Another exterior F&F problem - dented pillar panels

Don't ask me why I'm only just seeing these, after 10 months. I guess the sun is just hanging in the right place in the late afternoon sky now. But, for whatever the reason, I just last evening noticed 4 very shallow dents in the pillar panels on my car - 3 on the passenger side and 1 on the drivers side (the pillar panels are either side of the roof panel and hold the A, B, and C pillars).

Could they have happened since I got the car? Possible, but doubtful - I've been so careful with this car it isn't even funny. So I gotta think it came out of the factory that way. And if it did, you can add this to the list of issues I have with the overall quality of the body and paint on my car - in my opinion it really lets down what is otherwise an excellent vehicle.

There is no point in trying to photograph them...they are just too shallow to show up on a photo. But now I know they're there, I (of course) see them every time I look at the car. Maybe I'll bring in a paintless dent removal guy and see if they can be pushed out.

I have to take my car to walmart and every time I go its another dent no matter where you park. Just a part of life. Its a car and other people will just tear your stuff up. I dont know how anyone with a 100,000 car could drive it anywhere.

:shock:

mksE55 said:

I have to take my car to walmart and every time I go its another dent no matter where you park.

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But these is in the roof. They aren't door/fender dings.

People leaning on car to look inside, etc?

I just took a very close look at mine from a number of different angles under flat light (which is the best to see such things)... Yep, I've got them too! They are very subtle but there.

mwalsh said:

But these is in the roof. They aren't door/fender dings.

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body flex? weld or reinforcments inside the roof panel A pillar distorting the exterior sheetmetal?

????

kmp647 said:

body flex? weld or reinforcments inside the roof panel A pillar distorting the exterior sheetmetal?

????

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My first thought was weld points. But the one on the driver's side isn't in the same place as any of the ones on the passenger side.

I'm going to check some of the other guys' cars out at the next breakfast, to see if it's an endemic problem or limited to my car. This is not the first observation of poor paint and body that I've seen though, and not even on my car - another member's black car had such bad scratches on the roof behind the antenna that I would have probably refused delivery.

mwalsh said:

Don't ask me why I'm only just seeing these, after 10 months.

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I don't think I'd be very worried about cosmetic defects I didn't notice for 10 months. My mud flaps have an ugly gap of at least 1/4". I just don't look at them which keeps me

Mike, which pillars are the dents on< A, B or C?

Boomer23 said:

Mike, which pillars are the dents on< A, B or C?

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Not on the pillars but on the top of that whole panel. Here are pictures with a general indication on where they are. I can only find two on the right side as of right now (yes, they are that shallow):

Wife's purse? 1001 dings.

I found dent 3 on the right side now that the car has dried off a bit - it's just behind the leading dent.

Extra heavy rain drops? Cricket ball-sized hail?

Boomer23 said:

Extra heavy rain drops? Cricket ball-sized hail?

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....Large bird poops? Blue ice from aeroplanes? You got me!

I just backed mine out of the garage for a look-see with a magnifying glass (not really). Nothing there, as far as I can see.

It'll be interesting to compare next time we have our cars near each other.

Boomer23 said:

I just backed mine out of the garage for a look-see with a magnifying glass (not really). Nothing there, as far as I can see.

It'll be interesting to compare next time we have our cars near each other.

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Yeah, that's what I'm hoping to do. They don't bother me (much), and it's not like I was ever going to go back to Nissan crying over the small cosmetic issues I have found with my car. Those are the breaks for ordering a car that was going to be in short supply for a long time - turn it down on delivery and there are like 10 guys behind you waiting to take it at MSRP (or more). And they could have happened since I had the car.

I am going to get a paintless dent guy to come take a look though. They only charge around $50 a dent (or at least that was the going rate the last time I priced it out).

mwalsh said:

I am going to get a paintless dent guy to come take a look though. They only charge around $50 a dent (or at least that was the going rate the last time I priced it out).

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Interested in how that works out for you. We went...um...somewhere last week and picked up a rear quarter panel ding. No exchange of paint, no paint loss, so I'm thinking one of those dent popper guys might be able to do the trick...

...but then I wondered "Does their thing work on aluminum panels?"

BTW, I just tried to have a look at the car, for both the ding we got and to see if we have your issue, too, and it's just impossible; the car has water droplets all over it like a sheet of diamonds, having just come in from the rain; that coupled with the directly overhead fluorescent lighting and my sketchy eyesight yields little usable information.

My leaf has a big dent on the drivers side A pillar. I thought someone punched it or I grabbed the A pillar to help myself out of the car and put a big dent in the car. It could have come like that but i'm not sure. I realized the leaf panels are super thin and should't be touched right after I got the car.

On the happy side of the coin, I really like the blue color. So it all balances out.

Saving weight is why the panels are so thin. Hopefully in the future they will make cars with carbon fiber which is lighter and stronger. Until then, I'll park my Leaf at the far end of the parking lot all alone

Boomer23 said:

Extra heavy rain drops? Cricket ball-sized hail?

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That's just were they stacked up the Leaf's for shipping. Only happens to the Leaf's on the bottom row. The middle and top rows make it through just fine.

it may be a manufacturing issue with the high strength steel they use in certain parts.. for crash and rollover protection. That steel is probably not as easy to form as the regular soft kind.