Really ticked-off -- got my first parking lot ding this week

[BobJustBob]

Man, I am fuming--I got my first parking lot ding this week.  What makes it worse is that I probably could have avoided it.  I had just parked in the parking lot of a strip shopping center.  The space to my left was open.  As I was shutting-off my engine and unclipping my seat belt, a large, white van came down the next aisle over, turned, and drove through the parking space in his row and pulled into the space to my left.  I am sure he did this so that he would not have to back up when he left--he could just pull forward out of his spot.  As he pulled into that spot I thought, "Boy, that van is huge.  There isn't much space between his vehicle and mine.  If I were smart, I would move right now."  However, the driver of the van exited his vehicle very quickly, and he seemed to take care as he opened his door, so I didn't move my vehicle and instead went about my business.  When I came out, the van was gone.  I didn't think anything more of it, I loaded my purchase into the rear cargo area, and I drove home.

 

The next morning, when I came out to drive to work, I noticed some white material on my left, rear, wheel well.  I didn't think too much of it at the time, since there is a large maple tree right next to the driveway, and during the spring and summer months I occasionally get bird droppings on my vehicle.  This material on my car looked exactly like some bird droppings, so I did not think any more about it.  I got in my car and drove to work.  (This was two days ago.)

 

Yesterday, while at work, we got a couple of brief, fairly intense, thunderstorms.  When I got home from work I happened to glance at the rear of my car as I was getting my computer bag out of the back of the car, and I noticed that the white material was still there.  "That's odd, I thought--it rained hard enough to have washed away any bird droppings."  My driveway points to the west, and the sun was low enough in the sky so that the sunlight was hitting the rear of my car at a narrow angle.  As I took a closer look at the wheel well, I could now see that it was dimpled.  That's when I realized that I had got a "parking lot ding", and the white material near it was vehicle paint.  I flashed-back to the parking lot of a couple of days ago and realized that the van driver must have hit me with his driver's side door when he got back in his vehicle.  Aaaaarg!

 

Oh well, my C-Max is almost nine months old--I realize it was not going to stay pristine forever.  It is irritating, though, especially when I realize that by taking an extra minute or so I could have avoided it.  The dimple is slightly larger than nickel-sized.  Fortunately, the wheel well is lower on the vehicle, so it is not as noticeable as if it were near the "beltline" of the vehicle near a door.  However, the white paint around it does make it a bit more noticeable (my C-Max's color is Silver Ingot).  There is a well-regarded body shop about four miles from where I live.  I may take my vehicle over there some time and get an estimate on how much it would cost to get this removed.  (At the very least, I am curious if they could remove the white paint.  This would make the dimple almost unnoticeable under most lighting conditions.)

[fotomoto]

I feel your pain.  :banghead:

 

You can remove the paint marks yourself.  First try some soap and water and A LOT of elbow grease.  If that doesn't get all or any of it off, get some automotive paint polishing compound (turtle wax, meguiars, etc).  This is gritty and usually take all paint scrapes off.  If that doesn't get it all, you'll need power tools and re-apply.  You'll also need to apply a wax afterwards.  This will make the ding much less noticeable.     GOOD LUCK!

[MikeB]

I keep a really good coat of wax on my car's paint, and that has the occasional advantage of making it easy to remove paint from dings like this. Start with a very mild polish and work your way up to the more aggressive stuff, and you'll probably be ok. Having a newer clearcoat is going to save you on that.

 

After that, bypass the body shop and look for a paintless dent remover. (Actually, the body shop and local dealership will both know a guy who does this.) They can pull out dings using a bit of heat and a nice suction cup mechanism, and it'll be almost invisible. I got a sizable dent removed for about $150, and it would have been over $500 if a body shop had done it. The difference is that the dent remover will be almost invisible, the body shop will be completely invisible. So there is some difference in quality of repair, but I think it's probably not worth the cost.