DANG! Got rear ended.

[rockymountain]

On the way back to work from lunch I got rear ended. Pushed in the tire a little bit. You can see the crease in the tailgate. Hopefully it will fix up ok.

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He got the worst end of the deal, although his car is a POS anyway. Kind of added more character to his.

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Anyone been here before? I'm sure I'm not the first.

 

[Marlon_JB2]

Been there before. Although not in a KJ, in another vehicle with a rear mounted spare.

New tailgate and all was well.

 

[maverick7321]

No fixing the tailgate had someone hit mine and the only fix for it because of the tire carrier is a new tailgate sorry to say. Mine looked just like yours.

 

[bmrrwolfe]

Mine looks like yours, but i bought it this way..
Someday i may replace the tailgate when i find a cheap enough one

 

[rockymountain]

It is just barely bent in I hope they can pop it out. It closes fine still. Seems the same as before when I open and close it. I'll see what they say tomorrow. If they try putting aftermarket on I'll just say no thanks...

 

[rockymountain]

Crap! I take that back. It opens hard. Seems out of adjustment around the latch.

 

[loves_off_roading]

I'd say your KJ won. That shouldn't take to much $ to fix up.

 

[Clyde Frog]

Looks like his front end will buff out

 

[kb0nly]

New tailgate, only way to fix it i hear... We have seen this a few times on here and other forums now, always seems to get the tailgate replaced.

Look at this way, you got a ripple in the tailgate, and it sounds like its not lining up perfect because of it making the latch stick, but the other guy got it much worse! LOL

KJ 1 - Car 0

 

[kj924]

Too bad the KJ got wrinkled up because of someones inattentiveness.

How fast was the other person going? and were you stopped?

 

[rockymountain]

Too bad the KJ got wrinkled up because of someones inattentiveness.

How fast was the other person going? and were you stopped?

Well, he was tailgating to say the least I remember looking in the rear view mirror while going 50 MPH and not being able to see his headlights. Everyone started to brake because of those things they call RED LIGHTS. Traffic stacked up really fast. He couldn't brake as fast as me I guess. I think my KJ out braked the stratus/cirrus whatever the heck it was. I would've hit the person in front of me if I hadn't braked so hard, yet I didn't skid and I do NOT have ABS. I have braked twice as hard as this before. I think he was going approximately 10 MPH faster than me when he hit. I think I was still going a little less than 10 MPH when he hit. I almost made it to the exit ramp I was headed for, but I didn't get there in time. Another ten feet or so and I could've turned.

 

[max pain]

That's exactly why i took off my spare!

There's the rear bumper for these occasions!

Hope you get everything fixed.

 

[ms5490renegade]

mine did the same thing. got hit by a buick regal. dented the gate from the spare tire. that was it

 

[rockymountain]

I would really like if the spare was higher. Wait nono.gif then the glass wouldn't open. Nevermind. I'm gonna call my neighborhood junk yard to see if there are any KJs that I could get a gate off of. I would like to know; what is it with the gate that makes it unrepairable? It can't just be pulled back out? Anyone know?

Thanks!!

 

[kb0nly]

It's because its more structural than a door panel or otherwise. The braces and such inside so it can take the weight of the spare on it. The last time i saw a KJ in a shop with a crunched tailgate i asked the shop and they said "that little ding gets you a new one", when i asked why they said because even if they straighten it out you will see imperfections, and any filler used will crack as the panel flexes from the spare tires weight.

In all honestly yours isn't that bad at all. I would see if a little adjustment on the latch would get the door operating fine again, did the spacing on either side of the door, the gap between the tailgate and surrounding panels, change at all? If you can make it work with some adjustments i would just leave it unless it really bothers you. Doesn't look like its noticeable unless you look behind the spare anyway?

 

[jeepskate]

My wife got rear-ended when the KJ was still brand new. It was on the freeway and traffic was moving. There was no braking or slowing. The other car just rammed her for no obvious reason. When she told me, the only thing I could figure out is they were either completely drunk or were trying to get her to stop so they could carjack her. This was 2001 and the KJ was still a head-turner at that point. She moved over but kept going to get off the freeway and they took off. Damage was a little worse than yours, the bottom edge of the tire got pushed in all the way to the bumper. Our insurance took care of it. New OEM gate and everything was good.

 

[rockymountain]

got the estimate from the Progressive guy today. The other driver has progressive. 534.50 is the total.

He mentioned that there is a beam inside and if that is bent then it gets replaced. otherwise they fix it. Well, it must be bent, I don't know how it wouldn't be. It moved, so its bent right? Anyway its just an estimate and it isn't written in stone. It can change at the discretion of the body shop. It is a good body shop too. My friend's Dad runs it. I'll put a couple bugs in his ear. He'll take care of it. The nice thing about him is that he is collision oriented. There are many body shops that aren't. He takes into account all the physics that apply to a collision and will repair/replace things you would never think are effected by the collision. I take it in Monday and get a rental. Progressive seems to be taking care of me pretty good. I've never dealt with them before.

 

[maverick7321]

They originally estimated mine at $1400.00 but it wound up costing $2326.65 to get it fully repaired and like new and mine looked almost identical to your just the spare was pushed in abit further.

 

[Marlon_JB2]

Don't get your hopes up so quickly about Progressive.

All I gotta say. Stand your ground, be prepared to fight cuz you could quite possibly be in for a long drawn out battle to get your vehicle repaired properly.

 

[rockymountain]

Don't get your hopes up so quickly about Progressive.

All I gotta say. Stand your ground, be prepared to fight cuz you could quite possibly be in for a long drawn out battle to get your vehicle repaired properly.

Yea, I realize that. I'll have my game face on. Oh, and I did call my local junk yard and they have a Liberty there and a tailgate, so I could go that route.