Cardinal Rule

[moulin12]

..broken., and paid for.

In the 9 months I have had the car I have never, repeat never, parked next to another car, and have always either put the car outside of lazy walking range when visiting shopping complexes etc, or else saddled a parking slot in defence.

This afternoon I visited a shopping complex to pick up a single item, but was too lazy to park it way out of the I-don't-give-a-monkeys-about-your-car brigade. Returned to find a dink in the drivers door. I must be cursed.

[robb]

maybe you just live a in rude area! I'm from manchester i always park lazy walking distance and the cars never been hit by someones door luck of the draw i guess , will u get it fixed or just leave it ?

[moulin12]

Hi Robb,

It's only a small dink: can only see in when it catches the light, and no damage to the paint. However, it would drive me nuts to leave it so will be visiting a local bodyshop that I have used before, for other cars. Hopefully it will be simply a tap out, though I suppose it will still cost some since the interior panel will have to be removed.

Without wishing to sound like a 'Victor', simply cant believe it's happen on the first time I've chanced it!

[robb]

yeah that is pretty grim mate, I'm unlucky in the tyre department me, seems like every other long motorway journey (i dont do many) I'm warping tyres , done another one today on my way back from nottingham

[lewihoga]

They won't need to remove interior panel. It will be very simple. They will heat the metal up with a heat gun slightly then use a dent puller and pull it out. Shouldn't cost much AT ALL! Don't worry

[Shaun1982]

I disagree with lewihoga, they will remove the interior panel & lift the ding out. We have a couple of guys do it all day everyday at work. if you heat it up it expands,lift it then & surely it won't be flat again once it's cooled & contracted?

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[Shaun1982]

Unless of course it's one of the doors in which case you might get away with removing the weather strip & getting a bar in to lift it out that way

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[moulin12]

Unless of course it's one of the doors in which case you might get away with removing the weather strip & getting a bar in to lift it out that way

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Did wonder whether they might be able to do it this way. The particular bodyshop has worked magic in the past with a dink over a back haunch to a car, and did a fantastic job on a difficult repair to a large dent over a wheel arch.

On which, I have concluded that I must be indeed cursed. That particular dent happened to an eighteen-month old car that I had left at least 50 yards away from any other car in a massive carpark to a shopping complex (Coventry Ricoh Arena). Somebody (presumably kids) thought it'd fun to crash a trolley into the car (presumably whilst 'riding' it).

The dent to the Roc is actually more noticeable than I thought: sunlight actually distracts from its size. The guy who did it clearly didn’t give a monkeys whatsoever. Sometimes I do wonder whether paying for the enjoyment of a decent car is worth it.

Well, will see what the bodyshop says today.

[whiteDevil_170]

Sorry to hear about that mate. But you might Allways park away from cars but im sure when you have gone cars would of parked next to you at some point.

I always use to park in the furthest corner in the local supermarket car park so that if a car parked next to me it would only be one side. The amount of times I came back and found a car parked next to me.

[skippy]

That was really unlucky moulin12, as you say - some people just don't care, especially if they are driving around in some heap.

Some years ago in my old car, a chaps door blew open in the wind and whacked the bodywork very hard indeed. The damage was a small dent which was not immediately obvious but you could feel it alright with your finger.

I thought it would pull out easily, but when I took it to the repairers, I was surprised how much of the interior they wanted to remove to fix it. They did a really good job though and you would never know there was any damage there. I was a bit concerned about bits of interior being removed, and for sure there were a few new squeaks when it was all put back, but these did settle again quite quickly.

[moulin12]

Thanks All: the pain is easier when shared :-)

There's actually two little dinks. The good news is that these will tap / pull out easily, and the cash price to repair is 80 quid, which I thought very reasonable. The bad news is that the interior will have to come out and, as Skippy has said, you do wonder about squeaks and rattles on the after-fit. The body repair shop have always done a good job in the past, so I'm hoping that the interior will indeed settle down in time (thanks Skippy for a reassuring note).

But there's more...

The body repairer also pointed out damage (dent, sealer lift off) on the sill, and that the protector looks like it's had something rubbed against it. What we're thinking is that the dent, scuffed protector and dinks could be possibly pushbike or other type of damage when the car was stationary on the street but that I hadn't noticed until yesterday. (I had seen some light colour marks on the protector but had thought it was over-polish). Hard to understand how else the dent and scuffing would take place: certainty, I'm not aware of having heard anything when driving/manoeuvring.

So, a mystery, but one that in total will cost 280 pounds and 4 days off the road at the beginning of next month.

The real pain will be having to live with it for 3 weeks :-)

[skippy]

No worries mate, and yes - it is very annoying (not to mention expensive) to say the least, especially when it is damage not of your doing.

Only last year my dealer had to remove part of the interior on my Roc to fix a faulty spot weld (separate thread on this) and I was not best pleased. But - I was very impressed how it all went back together, the interiors are pretty good quality and I did not have any issues.

Good luck with the repairs, it will soon be fixed and that incident will be consigned to history!

[dimexi]

I used to worry about things like these before - it got really really bad, then my mum told me I'd only shorten my lifespan... It's not like I dont care about my car, trust me, I do! All I do is park sensibly, leave ample space and just hope no idiot parks next to me.
It takes considerable force to make a dink in the rock doors though! Must have been kids or a passenger who didnt care etc....

The worst I've has was walking back from tescos once, could see the guy parked next to me had unloaded his trolley and was walking away from it... Trolley started to roll steadily towards my car, I had to run to stop it from hitting my car.
I was gonna fling the trolley right back into his car, but thought about it and decided I should just be happy I was there to stop damage

[Shaun1982]

I've got some right beauties in my car! Especially the ones people so kindly put right over the swage on the arch! I got at least one within 4 days of using it for work

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[lloydie63]

Not a Scirocco and no dent/ding but.. Myself and my Mrs drove to a large car park (Holds at least 150 cars) to go for a walk. We arrived to a completely empty carpark, off we went for a 45 minute stroll only to come back and find another car in the carpark parked so close to ours I had to reverse out of the bay to let the Mrs get in. This was the only other car in the carpark, had I not had to rush off I would have waited to see why they parked so close.

[selleym]

I always use to park in the furthest corner in the local supermarket car park so that if a car parked next to me it would only be one side. The amount of times I came back and found a car parked next to me.

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