Got in a wreck, Now I have a suicide door ram 1500 :/

Disclaimer: Links on this page pointing to Amazon, eBay and other sites may include affiliate code. If you click them and make a purchase, we may earn a small commission.

LeeD

Senior Member
Supporting Member
Joined
May 14, 2020
Posts
191
Reaction score
177
Location
Humble, TX United States
Ram Year
2018
Engine
5.7 Hemi
On my way to work this morning the roads were pretty bad and while minding my own business a vehicle heading southbound lost it in the slush right Infront of me and I slowed up the best I could and turned right to try and avoid him and just clipped his rusted out POS 2005 Chevy Avalanche rust box. The driver door glass shattered and cut me up pretty good but luckily didn't have any stuck in my face or even worse in my eye. They removed a piece from my hand at the emergency room and that was it. The blood on my face looked like I just went 5 rounds in a UFC fight lol. After I came to rest in the ditch I had to climb out of the passenger side of the truck. I think my knee hit the plastic trim under the steering wheel and knocked it loose so I couldn't get my keys out of the ignition or open the door to turn the power off. The engine stalled after impact and I went into the ditch. Both left side of my new general Grabber arctic's were flat along with the damage in the picture. It sucked but could have been alot worse
I’m glad you made it out with as little injuries as you did!
 

Jeepwalker

Senior Member
Joined
Sep 8, 2017
Posts
3,136
Reaction score
3,329
Location
WI
Ram Year
2012 Reg Cab, 4x4
Engine
5.7 Hemi
Doesn't look that bad of damage actually. Might look bad to an owner, but having worked in crash-repair over the years, it looks like a pretty easy repair -- just from the pictures.

Strange how it pulled the door hinge right out of it's weld/bolts. That's the concerning part. It should have held better. Glad yer ok!! :waytogo:
 

mtofell

Senior Member
Joined
Mar 18, 2014
Posts
2,631
Reaction score
2,269
Ram Year
2014
Engine
Hemi 6.4
Doesn't look that bad of damage actually. Might look bad to an owner, but having worked in crash-repair over the years, it looks like a pretty easy repair -- just from the pictures.

Strange how it pulled the door hinge right out of it's weld/bolts. That's the concerning part. It should have held better. Glad yer ok!! :waytogo:

A buddy of mine had his door folded over like that once and it was never the same. They just couldn't get the door to align and close right. Have you seen/done these repairs and had it come out good? I never knew if it was just a crappy repair shop or once the doors get folded over it's impossible to get straight again. I know house doors much more than car doors and I know the smallest amount of slop on the hinge side gets magnified at the latch.
 
OP
OP
Rebob0510

Rebob0510

Senior Member
Joined
Feb 27, 2020
Posts
206
Reaction score
175
Location
Syracuse, NY
Ram Year
2019
Engine
Hemi 5.7
As all have said, glad you are ok! It's the classic tale of being to close for "conditions". But I personnal thing a vinyl wrap would look OK.
I was traveling northbound and the oncoming vehicle traveling southbound lost it and spun into my lane on a 2 lane road, I managed to swerve to avoid from hitting head on.
 
OP
OP
Rebob0510

Rebob0510

Senior Member
Joined
Feb 27, 2020
Posts
206
Reaction score
175
Location
Syracuse, NY
Ram Year
2019
Engine
Hemi 5.7
Doesn't look that bad of damage actually. Might look bad to an owner, but having worked in crash-repair over the years, it looks like a pretty easy repair -- just from the pictures.

Strange how it pulled the door hinge right out of it's weld/bolts. That's the concerning part. It should have held better. Glad yer ok!! :waytogo:

The door part is pretty wild to me, Both hinges are still attached to the truck and were ripped from the door. as he slid into my land and I turned right and the left rear quarter/rear bumper hit my headlight/fender and then just peeled the door back. I would have to think the area where the striker is had to take a severe impact seeing how its the only thing holding the door on. It popped the panel under the steering wheel off so im not sure if it moved the dash pad over or if I kicked it or something.
 

Socalramfan

Senior Member
Supporting Member
TOTM Winner
Joined
Feb 12, 2017
Posts
4,271
Reaction score
5,104
Location
Huntington Beach
Ram Year
2011 Big Horn
Engine
4.7
I was traveling northbound and the oncoming vehicle traveling southbound lost it and spun into my lane on a 2 lane road, I managed to swerve to avoid from hitting head on.

Your actions and having a solid truck without question saved your life and anyone inside.

Head-on collisions, or T- boning a pole very rarely turn out well.
 

CamperMike

Senior Member
Joined
Sep 11, 2019
Posts
418
Reaction score
460
Location
Peoria, IL
Ram Year
2018
Engine
Hemi 5.7
Glad you weren't badly hurt. I hope the repairs go smoothly for you.
 

smittyd174

Senior Member
Joined
Nov 7, 2022
Posts
137
Reaction score
111
Location
Halifax
Ram Year
2022
Engine
5.7 hemi
Glad you ok , never seen a door ripped off that way . Good luck .
 

Jeepwalker

Senior Member
Joined
Sep 8, 2017
Posts
3,136
Reaction score
3,329
Location
WI
Ram Year
2012 Reg Cab, 4x4
Engine
5.7 Hemi
A buddy of mine had his door folded over like that once and it was never the same. They just couldn't get the door to align and close right. Have you seen/done these repairs and had it come out good? I never knew if it was just a crappy repair shop or once the doors get folded over it's impossible to get straight again. I know house doors much more than car doors and I know the smallest amount of slop on the hinge side gets magnified at the latch.

Like I said, "From the pictures" it doesn't look too bad. But an experienced guy has to look at the details in person. Yes, I have done all manor of crash repair, and many times a window or door pillar, a cab section, frames, frontal areas would need to be 'tweaked' (pushed or pulled) back into place with a hydraulic ram system. I liked straightening quite a bit. Sometimes in terrible cases it makes sense to splice in a section, say a center door pillar section (new or used) if said section was damaged too bad. I've done street rod's roof chopping, sectioning, lot of quarter panel replacements on classic cars, frame sectioning you name it.

Just because one person's door was never the same after a pillar repair, doesn't mean none are never as good as new. Obviously that tech/shop did a half-a$$'d job. I worked at a smaller shop and treated every car/job like it was my own and did the work accordingly. Lot of these high production shops, the goal is to turn over vehicles as FAST as possible. Not that the techs aren't good craftsmen, but they have their hands tied by what labor hours 'the book' shows, and what the insurance company will pay ....and pretty strict adherance to those hours. So you might want to find a competent shop, maybe on the smaller side where they take a little more time to get it right if that's what it takes.

As for the fender, they'll put a new factory fender on. The door, ..they'll replace that with a new or possibly salvage unit. Contrary to common belief's there's several benefits to a used (but good) salvage door. It's already seam-sealed from the factory in the factory way ...has all the glass, track and all that which was *set* from the factory. A brand new door, OTOH ...shops don't tend to seam seal them as well (or even at all sometimes) and the push to cut corners on all aspects of door assembly and refinishing is there. That's the real issue. Re-using half-broken plastic clips, not gluing down weather strip as well as it could be, I could go on and on. But a good used door should have all that stuff in tact as it was from the factory. But then again, these days there isn't much to align on Ram door glass & tracks. It's all one modular bolt-in unit. But there are 50 other steps to short-cut, LOL. Doors and door jambs are a lot of work. Just let the shop do what they're going to do, and try to insist you get one of their better techs to do the job ...and it'll turn out fine. This is what shops do. It 'appears' to be a pretty straight-forward looking repair.
 
Last edited:

LOFSFIRE

Senior Member
Joined
Jan 15, 2013
Posts
152
Reaction score
46
Ram Year
2013 1500 CC Sport Copperhead Pearl & 2011 1500 CC Sport Black
Engine
5.7 Hemi w/ 8 speed ~ 5.7 Hemi w/ 6 speed
Ok this is my guess, the way the door was hit from the Chevy just hit at the right angle to start to peel it back. This is typically uncommon for the door to pull off that way it did. I would have expect just the outside skin to pull off with the way the two trucks hit. I do not believe the Chevy actually did all the damage. A lot happens in an accident, and some point in the off roading riding the bottom of the door dug into the ground. You can see the dirt in the second picture. This is most likely when the door became a suicide door. As for the hing the areas where the bolts ripped out are the weakest point of the hing. Please note when I say weakest, I only mean relative to the adjacent parts. All of these parts a very strong and have only increased in strength over the year. There is always one part weaker than the next...

Glad you were ok, good luck on the repair/ replacement process.
 

Ronald Nadeau

Junior Member
Joined
Aug 9, 2019
Posts
23
Reaction score
10
Location
Maryland
Ram Year
2016
Engine
Hemi 5.7
Hopefully had insurance and everything went smoothly. Sorry about the accident. As others have said, at least your ok.
 
OP
OP
Rebob0510

Rebob0510

Senior Member
Joined
Feb 27, 2020
Posts
206
Reaction score
175
Location
Syracuse, NY
Ram Year
2019
Engine
Hemi 5.7
Just got word from the insurance company and they are going to fix it. Got the estimate today and it was $11,800. There is a ram dealership down the road from where I work and I am going to visit with them tomorrow about the repairs
 

gofishn

Senior Member
Joined
Sep 12, 2014
Posts
5,082
Reaction score
10,130
Location
Iowa
Ram Year
2022 Ram 1500 5th Gen, Big Horn, 4X4, Crew Cab, 6'4" Box
Engine
hemi 5.7L, 345 cu in
Find the very best body shop you can find.
if it;s the Dealer, great, if not, Better for you to get the work done at best body shop in the area.
As mentioned, does not look that drastic, a repair, to me.

Now might be teh chance to get black bumpers and some hemi orange rallye stripes done.
 

GTyankee

Senior Member
Supporting Member
Military
Joined
Nov 2, 2020
Posts
10,059
Reaction score
12,600
Location
El Cajon Calif. 92021
Ram Year
2016
Engine
3.0 ecodiesel
I would definitely shop around for a good body shop

not many dealerships are doing major body work any more
my dealership sends everything out to a shop that i would not trust to do a repaint

The body shop that i use, does not look like much, but some of their work has been shown at SEMA

Nd9GcQJPEYAZltkikVNOFaDhsuI8YzTY4wdEMItzQ&usqp=CAU.jpg
 

Silver21Ram

Member
Joined
Sep 9, 2021
Posts
75
Reaction score
91
Location
Indianapolis, IN
Ram Year
2021
Engine
Hemi 5.7 etorque
As a 2019, it's going on 4 years old and with 77,000 miles.
I would get it fixed no where but a CDJR dealer and request all new OEM parts.
After that, I would go to a dealer where you are not known and see what kind of deal you can get on a new 2023.
I would make it a point to trade out and start over. Otherwise, you will never be able to look at your truck and not see that ripped out door.
 

retired

Votes republican and identifies as a he/him
Joined
Aug 19, 2020
Posts
2,172
Reaction score
2,778
Location
montana
Ram Year
2020
Engine
6.4
i swear if I ever get in a wreck I will make sure my truck catches on fire so they total it. No way would I want to have one fixed with that much damage. Make sure you get compensated for diminished value.
 

gofishn

Senior Member
Joined
Sep 12, 2014
Posts
5,082
Reaction score
10,130
Location
Iowa
Ram Year
2022 Ram 1500 5th Gen, Big Horn, 4X4, Crew Cab, 6'4" Box
Engine
hemi 5.7L, 345 cu in
I would definitely shop around for a good body shop

not many dealerships are doing major body work any more
my dealership sends everything out to a shop that i would not trust to do a repaint

The body shop that i use, does not look like much, but some of their work has been shown at SEMA

View attachment 509395
Agreed.

Body Shops tend to be a lot like Diners.
Small crappy looking ones tend to best ever.

That said, body shop I use looks new and is impressive.
BUT, it's the 3rd Generation, they learned at the knee of the Masters
then opened up their own places.

Do your research.
Great Body shops are out there and it don;t take much effort to find them.
 

Jeepwalker

Senior Member
Joined
Sep 8, 2017
Posts
3,136
Reaction score
3,329
Location
WI
Ram Year
2012 Reg Cab, 4x4
Engine
5.7 Hemi
New and used doors (and other body parts) each have advantages and disadvantages. I could go into a long boring explanation between the two ...as could probably a couple other guys here who've done plenty of jobs both ways. Generally it comes down to what the insurance company quoted the shop to do anyway. Check the quote. Usually it's less labor hours for a new door (from a refinishing standpoint), but they usually cost more. Factory doors are assembled, rust-coated the factory way. They're large ...and a good low mile door would be perfect, but will it get dented in the last 5 miles to the shop? Usually a new door that comes with a dent (a 'ding' is different), is easier to refuse. Just make sure they do a good job seam sealing it. That means softening the e-coat. And spend extra time on alignment. A lot of techs stop at 'good enough' not *Perfect*! (alignment).

Not that the factory panels were seam-sealed all that well from the factory anyway. The bead of seam sealer on my truck's tailgate didn't overlap the actual SEAM! That led to a couple minor rust spots. I removed all the seamsealer on the bottom edge, sandblasted what rust was there, re-coated the clean seam with a high-zinc primer, then repainted the area. The put oil in the bottom to prevent future rusting. Now it looks good again.
 
Last edited:
Top