okay my front left wheel rolled up and over a parking divider curb and scraped the underside of the car right behind the wheel.. it looks like it took a small chunk out of the metal that protrudes down underneath the body panel of the fender. the piece got scraped up right in front of where there is a bolt but did not seem to cause any serious damage. i am not very sure about what this part of the car actually is. i don't think its part of the frame is it?? the metal is exposed about an inch under the bottom of the fenders so i hope its designed to take some abuse. anyways i'm worried so someone please give me some insight as to what i should do? this isn't a serious injury to my baby is it?

 

Do you have your owner's manual? From your description it sounds like you scraped one of your jack points. You can confirm by looking it up in your owner's manual. I don't know if there is a lot of moisture or salt in your area. If this was my car though, I would jack it up tonight to clean and primer any exposed metal.

 

jack point huh.. well i'm in houston texas so i do have a lot of humidity and salt in the air here near the gulf of mexico.. don't quite understand why this is a problem as the metal that was scraped was already exposed, wasn't it? it sure is on the other side of the car. i'm worried about whether or not i will need to replace anything or if its just cosmetic.. the metal looks like it was pretty soft stuff as it got all chewed up so i don't think its crucial to the mechanics or rigidity of the car. anyone else have some knowledge of what this part is? is it just there to bolt the bottom of the fender to or does it serve some other purpose? thanks

 

Almost any steel on the car will be sealed with paint or treated to resist rust from the factory. Again, I'm not 100% sure what part of the car has been damaged. Shooting some primer on the part isn't going to hurt anything though, so its probably a safer course of action to take the precaution.

The foward jack point sits atop the rail-like protrusion underneath the car. The rail is a sandwhich of the fender/kicker panel and frame. This sheet metal along this sandwich is spot welded together and it would a really nasty place to correct any rust. Then again we could be talking about two different parts of the car.

Do you have a digital camera? A picture would go a long way towards properly assessing the situation.

 

Is this in the ballpark?

 

i ran down to the parking garage to take another look.. thats the place.. yeah nice picture. i drew a grey circle where i believe a bolt to be and the yellow is the trashed metal where there is basically a whole chunk missing and some of the metal bent up towards the bolt but did not seem to affect anything else. so is this part of the 'rail' u were talking about where the bottom of the actual fender and kicker panel meet the frame? should i have any worries about driving the car home? there is no way this damaged or bent the frame is there? thanks again for the info jerry

 

If you don't care if it rusts, ignore it. If you do care if it rusts, shoot it with primer like Jerry said. The actual jack point is the one further back (where the jack stand is in that photo, not where the jack is).

BTW, the car is safe to drive and there is 0% chance you have bent the frame -- assuming that is the only actual damage, of course.

 

wheww so i don't have to worry about repairing anything if i don't mind that it looks like shit down there? thats good news. thanks guys. so where can i pick up some primer? will it have to be a specific kind or primer for automotive use?

 

Ok, big relief. A little mangling there is no big deal and like Mike says, the car should be fine to drive because the damage is basically cosmetic.

You can pick up cheap-o automotive primer at Autozone, Schuck's, Napa, or the equivelent for your area. It will probably set you back a whopping three bucks. Take care to mask off any areas that you don't want overspray on. Also, try to clean the area without moisture as the the metal in that area is steel and would generate some surface rust overnight. If there is some rust in that area already, sand it down with some 200 or 400 grit sand paper and dust it off before spraying. It doesn't have to be perfect, but any rust would migrate through the fender in a couple of years.