Body work question (ughhhhhhh)

[IBallEngineer]

I feel compelled to correct some posts, but not going to call anyone out.

First of all, I have 38 years in the automotive industry, mostly in Autobody shops and 14 as a shop owner. I am currently teaching Autobody in Fullerton, CA (new gig). I'm not the final word, but I do know a few things. That gate is repairable, and a qualified tech could do so to the point you can't tell it has been repaired. That said, it is damaged beyond the scope of an amateur, if it is repaired leave it to the professionals.

In the shop, time is money, and replacing that gate is as time consuming as repairing it. Any 3rd gen gate would work, if you swapped out the internals. A new gate from Toyota is just a shell, all the guts and wiring would be swapped anyway. Really no different using a 97 shell, if you wanted to.

I can tell you if that was in my shop, I'd fix it unless the owner really preferred a new/used replacement.

By the way I have a dent in my right rear 1/4, been there since last year, haven't gotten around to fixing it. :noidea:

 

[octanejunkie]

[MENTION=102597]IBallEngineer[/MENTION] the cobbler's shoes always have holes [emoji23]

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[Mark_BC]

As luck would halve it I had a dent repaired in the same spot and I say yours is NOT repairable, realistically speaking $$$-wise. Take off the rear interior panel to get access to there and you'll see what I mean... there is a bracing bracket just inside that spot which prevents access to that part of the lift gate metal. I had mine fixed with a good paintless dent repairman, and he was sceptical he could do it at first. There was no way he could access it from the inside or from the window slot. The only way was to remove the license plate bezel and go in through the key cylinder hole. Search here for how much of a pain it is to remove that thing. Now, yours is in a slightly different location than mine so it might be more accessible but don't count on it.

I'd just look for a used one. Here are some before and after pics which are in Photobucket so you won't be able to see them unless you downloaded the Chrome thing:

 

[octanejunkie]

Getting this repaired soon. Should pull out nicely [emoji23][emoji23]

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