when buying our mommy van. Guy avoided the body damage issue even when ichecked with a magnet money clip. Years later, I ended up taking out the front end due to a icy road. Discovered the left fender was mostly bondo.

For the dealer; transport companies will frequently fix vehicle damage without reporting it. The same with vehicles going to auction.

Russ Roth

I have found a little bit of heat from a torch is a very easy way to get it all out.

J Lent

With my luck, the panel would warp. I am surprised about this issue. The guy did a good job on the paint, couldn't see where it was repainted. I'm just stumped on how he would use that much mud instead of doing it right. It only took me a few hours to straighten most of it out. I only did the parts I could get to, gonna finish the job once the bed is removed. I am in the process of changing the drivers side front fender, that is a job, lots of stuff bolted to that side. My wife lost my camera somewhere in our house, I think the baby got it...who knows where that thing could be? If I find it, I'll get some pics up for everyone. I'll post them under my thread "Painting my truck".

MRFD715

You guys are right about dealers "playing stupid" when they have a vehicle with damage. The truck I bought had obviously been in an accident and the people that repaired it did a very half rate job of it. The dealer tried to tell me it was a straight vehicle and showed me the "clean" carfax report but I could tell by the way he acted he knew there was something wrong with it. So after some words were exchanged and I basically told them they were trying to screw people I walked out of there with an 01 that had 50,000 miles on it for $12,000. It really irritates me that people lie about things like that because most people don't know what to look for and are just taking someones word. Anyway, glad it was a fairly easy fix J Lent, looking forward to seeing some more pics because after seeing the ones you have already posted it's really got me thinking I should repaint my truck.