(#5840) Back to almost normal with my truck

      I was a victim of a hit in run accident while I was driving and the other driver did a lot of damage to the driver side back and driver side of my truck. I wasn't able to identify the driver as he sped away and I was spinning on the overpass but I survived and that is the most important thing. I just had bare minimum insurance requirements for my truck so there was going to be no insurance compensation on my policy. Since the other driver sped off without being identified there will be no insurance compensation from him either. So it was down to me to get my truck back to a semblance of itself in short order.
     I was able to drive myself home and after assessing the damage, broken out and pinched tail light housing, rear door to my driver side was pinched in and wouldn't open, driver door buckled and wouldn't close all the way, rear quarter panel bent and buckled as well. The rear quarter panel I was able to pop out in places so it doesn't look wholly bad. The driver door we, a couple of friends, found at a salvage yard of the same color and replaced that. The back driver side door I was able to pound and reform back out of the way so that the door now opens and closes easily. The rear tail light I ordered a new one and remolded the area where it was to fit back in as close as I could for it to accept the new tail light. All things considered a little over $500 did the whole thing plus at the salvage yard they threw in a good bed liner for free.
     I still need to replace the door handle from my original door into the new door because of the key lock but that is going to be finished tomorrow. I needed my truck working today so that I could go to work. So tomorrow I will retake the inner driver door panel off so I can switch the door handles. My truck is battered and bruised but it is still roadworthy and the motor is still little used given that the truck is a 2002. After having experienced this episode I will be upgrading my insurance a bit more to cover collisions regardless of what the other driver does. I use my truck around here very little but that is not an immunity to being in the wrong place at the wrong time despite my obedience to the law.