I recently purchased a new, leftover, 2008 C2. I'm very happy with the car, best of the four Porsches that I've owned. Here's my problem: I just noticed a slight door ding immediately above the wheel well on the rear passenger side (about one o'clock). I stopped by a local body shop that does great work and asked them what they could do. The answer was not good. Because the ding is on the flat surface of the lip and extends into the crease it presents problems. There seems to be no access for PDR, so the options are:

1. Conventional body work and repaint the whole panel. Apparently not a good solution if future resale is an issue.

2. Drill a hole through the inside layer of fender to access the dent. This solution makes me nervous.

3. Pull the dent with a glue attachment on the outside. This might help a bit, but probably won't be a perfect fix.

Seems like I'm screwed - an otherwise pristine car is damaged beyond repair by a simple door ding. Sad.

 

Where in Florida are you ? I have a referral of a guy who is so good that he could even fix a botched ding repair . He's in Miami . It may be worth the drive . I will PM you his number .

 

Thanks for the PM and the referral. Unfortunately, I can't reply to your PM because I don't have enough posts. I'll get back to you when I do.

 

Let it be and enjoy the car for a while.

 

Keep in mind, a body shop will always push you towards body work. That's where they'll make money.

I would look online for a paintless dent removal guy in your area. Honestly, every time I see those guys do work, I'm shocked at how good it turns out....and I've seen them remove some pretty nasty dings, dents, and creases.

 

I am resurrecting this thread because I have a little more info. The little dent is still bothering me, so I took the car to the body shop and told them to fix it - somehow. Here's the result:

They had the car looked at by their regular PDR guy plus two more. All concluded that there was no way to access the dent. I suggested that they do body work and paint. They said that to achieve a satisfactory result, they would need paint the whole panel. If you look at your car, you will note that this includes a lot of territory, all the way forward to the front quarter panel above and below the door. I said OK and they prepared an estimate. Problem is, to get the job right, the rear window needs to be removed and that involves some disassembly of the interior and that makes me nervous. At the same time, the body shop guy is saying he really doesn't want to paint the panel as he is not sure of a perfect result and doesn't want to screw up a beautiful Porsche. I appreciate his honesty and we part friends, but I still have the dent!

There must be a solution. What would Porsche do if this happened on the ship across the Atlantic? The reconditioning shop would have to fix it, somehow. I would appreciate any info you guys might have that can help here. BTW, the car is black.

 

I own a body shop and painted my porsche after some vandalism. take a look at the before and after. The job came out perfect. It seems you went to the wrong bodyshop. Also ask Larry (yrralis1), he is in FL and he is a perfectionist

 

I sympathize with your position, as I have the exact same thing. Only mine has a paint chip to go with it as it was caused by a rock during a high-speed run. Like you, I’ve looked into every option imaginable, but there’s no way around it. You have to repaint the entire panel, and your body shop was good to advice against it.
I have since learned to live with the flaw. I know that it’s easier said than done.


Drive it for a year and see how you feel about it. The body work that you would do now could still be done then.

 

Wow, was that a crowbar?

 

I had a ding in the same place, except it was at the 11 o'clock position, on the flat part of the fender, just above the wheel, on the passenger side.

Like you, I took the car to several PDR guys, all of whom said it was impossible. Then I called the local Ferrari dealer and they referred me to someone who was able to get the ding out...perfectly.

There is a small hole in the body work, right near there. If you put your finger inside the lip of the fender and feel around, you can find it. If you have it, it will feel like a raised bump, with a hole in middle of the bump.

This was enough to give my guys access to it. The access hole is right where the plastic wheel liner is. So, to get in there properly, we had to remove the wheel and wheel liner.

Have your PDR guys looked into accessing the ding via that hole?

If not, and you are uncertain about what the heck I'm talking about, give me a PM with your cell number and I'm sure I could describe it to you if you were at the car.

Big caveat is that my car is a 4S, which means I'm somewhat wider and might therefore have a different fender arrangement.

So my situation corresponded to your #2:
"2. Drill a hole through the inside layer of fender to access the dent. This solution makes me nervous."

I had a factory hole. If you don't have the hole on the 2wd car, then I think you might go with the drilling. If they have a good drill stop and can really make sure that they don't drill too far, that might be the way to go.

 

Thanks, CMOS. I am out of town for a few days, but will look into your suggestion when I get home.

Also, thanks to everyone for the ideas. I know this little ding shouldn't bother me so much, but it does!

 

Brick

 

Did I send you the phone number to the dent person who ought to at lease see a picture of it ? I thought I had. I'm pm you again . I'll give you both his phone and e mail address . Before you pull apart your car it may be worth the call just to hear his opinion.