Fresh dent on my Ram’s hood from neighbors fireworks

[XS22J8R]

My next door neighbors had a party yesterday and his kid lit off one of his huge fireworks barrages out in the street around 11 PM. This morning I went out and found some remnants in my yard, but also behind the house. The hood of my Ram, which was parked behind the house, has a dent in the middle of its hood. Several remnants of mortars lying around, also on the roof of my Dart but no damage.
The hood is aluminum, can PDR fix aluminum?
I don’t want to call the police until I talk to the neighbor, but how do I document this adequately if they don’t pay for fixing it?

 

[Cranky]

My next door neighbors had a party yesterday and his kid lit off one of his huge fireworks barrages out in the street around 11 PM. This morning I went out and found some remnants in my yard, but also behind the house. The hood of my Ram, which was parked behind the house, has a dent in the middle of its hood. Several remnants of mortars lying around, also on the roof of my Dart but no damage.
The hood is aluminum, can PDR fix aluminum?
I don’t want to call the police until I talk to the neighbor, but how do I document this adequately if they don’t pay for fixing it?

View attachment 1690683

View attachment 1690684

View attachment 1690685

The only way you can say it was from them, you just about need to have video or actually see it happen and have video. You could always tell them you have a vid and see what they say.....

 

[WileERobby]

Circumstantial. How do you prove it was due to a firework ? Where is the one that supposedly hit the hood ? Did you, or anyone, actually witness the damage incurred ?

 

[XS22J8R]

The dent wasn’t there when I got home around 6 pm from driving the truck yesterday, there were no fireworks remnants there when I watered the garden next to the driveway at 7 PM. This morning remnants of fireworks are on my driveway behind the house, on the trucks hood including by the dent, on the Darts roof too.
Next door neighbors on other side are on vacation, I suspect to protect their dog from fireworks noise, I think the cop who lives across the fence from me was on duty as his K9 SUV cop car wasn’t in his driveway, and no one else around here lights fireworks anyway except the kid next door who pulls a big rig of fireworks he creates out in the street every 4th and New Year’s Eve, like he did again last night, while all the partygoers at their party stood out in the yard and some in my yard too and oohed and awed.
No doubt where it came from. These neighbors have lived there over 20 years and we get along fine so I will talk to his dad.
Fireworks are fun but that barrage the kid sets up is out of hand. He was out sweeping up all the remnants from the street after they stopped going off, but still found stuff on my sidewalk and drive in front when I went outside. Some shreds on my roof too.
Fireworks are illegal here other than snakes and sparklers. Many light them illegally of course, but the barrage he sets off in the street is near professional level so that seems asking for trouble. There’s a big Lions carnival every 4th weekend in my village so I think that ties up much of the police force doing security at the carnival rather than look for illegal fireworks.
Lucky for me my new Scat Pack isn’t getting delivered until tomorrow as it would have been parked there too!

 

[davek]

I learned the hard way ,on the 4th and new year I park in back and hope the cars wont get hit.

 

[WileERobby]

Did you photo the hood with the remnants ? That would be beneficial to your cause. Hopefully it doesn't turn ugly.

 

[XS22J8R]

I’m surprised debris made it that far back from the street where he put up his rig of mortars. I find stuff in my yard and even some odds and ends have ended up on my roof, but the truck and car are 80-90 feet from the fireworks site with a house in between. Here is the dent with one of the mortar chunks I found in my driveway for reference. No doubt one of those is what hit my hood last night.

 

[Ron H]

People with HD fireworks in populated areas is idiocy, they’ve burned down houses and businesses. And ER’s are busy tending to burns and blown-off fingers. Some years ago, a huge factory was lit up burning half of it down, hundreds of employees out of work. In my former house in a subdivision, I’d find remnants of fireworks in the yard and driveway. I thought about lighting them up myself at 6-AM...

 

[SlingLow]

The fireworks police came through my neighborhood Thursday night and caught 2 guys, one drinking battery acid and the other eating fireworks. So they charged one and let the other one off!

 

[XS22J8R]

People with HD fireworks in populated areas is idiocy, they’ve burned down houses and businesses. And ER’s are busy tending to burns and blown-off fingers. Some years ago, a huge factory was lit up burning half of it down, hundreds of employees out of work. In my former house in a subdivision, I’d find remnants of fireworks in the yard and driveway. I thought about lighting them up myself at 6-AM...

On the 4th I heard news reports 2 houses in the far north suburbs burned from fireworks, one at least is reported as uninhabitable. Someone’s fireworks gone awry last week in Griffith Indiana damaged houses and a bunch of cars in the neighborhood.
And a 34 year old father of 2 with a pregnant wife in Chicago got killed when an unexploded mortar he checked to see why it hadn’t lit, went off delayed.
I just talked to the neighbor, he looked at it and didn’t deny they were responsible. I’m just worried if PDR can do it, I opened the hood and I can see the hood is double layered with inner and outer panels. The middle part where the dent is can’t be seen as there is a hood insulation pad that needs removed to see there.

 

[wahya]

I would put that stuff in a baggie and hang on to it. Might try to get a few pics without the reflections on them as well. So the kid is having his show illegally and there is stuff in your yard. Yeah, if you’re on friendly terms with your neighbor, tell him about it. If he doesn’t step up, he probably won’t be inviting you to next year’s party either.

 

[XS22J8R]

He seemed agreeable to paying and said maybe it’s not safe to let his kid do the big fireworks thing anymore.
I’m just worried now if PDR can fix it. Researching online it looks like aluminum is trickier to do but can be done. Can they get behind it to work though, there may well be inner hood structure blocking access to that area?
In which case my hood would need to be replaced. I noticed the last few years Ram puts a cool scooped hood on top trim Ram 2500s. I wonder how much more they cost than standard hoods, may be cool to upgrade my truck if the hood needs replaced (I’d pay the extra, not going to take advantage of situation, just figuring if hood needs replaced might be a good time to upgrade my truck to cooler looking hood).

 

[Photon440]

He seemed agreeable to paying and said maybe it’s not safe to let his kid do the big fireworks thing anymore.
I’m just worried now if PDR can fix it. Researching online it looks like aluminum is trickier to do but can be done. Can they get behind it to work though, there may well be inner hood structure blocking access to that area?
In which case my hood would need to be replaced. I noticed the last few years Ram puts a cool scooped hood on top trim Ram 2500s. I wonder how much more they cost than standard hoods, may be cool to upgrade my truck if the hood needs replaced (I’d pay the extra, not going to take advantage of situation, just figuring if hood needs replaced might be a good time to upgrade my truck to cooler looking hood).

Just like many regular cars, they may have to drill an access hole through blocking inner reinforcement areas to get to the ding from underneath.

 

[QuickBpBp]

That sucks and it probably was from the fireworks for sure BUT do you plan on living there for awhile? I agree that he should pay BUT if staying there it might not be the battle I would pick to start the war... That dent should be able to get done by a PDR guy for $75. I would fix it and move on.

 

[XS22J8R]

I just hope they can PDR can fix it, I’ve had great luck with PDR before.
I have a Mopar friend who had a body shop but sadly retired and closed it last winter. He had a PDR guy he used who was able to fix a dent on the top of my 09 Challengers fender from an errant golf ball that a local PDR shop couldn’t fix. It took the guy 2+ hours and my friend had to buff up the paint afterwards but it was beautiful. Insurance had me get an estimate from a different body shop who were going to replace the fender to fix that one, so I sure was thankful my friend had an ace PDR who was able to fix it!

 

[XS22J8R]

That sucks and it probably was from the fireworks for sure BUT do you plan on living there for awhile? I agree that he should pay BUT if staying there it might not be the battle I would pick to start the war... That dent should be able to get done by a PDR guy for $75. I would fix it and move on.

If PDR can fix it my neighbor seems cool with with taking responsibility.
Him and his son are out in the street with a leaf blower cleaning up the rest of the carnage they did last night now.

 

[SlingLow]

I agree with @QuickBpBp , if it's going to become a point of contention, I would deal with it. IF the neighbor participates willingly and amicably, then settle with him. I have my buddy's son's wake board boat in my driveway this week to prevent damage from fireworks fallout in his neighborhood. He knew it was coming and he took preventative measures. Looks good out there too - I think I need a boat.

 

[zyzzyx]

If that was my kid that was blowing off that **** and I was your neighbor for 20years, I'd gladly pay for the damage
and have my kid apologize to you. the he would be paying me back! Good neighbors are hard to find. If he wants to
make a war, bring it on! I think everything will be O.K. Good luck!

 

[1967coronet]

I've seen some great work done by (good) pdr guys.
Hail storms ect, As long as the paint itself is secure they can fix that.
Hope it works out good with the neighbor.
Do some research on pdr guys , I would ask your insurance agent for a name or two.

 

[AR67GTX]

I would think PDR will work on aluminum OK but it’s a good question. I’ll be curious to hear if anyone has any experience with it. With the aluminum Fords out awhile maybe someone will have some real world experience.