Cindy's Do-It-Yourself Truck Repair

I did something really stupid yesterday. I took the dog with me when I went to pick Booie up from school. She rides in the back of the truck when we go places, and if it's nice out, I open the back window for her. It was pretty mild out yesterday, so of course, I put the back window down, never once thinking about the big-ass dent I put in the back of the truck until I heard a loud metallic popping noise and scraping sound. I stopped the window, but it was too late. It wouldn't go back up. So I thought I'd try putting it all the way down and give it a running start. Luckily, that wasn't an even dumber move. It did make it back up to the previous stopping point but no further. I tried countless times, praying that just one time it would work. Nope. Wasn't gonna happen.

I was fearful the predicted cold and rain would come early, because I had no choice but to be out and about yesterday. Booie had dance school. I had to go to the grocery store. Hammy had soccer practice (My God, I am a soccer mom. Ack!). Luckily, Murphy must have been out to lunch, because his law was not at work for once. It didn't rain until we were tucked in bed that night.

There is no way we can afford the repair right now, so I was going to have to see if there was some way to fix it enough to get the window back up. In between the grocery store and the soccer practice, I took it upon myself to find a way. With Hammy assisting, I went to work. I looked through the owner's manual to no avail, but I was being a good girl and checking it first, like they always tell you to do. Since I didn't want to take John's advice and call the dealer for information (I was too embarrassed), I grabbed a flathead screwdriver and tried to pop off the back interior panel. It came right off! Under that was a metal panel screwed in, so I unscrewed that and voila!, access to the window and outer panel.

I thought I could brute strength the dent and just pop it back out, but I wasn't thinking. It took a piece of wooden fence and a couple tons of force to push it in. Despite all my talk about tonnage in regards to my weight, I don't actually weigh anywhere in the ton range (thank God), so that wasn't working. j went on a mission to find the hammer, since we never put anything away in our house, but couldn't find it. (I later found it sticking right out in one of the places I told him to look. Kids!)

While he was searching, I tried a screwdriver wrapped in a towel so as not to make the dent look worse by having an outward dent in addition to the inward dent. That didn't work either though. I needed more leverage. Then I spotted the broom. With the towel wrapped around the end of the handle, I pushed up as hard as I could, and sure enough, a big part of the dent popped out. I tried to push my luck a little further and get some more of the dentage out, but that wasn't going to happen. I was lucky to get what I did.

With a large part of the dent pushed back out, the window was able to move up and down like a champ. I took what I could get and screwed and popped the panels back in place. Now we have a usable back window again, thanks to my stupid mistake in the first place. And the dent doesn't look as bad, but it's still there and still not pretty and still needs fixed. No amount of dent fixing is going to repair the cracked and peeling paint either, so there is still work to be done, and I'm afraid that isn't covered under the do-it-yourself plan. Too bad.