Tree Fell on Truck. Looks bad. Advice?

[Red Merle]

So do you ever have one of those days where it just feels like you have a black cloud above you? I am two thirds of a way towards a decent country music song here. My gal up and left last night and this morning I woke up to the city boys pulling a sizeable section of a maple tree off my beloved Tacoma.

My homeowners insurance told me to pound sand and I have auto coverage with them, but I don't do comp and collision because I drive like an old man and they won't pay out what the truck is worth because KBB doesn't understand the Toyota Tax.

So what do I do? I will file a claim with the city, but I am guessing that will be tough sledding and I will end up just having to eat this.

The truck is a 1997 Toyota Tacoma, 5-speed, ext cab with cruise control and AC, 2WD. They never sold these in the upper midwest and I found this one that had been imported from AZ 6 years ago. I paid $4500 for it but it's much nicer now than when I bought it. 100% rust free, body had no damage beyond an old slightly mismatched respray from a previous fender bender that must have gone unreported. Runs perfect and I had planned on keeping it forever since they are so hard to find, period, much less in this condition. I also have a sweet set of snow tires mounted on separate wheels.

I have no money for any real bodywork and paint. Should I try to get the windshield out and bang it back somehow and hope I can get a windshield in there somehow or should I just part it out?

Man, what day. Hopefully my dog doesn't die to finish up the requirements for that song.

I know this isn't 80's Tech, but I trust you guys and I have never found the Tacoma forums to be as thorough as you guys are. Any advice would be appreciated.

 

[BILT4ME]

Should be moved to chat, but we can still reply.

Challenge the city on this. If it is THEIR tree, then they owe you for the damage.

If they, or another company was in the process of dropping the tree and dropped it on your truck, then it is the tree cutter's liability.

if it is YOUR tree and the city was picking it up after it happened because it was blocking a roadway, then the Homeowner's insurance will pay for REMOVAL of the tree, but not replacement or damage to OTHER property, other than the home.

Car insurance pays for cars. If you don;t have collision, comprehensive, then you're SOL unless the earlier situation mentioned with the city or another company doing it.

Maybe include a couple overall area pics with the tree and such on the truck.

Otherwise, pound it out, find a cheap body man to straighten it enough to replace the windshield, and drive it for eternity.

 

[Red Merle]

Should be moved to chat, but we can still reply.

Challenge the city on this. If it is THEIR tree, then they owe you for the damage.

If they, or another company was in the process of dropping the tree and dropped it on your truck, then it is the tree cutter's liability.

if it is YOUR tree and the city was picking it up after it happened because it was blocking a roadway, then the Homeowner's insurance will pay for REMOVAL of the tree, but not replacement or damage to OTHER property, other than the home.

Car insurance pays for cars. If you don;t have collision, comprehensive, then you're SOL unless the earlier situation mentioned with the city or another company doing it.

Maybe include a couple overall area pics with the tree and such on the truck.

Otherwise, pound it out, find a cheap body man to straighten it enough to replace the windshield, and drive it for eternity.

If someone wants to move it to chat, that is fine. Should have thought of that.

So it was the city's tree but the branch came down in a storm last night. It was parked across the street from my house because my boat is using its normal home in my driveway, which is off an alley.

The kicker is going to be that I was parked on the wrong side of the street last night. Even though nobody really parks on the street because we have alleys, we are supposed to switch sides weekly so that the street cleaners can go through. My truck was the only car parked on the entire block and the branch that came down was the only one in the area. What are the odds on that? It was like someone was thinking Red Merle needed to be taken down a peg.

Still waiting for the city guys to email me pics of the branch on the truck. I have a good relationship with the city as I have done work for them to buy property needed to rebuild some of our major thoroughfares. They know me and I think if they can, they will be helpful, but I am thinking their insurance company is going to be looking to avoid a pay out.

So I am guessing I will just have to eat this. What are the chances of getting a windshield back in there? How straight does it need to be?

 

[BILT4ME]

Actually, if it was indeed the city's tree (in a park or a median), then you ABSOLUTELY have leg to stand on here. The property line on the street is that the homeowner owns the property all the way to the center line of the road in front, so your neighbor may actually OWN the tree. If it is in the covenants or the city code that the city is to maintain those trees, then the city has the problem, and THEY should maintain the trees and THEIR insurance will cover this type of damage.

If my neighbor's tree fell on MY truck in my driveway, my insurance will cover my truck, but the neighbor's insurance will cover my deductible so I have no out-of-pocket expense, but I do end up with a claim against my car insurance. If my vehicle in my driveway is UNINSURED, then my neighbor's liability insurance will cover the cost to repair my vehicle. It's kind of based on circumstances with a bit of logic thrown in.

 

[Red Merle]

Actually, if it was indeed the city's tree (in a park or a median), then you ABSOLUTELY have leg to stand on here. The property line on the street is that the homeowner owns the property all the way to the center line of the road in front, so your neighbor may actually OWN the tree. If it is in the covenants or the city code that the city is to maintain those trees, then the city has the problem, and THEY should maintain the trees and THEIR insurance will cover this type of damage.

If my neighbor's tree fell on MY truck in my driveway, my insurance will cover my truck, but the neighbor's insurance will cover my deductible so I have no out-of-pocket expense, but I do end up with a claim against my car insurance. If my vehicle in my driveway is UNINSURED, then my neighbor's liability insurance will cover the cost to repair my vehicle. It's kind of based on circumstances with a bit of logic thrown in.

You are right about the city being possibly responsible. I will have to dig around to see what the covenants are and how they handle the trees. I do know that I have to maintain the lawn on the terrace, but I also know that they took down a couple of small ash trees preemptively do curb the spread of the ash borers and they paid for that. It seems like that should imply that they handle their trees. The one that fell on my truck is a big boy and it has a number of questionable branches now that I look at it. I think my best angle is to argue that the tree needed service and they didn't do it which resulted in my country music song.

 

[DirtScaresMe]

Pound out the frame/metal, put in a new windshield?

I had 20' of snow load up on top of a subaru and it looked similar. Rubber mallet to pound out the metal (from the inside) and a new window. It works.

 

[Red Merle]

Pound out the frame/metal, put in a new windshield?

I had 20' of snow load up on top of a subaru and it looked similar. Rubber mallet to pound out the metal (from the inside) and a new window. It works.

How close to original shaped does it need to be to get a windshield in? I have never taken a windshield out so I don't really know how that all goes together. I am assuming that there is a "seat" for it that needs to be pretty clean and straight to keep it from leaking, but I don't really know how close it needs to be. The glass obviously won't be able to be bent to fit, but maybe some extra caulk might do the job?

Should I try shoving the glass out whole from the inside or is it better to cut the seal off somehow and do it as if it wasn't all mangled?

 

[greentruck]

I rather doubt you'll get a new windshield to seat properly and then it will probably leak. The top part of the framing is buckled for sure, but looks like maybe across the lower part in front of the dash, too, is what I think I'm seeing.

Our property has a city tree next to it. A big sweet gum, it lost two limbs a couple of weeks ago, the second almost took out the AC. Yes, the city's dime if their tree breaks your stuff. The 80 stays in the garage, so I hope that a limb doesn't go through it some night in a storm. All the roofing should help prevent anything as bad as your Tacoma, even with a direct hit - I hope.

 

[Dork]

Convertible offroad truggy with halfdoors and a fold-down Heep-style windshield!

 

[Red Merle]

I rather doubt you'll get a new windshield to seat properly and then it will probably leak. The top part of the framing is buckled for sure, but looks like maybe across the lower part in front of the dash, too, is what I think I'm seeing.

Our property has a city tree next to it. A big sweet gum, it lost two limbs a couple of weeks ago, the second almost took out the AC. Yes, the city's dime if their tree breaks your stuff. The 80 stays in the garage, so I hope that a limb doesn't go through it some night in a storm. All the roofing should help prevent anything as bad as your Tacoma, even with a direct hit - I hope.

That's what I am worried about. If I end up having to try to salvage this truck, I will have to see how straight I could get it if I can get the windshield out. At that point, I guess I will have to decide if it's even worth buying the glass or just parting the truck out for as much as I could get, which probably isn't as lucrative as it would be if it was the Cruiser.

And yes, my 80 normally lives in the garage, but I park the Tacoma out in the summer to make room for bikes and lawn mowers and other junk.

The bummer here is that I drove the Tacoma for the first time in a week last night and if I would have just put it back on the right side of the street, none of this would have happened.

 

[DirtScaresMe]

How close to original shaped does it need to be to get a windshield in? I have never taken a windshield out so I don't really know how that all goes together. I am assuming that there is a "seat" for it that needs to be pretty clean and straight to keep it from leaking, but I don't really know how close it needs to be. The glass obviously won't be able to be bent to fit, but maybe some extra caulk might do the job?

Should I try shoving the glass out whole from the inside or is it better to cut the seal off somehow and do it as if it wasn't all mangled?

I'm not a pro on this, but basically it's just a piece of metal with a gasket and some glue on it so there's a smidge of tolerance you can get just because of the flexible nature of the gasket.

It wouldn't be that hard to figure out if you can get close; it's not like you're going to hurt anything at this point. Just wear some really bad ass leather gloves and be careful from getting cut. Bust the glass out, and then pull the gasket off. Use a mallet to pound the metal out. Get creative using something like a big blunt drift, nothing sharp enough that can actually get through the metal.

This was how my glass got busted out in my old subaru and the metal bent.

 

[DirtScaresMe]

It's $250 for new glass and a gask for a guy to show up and put it in, and the pounding metal part and pulling old glass is just work/gloves/shop-vac/trash can/brush.

I mean s***, even if you have a little one-drip-per-minute thing going on during rain storms, maybe put some polysulfide on the seam to fix? I just don't think you're anywhere near totalled.

 

[Red Merle]

Convertible offroad truggy with halfdoors and a fold-down Heep-style windshield!

I'll keep that in mind

Not sure if these two wheelers are the best platform for a truggy, but it does have respectable cup holders, so at least I can be well beveraged while I wait for my buddies to yank me through every obstacle.

As long as we are thinking outside the box, maybe I could put skis on the front and get some studs for the rear snow tires and make it an ice fishing rig?

 

[Red Merle]

It's $250 for new glass and a gask for a guy to show up and put it in, and the pounding metal part and pulling old glass is just work/gloves/shop-vac/trash can/brush.

I mean s***, even if you have a little one-drip-per-minute thing going on during rain storms, maybe put some polysulfide on the seam to fix? I just don't think you're anywhere near totalled.

This is encouraging. I don't want to total the truck if I don't have to. I will have to wait to see what the city says, but if I get nowhere with them, I will try ripping the old glass out and seeing how close I can get it.

 

[ZackR]

Major buzzkill..... get a repair estimate and submit a claim with the city. If that runs into a dead end then we can start talking about pounding it out and replacing the glass.

 

[BILT4ME]

Yes, you can get it straight, but you MAY have to enlist the help of a body shop. They do this for a living. I watched a shop cut the roof of a 36 Ford into (6) pieces to do a chop. They welded it back together, ground, heated, stretched, shrunk, and then finally smoothed and filled the lines on that and when they were done, the gloss black on that roof was so flawless you couldn't tell it wasn't original. There are crash charts that give the correct dimensions for openings, locations, and tolerances for body panels on every car for the body shops to rebuild the vehicles to.

Talk to a glass shop on the windshield removal. Typically, you cannot just get inside and push it out. It's designed to hold in passengers that smash their faces on it. Usually, you must use a piano-wire type saw to cut the adhesive, then remove in one piece. Pay the glass shop to remove it, then call them back to replace the windshield when the time comes.

Address it with the city BEFORE you touch it.

 

[Red Merle]

Major buzzkill..... get a repair estimate and submit a claim with the city. If that runs into a dead end then we can start talking about pounding it out and replacing the glass.

Good call on the estimate. I will do that tomorrow. I am sure it will be more than what the KBB value is, but that shouldn't be my problem, right? They can't act like an auto insurance company and just total the truck for a small amount, can they?

 

[flintknapper]

The bummer here is that I drove the Tacoma for the first time in a week last night and if I would have just put it back on the right side of the street, none of this would have happened.

^^^^^^ Well....its correct to say the tree limb wouldn't have fallen on it, but it could have been struck by another vehicle, hit by lightning, vandalized, etc...

Hate to state the obvious...but the real problem was.... you didn't have 'comp' on your insurance.

The profile of the windshield opening will need to be pretty darn close to 'right' if the windshield gasket is to fit properly and not leak.

You can do quite a bit of the restructuring/reshaping yourself. Then see if you can find a body-man that does a little work on the side to finish it (get it straightened and in primer). You can paint it (or not) anytime.

IMO, not enough damage there to part it out. Heck...the City or some other party might even be responsible for it (lets hope).

Good luck with it .

 

[ZackR]

Call make make sure you have comp on the cruiser if you don't already.

 

[Red Merle]

Call make make sure you have comp on the cruiser if you don't already.

I don't have it because they won't pay out anywhere near what the truck is worth. They said they would pay roughly $3k in the event of an accident but that would have cost me an additional $200 per month. Those numbers don't work for me. I wanted them to do an agreed value policy and they said they would get back to me on that, but I never heard anything and I just forgot about it to be honest.

I have Allstate right now for both trucks and my house and now I am really thinking I might want to switch as I tried to bump my coverages up so that this type of thing wouldn't burn me, but all I am seeing at this point is an increase in premiums without anything to really show for it.

Where can you go to get agreed value policies for older vehicles you daily drive?