My first dent....how soon did you dent yours?

[CStansbury]

Well, it happened already. My Dad came over last night to help me load up a rented lawn aerator. We got the machine in the bed without a problem. The machine had these removable weights to make it sink in the ground, but you could take them out to help load it. I didn't want the weights to fall out going down the road so I was going to lay them on a towel in the back seat floor area. I got the first one in and then when I was putting the second on in I tapped the handle against the cab behind the rear door opening. It put a ding in it and scuffed the paint. I just about threw up! I cussed a bunch and kicked the mailbox, but it didn't help. I stopped by the dealer today and their detail guy touched up the paint for me. I'm a real schmuck Oh well, at least it wasn't some schlep with a buggy that did it first.



So, can anyone top that timeline? I picked the truck up on Tuesday and dented it on Sunday? When and where was your first dent?

 

[DOUGMartin]

I know some people who first thing they do when they get home with a new truck is throw a good size rock in the beck and drive around a while. They clame if you do it on purpuse right away it takes away all shock. I myself have never owned a new truck so all mine have come with small dings already.

 

[Udaloy]

Yeah, I can top that one. I took my, then, three day old truck to the car wash with one of those "Touchless" booths. Needless to say, it wasn't touchless. The machine started to moved around and nailed my front right fender. It put a small dent in it, and removed the paint. When I went to the dealership to get the touchup paint, the parts guy said, "Didn't you just buy that?". He gave me the paint for free...

 

[BarryG]

Three days I only wish. When I bought my 96 I ordered one and it finally came in so I go pick it up and drive home. I pull into the garage and hit the garage door button and then I hear it. This god-awful screaching/grating noise. Before I could even think of what it was the garage door hit the bumper and went back up repeating the sound. The garage door raked my tailgate. I had a nice 6-8 inch long by about 1/4 inch wide scrape down to bare metal. I was furious, then I look at my wife who was standing there with this huge smirk on her face. I ask her what the heck she tells me what are you going to do beat the heck out yourself next thing we were both laughing about it.

 

[XcumminsX]

dont feel bad i was dumb enough to back up into a pole



Nick

 

[CStansbury]

Thanks guys. I am feeling a little better now. My wife thinks I am a little obsessive-compulsive about the whole thing, but it's my first new vehicle and I have been doing everything I can to make sure it stays that way. Come to think of it, I may be a little OC. I only close the doors with the handles, never touch the paint. I look at the ignition switch when putting the key in so as not to scratch the lock. I pick little rocks and grass bits off of my mats after I get out of the truck. Dang, I do have problems. The first step towards getting better is talking about it, right?

 

[tgbol]

I had mine 4 days when I got too close to a sign. Scrapped and dented the rear quarter panel. The worst part was being without my new truck while it was in the body shop. It is a truck and I bought it to be just that. But it is a NICE truck.

 

[swexlin]

Here's what I posted on another site when I did mine (I had had the truck 10 days):



My First Ding - Truck Now Has Character

Well, my truck received its first little scar today. I live in a condominium complex, and as such, my truck lives outside in an owned space. It is tight parking, with a retaining wall.



Every truck I have had, no matter HOW careful I am, has eventually "met" the wall, sooner or later. Well, 10 days into ownership, it was sooner. As I was straightening out, paying close attention to where the wall was in my rearview, I was creeeeeppping backward. Just "touched" the left corner of the rear bumber. Nice little ding. Metal seems awfully thin on those bumbers.



Oh well, I guess I'm going to have to stop at the Dodge dealer to get some "Bright White" touch up paint. I mean, you can barely see it, but it bugs me. I know, I know, these trucks are meant to be worked, and I've never had a vehicle that didn't have a couple scars here and there, but still.





I have since touched it up with touch up paint; from 20 feet, you can't see it; up close, it looks like white out!

 

[CStansbury]

Originally posted by swexlin

Here's what I posted on another site when I did mine (I had had the truck 10 days):



I have since touched it up with touch up paint; from 20 feet, you can't see it; up close, it looks like white out!

The detail guy at the dealer was complaining about the touch-up paints. He said he touched up a green truck with the proper paint, but once it dried it looked blue. The Lt. Almond paint he used on mine looks pretty close though.

 

[JWillms]

Got my truck on a wed afternoon had a scratch in it Thursday mroning when I loaded an oxygen bottle in my truck for a dilivery. Scratched the top inside ledge of the tail gate and the bed and after 6 month of ownership my tail gate looks multi colored from all the pant that has rubbed off the bottles and scratched the hell out of the inside of my tail gate plus the huge dents in the wheel wells from rooling bottles. I keep telling myself that hey its a truck bed its suposed to be like that. I guess my first real dent was 5 month into owning the truck when a guy droped a pipe on my hood and left a good halk dollar dent and scratch to the metal.

Justin<><

 

[RobbieH]

I bought mine hail damaged. I don't care about sheet metal. I've hauled tons of limestone in mine. It scratches the hell out of the bed.

 

[rashwor]

5 days.

Picked my current ride up new from the dealer on Friday afternoon. Went the following Tuesday to get the junk out of my old truck which included a bed mounted tool box at the body shop. The smucks at the body shop went to lift the tool box into the new truck and bumped the tailgate of the new truck which was down with the corner of the tool box. Scraped the paint down to the metal, but no dent.



Guess it really didn't matter. Haven't touched it up to this day.



First dent on my current ride came at about 2 years of age. I was backing up with a load of feed in the bed. Got a little too close to the building and put a nice crease in the top edge of the tail gate, but didn't loose any paint.



One more dent late last year in the driver's door, but you have to look really hard to see it. That is the sum of mine so far.

 

[pstillo]

When my 97 ram was a week old some A$$#### ran a stop sign and causes 3k worth of damage. :-{}

 

[nickleinonen]

i've been pretty lucky with dents i guess myself. i have one small one above the pass side rear fender that comes from the inside out, so it was there from the factory and i didn't notice, or it happened when i had my truck rust proofed, or sometime before i put in the rear wheel liners a rock hit it [same day as i got it rust proofed i put the rear liners in. truck was 4 days old then]

 

[thames1948]

I have been real careful with mine, but this weekend got my first ding out on the super highway when something must have come of of a car or truck in front of me. Of all places to hit, it whacks my chrome grill surround right in the center bar. Dented plastic and bubbled the chrome. I am going to find a cummims badge to cover it

 

[Steve M]

I had mine for a year while towing our 5th wheel on the interstate through an undesirable part of town when some undesirable threw a large chunk of concrete at us. It hit the hood and glanced off of the A-pillar hard enough to dent the hood and take a small chunk of metal out of the A-pillar. I filled in the missing paint with some Rustoleom but left the damage to remind me why I despise the bstrds.

 

[CStansbury]

Dang! Thankfully the big guy was watching over you and it didn't come through the windshield. Some group of punk a**holes in a town up the 4-lane from me were doing the same thing. One of them threw a chunk off so big that it punched through this lady's windshield and about killed her:--)

 

[lil red cummins]

try and top this:



i received my new truck with a small double dent in the hood. it is still there and not too easy to see. maybe sometime before it is a year old i will get it fixed. i called them about 4 hours after picking up the truck to let them know it was there and to make sure they have it on their records.



i have little scuffs and rock dings (didnt put the mud flaps on right away) all over too. oh well.



jim

 

[PRush]

dings & dents

I have always been extremely careful when parking at grocery stores. I have always been careful off-road. I don't mind the brush scratches they will usually buff out, but I have now experienced Grocery Store Parking Lot Sabotage.

Went into our local Public Market, parked about 50 yards from any other vehicle, came back out jumped in and proceeded to drive off. Wham, boom, bang, screech and scrraappeee! Someone had turned a shopping cart on it's side and wedged it under the passenger side of my truck, just behind the front tire.

When I drove off it flipped and flopped all over the quarter panels and dented both doors. I have a total of 12 dents and gouges to have repaired.

Had about 5,000 miles on my 03 3500 Laramie Quad 4x4. Beware of the Grocery Cart Terrorist.

 

[E7mack96]

Not my Ram, but my first new truck, a 1988 Ford (ughh) Ranger.



I get it home , prop up the hood (with the hood prop) to look at the engine then try to close the hood. It is stiff, so I pull down harder. (forgetting about the hood prop) and fold that SOB in half. Brand new truck less that 2 hours in my possession.



In my little world, I figured I'd go to the dealer and tell them that my hood was bent up when I got it. Needless to say, They didn't buy that one.



Finally got the hood replaced under insurance when I hit a car in the side whilst taking off from a stop sign. ( note to self: Never, ever chase after your girlfriend in a car, just let her go)



E7.