Crack in tailgate

Good Evening,
I just bought A 95 Lumina mini van. The other night it was sleeting out & I heard a thud when I went to look out I seen the van had slid down the drive way & taken out our mailbox post. This left a nice crack in the tail gate. I brought her to a body shop & they had told me that the material these vans were made of could not be patched but the whole gate would have to be replaced. The cost of a gate labour & paint would run $1300.
I had thought these vans were made of fiberglass does this sound right?. Thank you Will,

Sorry for that happening to your "new" car....I understand it skidded by itself...Park on the front and parking brake on the rear wheels might possibly have avoided that mishap but what is done is done...
I have several pages of "general body service procedures" in my shop manual for that model and repairs to that composite body are shown as feasible by application of inner support patches and epoxy compound.... I suppose this requires special skills and materials similar to composite/fiberglass boat hulls...
HOwever I wonder if a scrapyard could have the whole panel available at a decent price.

HOwever I wonder if a scrapyard could have the whole panel available at a decent price.
I just did a quick search for a tailgate for a '95 on www.car-part.com,and there were many pages of results from salvage yards across the country. Prices ranged from $49.95 to $1743.00 :eek:. You can refine the search parameters to yards closer to your location and see who has what and for what price.