Door Ding Repair

[Remonster]

Long story short I got a door ding on the passenger side rear door. It's tiny. It's located about 10" directly to the right of the door handle.

After speaking to several body shops there's only two solutions to repair the ding in my location, and a possible third if I get lucky:
1) Sand, bondo, paint, blend. $900. Not advised for resale as it really implies the door was damaged in an accident. Plus it's expensive.
2) Drill pilot hole into door jam and insert repair tool. ~$200 and not guaranteed to work.
3) If I'm lucky they can get to it from the window seal area. Body shop isn't confident though. There's a support bracket internal to the door that limits access. I'm confirming whether it's possible.

I wanted to post my research and what I've found in case someone else has a door ding. My advise would be to avoid them if you can haha.

 

[Shizzrock]

Is it a ding or a crease? Because a ding on a door panel is the easiest repair for paintless dent removal

 

[mechrock]

I had a double ding / dent happen over the weekend. Both on the passenger door body lines.

 

[mechrock]

 

[Remonster]

Is it a ding or a crease? Because a ding on a door panel is the easiest repair for paintless dent removal

It's definitely a ding. The hole drilled in the door panel is where they insert the tool to do the paintless repair.

That's brutal man...

 

[rodrego]

I love my car. I got something very similar while my car was in tesla’s possession to fix some paint issues. Noticed it a day after I picked it up. It looks like mechrock’s panel. I’m just going to live with it. The car has 12.4k miles on it and it can’t look perfect forever. It’s much more hassel & cash than it’s worth to fix a little ding that no one else notices but you.

 

[Shizzrock]

It's definitely a ding. The hole drilled in the door panel is where they insert the tool to do the paintless repair.



That's brutal man...

Yeah I guess I'd have to see it. I was just saying there's techniques where they can just use glue and a "knocker" or clamp device to pull the dent out.

 

[CarterStC]

I just drove out to San Mateo to get a quote from Sal:
Paintless dent repair

He's worked on a number of Teslas and I found him through others on this forum. Give him a call and he can give you a quote after seeing your car. It's not cheap, but it beats living with it.
In my case, they dented the rear door so hard it took the paint off, so I need to deal with that after he removes the dent.

Also, aluminum panels are too rigid to pull, they have to be pushed from the inside.

 

[Remonster]

I just drove out to San Mateo to get a quote from Sal:
Paintless dent repair

He's worked on a number of Teslas and I found him through others on this forum. Give him a call and he can give you a quote after seeing your car. It's not cheap, but it beats living with it.
In my case, they dented the rear door so hard it took the paint off, so I need to deal with that after he removes the dent.

Also, aluminum panels are too rigid to pull, they have to be pushed from the inside.

Thanks for the recommendation man. I'll definitely give him a call.

 

[SouthBayGuy]

Just to add to this thread, if the paint is not chipped, paintless dent removal is the way to go. Even if it is a crease, they can make it look much better.

 

[SayWhat]

Has anyone tried using dent protection accessories to prevent the dings? I’m guessing the typical magnetic protectors won’t work on the Tesla.

 

[Vintre]

Has anyone tried using dent protection accessories to prevent the dings? I’m guessing the typical magnetic protectors won’t work on the Tesla.

I recently had the same dent as the OP only mine were a bit deeper. Definitely, some jerk opened their door and dinged me.

The M3 made of up of sections of aluminum and steel.

The doors and front hood are aluminum. The front, rear quarter panels and the piece that goes from the trunk over the windows to the front quarter panel are steel.

I am not familiar with "typical magnetic protectors" but if they have to go on the doors, they won't stick.

For me, I used a paintless dent repair guy and he got them both out perfectly. Cost me $425 becasue the doors are aluminum.

Vin

 

[AlanSubie4Life]

Anyone have any recommendations for PDR places who have done aluminum panels in San Diego? I came back to the following in UTC La Jolla yesterday. Made me sad, and made me wish I had followed my heart and parked 5 levels up where no one else was parked...but I had other people in the car. It was just a Prius nicely parked next to me when I left... Baja California plates on the minivan so nothing I can do about it!

I don't even have my plates yet! Relatively minor ding, no paint issues I can see, although I can see the panel is slightly deformed even a half inch away from the main damage. I wouldn't do anything about it if the car were a year or two old. But painful for a car I have had for less than a month.

Anyway, never had PDR done, but this seems like it would be an easy case, as it's on the passenger door about 6-8 inches back from the hinge, so there should be plenty of access. From what I've heard they insert a tool between the window and door panel? And an airbag of some form is involved?

 

[xilex]

Anyone have any recommendations for PDR places who have done aluminum panels in San Diego? I came back to the following in UTC La Jolla yesterday. Made me sad, and made me wish I had followed my heart and parked 5 levels up where no one else was parked...but I had other people in the car. It was just a Prius nicely parked next to me when I left... Baja California plates on the minivan so nothing I can do about it!

Can't understand how people can give zero shits about things other than themselves. I have never needed to open a door that fast and hard to cause a dent like that.

 

[AlanSubie4Life]

I can understand accidents when the other car is actually quite far away, and it's the last detent on the door hinge that "goes" and then the door swings out that last little bit and hits the door. I was actually optimistic in this case because the car was so close...even if they open the door and hit, I figured the momentum would be low, and my car's right there two feet away, so why would they slam their door open? On the other hand, the parking job did not bode well! So, apparently they slammed their door open. Gotta get those kids out and go shopping! Needless to say, I have not gotten an email in response to the note I left, asking nicely for them to help pay for the repair.

 

[AlanSubie4Life]

A few more pictures of my beautiful dent. Anyone with experience who knows someone in San Diego, and knows whether there is hope for PDR for this, let me know. I have a place I know of that does PDR, but not sure about them. Was also thinking of asking who they use, at the delivery center - I'm sure they have to do it all the time!

Does this seem mostly removable? I don't see that it is super sharp so hoping paint won't crack when it is pushed back in place.

 

[xilex]

Ask on Yelp for quotes and send photo to see if feasible.

 

[Roentgen]

I can understand accidents when the other car is actually quite far away, and it's the last detent on the door hinge that "goes" and then the door swings out that last little bit and hits the door. I was actually optimistic in this case because the car was so close...even if they open the door and hit, I figured the momentum would be low, and my car's right there two feet away, so why would they slam their door open? On the other hand, the parking job did not bode well! So, apparently they slammed their door open. Gotta get those kids out and go shopping! Needless to say, I have not gotten an email in response to the note I left, asking nicely for them to help pay for the repair.

Sorry man. That sucks. Kids opening a car door themselves I can totally understand and see this happening (That being said, my kids are still held behind the child door locks, and I make sure I'm between the door and whatever they're gonna bang it into when I let them push the door open. And I'm training them to look and open the door slowly when they're getting out - only 7 and 4 but starting to get it!).

Minivans all have sliding rear doors these days, so it's gotta be the front, and there's no excuse for the adult driving them around. But yeah, dat parking job. Bad sign. Not much you can do about other shitty drivers.

 

[AlanSubie4Life]

Got in touch with a PDR expert in San Diego and it seems like this dent is an easy fix, and hopefully minimal polishing post removal will be required. For a price. I'm sure that minivan driver with Baja California plates will get back in touch with me soon. I'll post pictures after repair! Apparently the dent on the C-pillar on my due bill is also easily repaired without requiring internal access, too (I thought it might not be repairable!).

 

[AlanSubie4Life]

It was an easy fix, though the price was pretty steep ($325). Dent Time in San Diego is where I went, based on Yelp reviews; I didn't want to mess around this time. Hopefully this is the last time.

It was really interesting to watch - steel panel inserted against window, airbag to create separation, steel pusher tool inserted, lots of bending with steel panel as backer, tapping from the outside with a plastic tool to bring in the panel on either side of the dent. No disassembly needed. And a "barred" light to accentuate the surface irregularities when he was doing the work. Took less than an hour to complete the job.

Apparently, the main challenge with aluminum is the strength/force that is required to bend it out. It's a LOT stiffer than steel apparently. He said this dent would have been twice as deep if it had been a steel panel. There was further complexity because it's on a body line - those are harder to get right. Unfortunately these body lines are very exposed on the Model 3 (it would be ideal if a flat section of panel were exposed to door impacts to distribute the forces).

It looks perfect, aside from some very minor surface roughness which I told him not to bother to sand down & polish (can see it in one of the pictures in just the right light) . (I might use some Ultimate Compound at some point.) Really impressed.

This has been very educational and expensive. I really recommend Dent Time, though, if you need dents removed drama-free in San Diego.