Just a little. I was at Lowes last night picking up some handrails for a
neighbors front steps and I backed up and hit the truck behind me. Now
before ya'll start raggin on me, I DID look and I did see the truck. What I
didn't see was that he had left his tail gate down. As I was trying to make
sure I didn't hit the Bronco parked next to me, I was alternately checking
the mirror and the front fender. I saw the truck in the mirror and thought
I had about 2 feet of room when WHAM! Uh-oh, this ain't good. I pulled back
into the parking spot and got out to check. Sure enough, the right rear
tail light lens was laying on the other guys tail light in about 5 pieces.
At least 3 of them were big enough to salvage with tape till I get a new
one. I shut off the truck and walk back up to the store. I run into 2 Lowes
employees doing loading detail and told them what happened and asked them
who I should contact. The one guy asked me which truck I hit and when I
pointed it out to him, he said "that's my truck." We went over and he
checked over his tailgate and told me everything was ok. He had a cover on
the tailgate made out of that bedliner hard plastic material so it wasn't
even scratched. I got home and pulled the tail light assembly out to assess
the damage. It appears I pushed the bottom of the tail light bucket in
towards the center of the truck slightly. The tailgate was sticking a bit
when I first opened it, so I removed the tailgate cable, put a block of
wood against the bed wall right there and hit it a few times with my hand
sledge. Tailgate now closes properly and I was able to partially reinstall
the light assembly. I think I blew out the reverse lamp cause it doesn't
work now. I did some searching on-line for some salvage yard parts and got
some good offers. Best one was from Houseparts in River Rouge, Michigan,
$25 +$10 shipping but I wouldn't get it for about a week with the holiday.
For $15 more, I got a local yard to get me a brand new one that I can pick
up on my way home from work tomorrow. I might have to figure out how to get
the lower part of the bucket pushed out to where it belongs. I suppose it
could be worse, I could have been turned just a bit more and I would have
ripped up the passengers side of the bed.
Ray Irons
Dover, DE
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