What is the best way to pull this out? A nice lady rear ended me in a parking lot. I'm reasonably handy and have access to most tools. Had planned to drop the tank to remove the rear bumper shocks this winter anyway. All lights are operational thankfully. Should I bite the bullet and pay someone to do it?

you will need a porta-power (hydraulic jack set). don't worry about the bumper at this time. you will need to remove the fill tube and tail light. use lots of support on the back side of the jack (equal and opposite forces. you want one end to move and not the other). Look at the dent and think about what pushed it to get it where it is and use the jack to reverse it. 2x4s and other wood are your friend. This is nasty as it did some very tight damage. Expect to use some bondo. What will take you 3 days to do as an newbie, a good body man will do in a couple of hours.

I am not a body man but I know that the sheet metal for these cars is available. I would think you would get a better end result by cutting out and replacing the damaged metal all together. You can get the panels new or find a doner at the junk yards.

It wouldn't hurt to get a body shop estimate. At least you can compare those dollars to what tools you'd need to rent or buy.

If you ever wanted to learn auto body work, this would be a good opportunity; the damaged area is easy to get to and does not have a lot of long, flat surfaces.

Might this be a good time for a full respray? You or the shop could correct any other damage or corrosion.

VanillaThunder wrote:What is the best way to pull this out? A nice lady rear ended me in a parking lot. I'm reasonably handy and have access to most tools. Had planned to drop the tank to remove the rear bumper shocks this winter anyway. All lights are operational thankfully. Should I bite the bullet and pay someone to do it?

The "Nice Lady" who rear ended you should be having her insurance company paying 100% of the cost to have a reputable body shop of you choice fix it for you to your complete satisfaction giving you a warranty of some years on the work.

I would think it would be easier to weld in a replacement panel from a parts car. I am about to cut those very pieces off a car destined for the crusher.

DieselSpider wrote:The "Nice Lady" who rear ended you should be having her insurance company paying 100% of the cost to have a reputable body shop of you choice fix it for you to your complete satisfaction giving you a warranty of some years on the work.

I agree. Here, the nice lady's insurance would be paying for the repair. One thing might happen though being an "older" car is here the insurance might ask you to find and purchase any parts required and you would be reimbursed.

I can't see how you have to worry about it if someone else pranged your car.

Something to watch for if insurance gets involved. If it takes a couple of thousand dollars of shop work to fix the car and the car is only worth a few thousand the insurance company will total it. The repair estimate only has to get close to the value of the car - especially a low value car - for that to happen.

In that case you either get some cash and lose the car, or you get some cash, buy the car back and now have a car with a salvage title.

At this point I've been paid by her insurance co, a total of about $2k. Sadly had an emergency and needed to use the funds for another reason. I had planned to send her in for body/paint work anyway, so I think I'll have the shop do it properly. I'm all for learning but I think this is out of my wheelhouse. Part of the settlement included $305 for the tail light, but I just replaced the board and it's fine. If I can just score the plastic, I'll be good to go. Thank you to all for the replies!