The first owner of the S, I just bought must have done this.. I feel so stupid to not have seen this before buying the car (woulda used to negotiate a better price).. But anyway:

So I was out washing the car and noticed a little zit like bump around where the rear jackpoint should be on the passenger side of the car. Apparently the genius who had the car before me tried to jack up the car from the wrong place and so the body is pushed up (kinda dented looking from the bottom) a bit. Even more telling, I can see where the jack was too.

Given that this part of the car is metal and is connected to the rear quarter panel as far as I can tell, a replacement is out of the question, so, how much should it be around to fix it? I don't know if the backside of this panel is accessible, but is PDR a possible fix?

Just to note, the paint around the dent feels bumpy; not sure if it was a consequence of that damage and not sure if it affects 'fixability'...

 

[QUOTE=jhsunix,Mar 18 2006, 07:16 PM]Apparently the genius who had the car before me tried to jack up the car from the wrong place and so the body is pushed up (kinda dented looking from the bottom) a bit.

 

Unless its really noticeable when the car is on the ground I wouldn't worry about it.

 

I don't know about how easy it will be to fix, but I don't think you should worry about structural damage. I seem to remember reading on here that the car can be jacked up anywhere along the frame rail. Now, by this I mean the car will be supported just fine, but as you have found, you can easily dent the external metal. Someone used a long board to disperse the weight so they could place a jack in the middle of the rail in between the F and R jack points.

 

Meh, I did this by accident myself

I was in a hurry and thought I had pushed the jack far enough in but it wasn't and as I went up the car came down, no visible damage except under the rail, i wouldn't worry about it.

 

buy a side skirt

 

good idear

 

That "bumpiness" you speak of is along the whole side of the car (between the wheels). I would ask a PDR guy what he thinks, otherwise, the side skirt idea is a great one.

 

if i interpret this right, it sounds like the previous owner did not use the rail at all to jack the car up, but instead jacked the car up by the body just before the rail?

if so, the paint there is naturally bumpy, it is on both sides of the car and goes across from the front to the rear. dunno why it is like that, but all 04's are, if not all s2k's are like that. i have some body damage there as well from a different occurence, but if there is no paint damage, i think it will cost me around $200 to pull it out.

and there is no access to the other side of that panel as i have checked. otherwise i would have just pounded it out from the other side.

 

Sounds like the rocker panel is what you are talking about. I believe it is welded directly to the frame, if it is not actually part of the frame. There is no easy access to this without cutting, however, it should be no big deal at all if it is bent. There are two layers of the frame along the rocker panel. I know b/c I had to have mine replaced and I saw the repair while it was in progress. The rocker panel is obviously just a cover along the external layer of the frame. Therefore your damage is most likely just cosmetic. Don't worry about it as far as the car's integrity is concerned.