Wish i had the ability to post pictures,you guys would get a laugh out of the damage I did to my stedside's drivers side fender and the 6" channel iron bumper I only had on the truck a few days and never even saw the street ..
I was plowing my driveway after a 2 foot blizzard and I was backing up after making the first and most difficult important pass,this was when I still had cataracts and Mr.Magoo had 20/20 vision compared to me 2 years ago,especially while snowblind !..the truck drifted into the bank of snow I just plowed aside while backing up,and the plow caught the snow,and started pulling the truck deeper into the bank of thick wet snow--
..to avoid being sucked up and over it and getting hung up or high centered,I cut the wheel and gassed it..it started pulling away like I wanted it too,but not before I whacked the telephone pole in the lawn that the power and phone wires hang from ,theres a long span from the house to the street..the truck kind of glanced sideways off the pole,didn't feel like that hard of an impact,being snowy it slid pretty easily..
When I got out to survey the damage,I was shocked to see the bumper folded neatly at a 45 degree angle ,kinked right where it bolted to the frame,luckily no frame damage,I thank the reese reciever hitch I'd just installed not long before that for probably making the frame beefier...
The tail lamp and license plate was danging by the wires,ripped em right off,and the plate was mangled up badly,and the stepside fender now sports a 20" long imprint of the poles half circle outline, deep into it,right the body line on it of course!..--there aint no sense in trying to beat it out or pull ot either,it'll only make it look much worse..fenders were all patched up around the fuel tank doors anyway..
I think a few dents add charecter,and I'm no body man,I suck at fixing dents..I'd be better off welding another sheet metal skin over the dent or using a few gallons of bondo to fill it than trying to remove the dent..
I was thinking about putting the flatbed on this truck anyway,the stepside beds wood is rotten and my foot went thru it,plus the steps are all patched up with old DZ running boards so they wont fold over when I step on them..I dont much care for the dinky bed size,you cant even fit a riding mower in it..the flat bed has an electric crane too,that I could use a lot..it'll need a new floor too though,and its rusted from sitting in the woods for 8 years..but its a hell of a lot more solid and usefull than the ugly 8 foot stepside bed is..
The roof on my truck is boned too,it has at least 1" thick bondo popping off it all the way across it,it appears to me a tree fell on it before I got it and someone used a 5 gallon pail of bondo to "fix" it...so I think I'll just let it be!..maybe do the bed swap,if I keep it longer--but the rest of it is not in good shape either,its borderline as to whether its even work keeping at all really now..
My Suburbans body is starting to pop at the door bottoms now,and the rockers are getting punky under the doors,the thing was rock solid when I got it 4 years ago--pnly has one dent in one front fender,and I have a decent tail gate to replace the rotted original one..rear quarters are rotted on the inner liners,so it wont be long before the wheel arches have rot too I suppose..its sat 4 years already,but on tar,so at least its not getting condensation rot..I learned the hard way to never park anything on dirt or grass here,unless you want it to rot away in a few years..