Can anyone give me an idea of what happened. I had my car in and out of a few shops over the past week and just the other day I noticed a clunking sound. I then saw that the drivers side door was catching/pinching the front fender. The door looks intact and aligned everywhere except for the lower portion of the door. Seems the fender got pushed in?? The ground effect is loose also. I wonder if they lifted it the wrong way while in the shop??

 

Look under the car at the pinch weld where the lower fender attaches and the factory jacking point is. I bet one of the shops you took it to tried lifting the car there and bent it.

 

Can this be fixed?

 

I just checked. Its bent. Jeez. I know the shop is going to turn around and say it wasn't them. Any idea what to do in this situation? My paint is ruined on the door now. Car was repainted in 2006 by previous owner. Flawless job.. now this..

 

Take it back to them and tell them they messed it up, see what they do.

 

I took it back and spoke to the owner. He looked it over and spoke to the mechanic who did it. Mechanic came out and looked and it and shook his head in disappointment and walked away. Owner came out and referred me to a shop to get estimate. Looks like they are owning up to it Went to body shop and will get estimate by today or Tuesday.

 

This is a common problem I see with most thirdgens. In fact my Formula is the only thirdgen I've ever owned where this hadn't been done out of 4 of them. All my friends with thirdgens have had the same thing done to their cars too. It doesn't happen as often when the car is jacked up via a lift but it happens quite a bit if you jack the car up from the one point. The factory jacking rail is a joke. If you raise the car up too much to change a tire or something it will bend that rail every time. This is why I only jack my car up via the K-member, the A-arms or the lower control arm mounting points. I don't even use the sub-frame for it. While strong enough to take it sometimes, jacking it up as high as you might need to will damage these areas.

 

ive done that many times =[

 

Through trial and error I've learned what places to jack these cars up and where not to. I've also found that its worth getting two hydraulic jacks and doing both sides of the front or rear at more or less the same time so the car is nearly always level. Granted this isn't feasible when changing a tire out on the road, but in your garage at home its been good practice in my experience.

 

ouch, sorry to see. I had the same issue on my last couple 3rd gens as well. should be fixable though

 

Make sure they don't just hammer the pinch weld back in shape and repair the paint issues. Have them take off the fender and check the seals in the a pillar, chances are the seam sealer is cracked now an the panels have separated a bit. Water will get in and it will result in this:

 

Jeez. Thanks for letting me know. I will mention this to them.