Hood dimples...

[Travis2k7]

Ok... so yesterday when I'm cleaning my car I noticed a 2nd dimple on the hood.



You can't see them in the photo but I still wanted to illustrate where they are at... the first one (closest to the grill) I discovered a few days after buying the car back in March. Now I have a 2nd.. and I'm baffled.

There are no scratches or chips, so it doesn't appear anything hit the car... I have no clue as to how I got these quarter-sized dimples on my hood.

They don't stand out unless light is hitting the car just right but the point is I know they are there and want to do something about it... A friend of mine said that they are caused by closing the hood!?! I looked under it and there are some type of bolts above the heat blanket thing (LOL) in the general vicinity.

Anyone else experienced this? Sound like a Dent Dr. job?

[mopar_man]

I would take it to a paintless dent repair place. As for the cause, it could be anything if it wasn't caused by you. Some people have an absolute hatred for these cars and maybe somebody popped it with their first in the parking lot somewhere (yes, there are low-lifes out there that do that sort of thing).

[Hooligan]

Dr Dent for sure. Closing the hood did NOT cause those spots, don't know what did tho. Good Luck.

[Candyman]

Hey their Travis2k7,

These guys got ya covered. A good PDR (Paintless Dent Repair) guy can massage those types of indentations out in no time, and its not much to do the entire car so if you have others as well you can get them all done in one shot.

As for a cause, it could be anything. Mine is inside an enclosed portable garage which is lagged to sealed concrete, zip tied as tight as I can get it so their is hardly any gaps at all but I still find once in a while I get stray cats who squeeze through a tight opening somewhere and love to jump up on my perfectly buffed paint and leave scratches, and small intentations from time to time that I have to fix, and boy that don't make me a happy camper at all! Point is, it could be a cat, or birds, or from a parking lot, or something falling from a tree, or....you name it. Dounwn the sides you can even get what is known as body flex just from driving over a bumpy road which may cause small indentations in your body.

Wish their was a way to avoid them but its just an unfortunate part of automotive life in the pursuit of keeping a cleen ride perfected.

Go easy, and I'll catch ya later.

Candyman

[Travis2k7]

Thanks everyone... I am going to check into PDR and will let you know.

I actually discovered my first door ding the other day as well, although it's not nearly as noticeable... You can see it looking straight down the side of the car, which is what I do whenever I leave a parking lot.. LMAO it's about 1/8 inch diameter on the right rear fender... didn't chip the paint though and should be another easy fix.

Amazing how people have no regard for other's property.

[808]

Originally Posted by Travis2k7

Thanks everyone... I am going to check into PDR and will let you know.

I actually discovered my first door ding the other day as well, although it's not nearly as noticeable... You can see it looking straight down the side of the car, which is what I do whenever I leave a parking lot.. LMAO it's about 1/8 inch diameter on the right rear fender... didn't chip the paint though and should be another easy fix.

Amazing how people have no regard for other's property.

My dad got me into a good habit of watching where to park: DON'T park next to the shopping cart stalls, or an ugly beat-up car. Good chances are they don't have respect for their car so they sure as hell don't have respect for yours. Parking near super nice cars helps you feel at ease because that owner will definitely be careful opening his door.

Man, whenever you discover an imperfection such as a ding or scratch, doesn't it feel like you just lost a family member?? Lol

[Travis2k7]

Yeah it does 808, and thanks for the comment.

I always park 300 feet away whenever I can... unsure of where I got the ding, but like I said, it's super small and is actually more of a dimple.. LOL

I'm real picky on where I park, and even then it doesn't do a lot of good sometimes. Back in '03 I had just had my '94 red T-top Camaro painted... went to Six Flags in Atlanta and parked WAAAAAYYYYYYY out of the way.

Spent the day at the park, and when I went to leave there was a beat up clunker parked next to my car.. Sure enough, the fender had a massive ding from his rear door. There were kids toys all in the back seat so using simple math I'd say a kid flung a door open.

I was so pissed that I took a black Sharpie and wrote some nice comments all over his windshield and door glass and then drove off.

Didn't regret it... luckily the Dent Dr. fixed it for $40... could never tell it was hit. Even though the damage on my PT isn't nearly as noticeable I guess I'll be giving him a call again.

[yaris]

there is one way it can do something like that from closing the hood: if you don't remove the yellow rod that hold it open before closing it, my dealer did it on mine and it cracked the paint on the outside of the hood over the rod

[Chromenut]

Okay, so like are these "dimples" up, or down? As in do they look to be coming from underneath the hood, or from an outside source? Makes a lot of difference. I pimpled my hood once, found the rubber stops were about an 1/8th of an inch too low, when I'd let go it'd hit one of the vacuum line heads, and did it just hard enough to show. Took about a minute to solve that problem.

I've got door dings, one on each side, matching, which totally piss me off, but was working with a friend the other day and he had one of those dent tools that I've seen on TV and didn't believe would work. Had like a hot glue gun type thingy, glued right in the middle of the dent, took about 2 minutes to harden, with the pulling thingy on it. Attached the other parts and started to crank on the handle and boink... the dimple is now gone! I told him if he pulled my paint or made it worse, he was fixing it. He said he would guarantee me it would work. I'm sold on that damn thing now, gotta go get me one to do the other side... all total took less than 10 minutes and I think he said he paid like $19.95 for the kit at one of the parts stores.

[Travis2k7]

The hood dimples are down... you can see them looking straight on the car from about 10 ft away if the light is right... otherwise you can only see them down on your knees (LOL) looking straight across the surface of the hood.

I'd say something hit the car, but what? No scratches, no chips.

No door dings yet, I do have a little dimple on the right rear fender, but it's only about 1/8 inch diameter and isn't noticeable unless you are looking for it.

I'm in contact with a PDR guy, waiting on his quote. I'm guessing a $100 ballpark.