Put my car up on stands on the weekend to inspect the driveline and when I went to put the front stands under the rails discovered to my horror that some fairly serious damage had occured recently to the passengers side rail I have no idea what has happened, I vaguely remember hitting a nasty pothole a few weeks ago but didnt seem that violent. The dent is pretty deep and has wrecked to flat spot for the stand. Anybody got any experience with getting this sort of damage repaired and whats involved/price? But even more fun was to be had today when I went back under the car to further examine the extent of the damage. Whenever I put a car on stands I always give the car a good shove to see if its sitting firm (would rather have the car fall when Im standing next to it than under it), and thats what Id done this time aswell with no problems, the car was as solid as a rock. I also rechecked the stand under the damage to make sure the rail was holding the weight, which it was. So Im on my garage crawler slowly working my way from the rear to the front inspecting the car for anything amiss. While pulling myself along, the crawler hits the stand under the damaged rail, AND THE STAND FALLS OVER!. The damn car Im under is now sitting on 3 chassis stands! It looks like the stand wasnt quite holding the weight due to the dent and when I bumped it, its been knocked forwards and then had the room to fall over. This is a shot after I got the hell out from under the car and had pulled the "spare" stand out of the way. I used to have a set of wheel stands where the car was lowered onto stands under the wheels, I think I'll be fabricating a new set for extra insurance after this!
The damage what damage! you should see the under side of a zed after it's crossed a few curbs. Most off the cars I've looked under have some form off damage to the rails, your's dose not look to bad. The oil leak is more off a problem.
Take care going under that thing dude. Even those front 2 supports look like they are only on half the stand under the wood. Going under a car always scares me so i have twice the support required and then backup My rails also have a hint of scraps like that aswell. Doesnt look toooo bad.
Well the dents deep enough to not allow my stand to take the weight of the car. Oil leak is from valve covers, have'nt been motivated enough to pull the plenum to fix it yet as its only a minor leak
agreed mate, I've got the same underbody scuffs and i know exactly what caused it too it's all a part of wear and tear. don't worry about it.
yer ive got some decent dents in my rails from a low car going over ripple strips doesn't feel to good when you hit them either
I'll have to get a better picture of it, the dent is a lot deeper than it looks in that pic. I have to do something as it wont sit on the stand due to it being squashed up a cm or so. Till then I'll have to make a new wooden seat for the stand with extra height to make up for the damage.
Some one got airborn there is nuthing like scrapen hard at 100Kmh lol Obviously rapair is avalibe for this but it is quite pricey A simillar thing happend to the bottem lh side of mine it has a gash into the side were the side skirts are fitted it hapend at 10 kmh on one of those speed hump things that you have to drive on and turn left then right.
How do you repair this sort of damage? I have a very bad dent in one of my rails to the point the passanger sfloor is a tiny bit off. I really want to get it fixed
I wouldn't use pieces of wood on top of the stands like that. My jack stands fit snug around the rails and another slightly different set hug the jack points at the back, you'd have to tip the stands before the car would move off them.
Got to agree with that Timber pieces might seem to be putting something a bit softer for the car to sit on but much more chances of trouble like it sliding off. I sit the rails in the gap nice and snug, and I also leave the floor jack under the car. Good luck with the work...
Agree with RD Also put a brick or some packing between the tyre and the ground, so if it does fall your have some safety margin.
Agreed, that's not bad at all what are you on about? lol It can be easily pulled out anyway. Looks like a rear main seal to me. No such thing as a minor oil leak, oil leaks are bad...
geez u should see under my z. some idiot liked to jack my z up by the factory spare jack areas with a trolley jack. totally stuffed the side rail. And my old front pipes had a massive dint in them also. My new dumps have a slight scrape on them but thats what you get on some speed bumps :zlove:
Agreed bricks under wheels ftw I feel VERY incomfortable under cars. One of the main reasons i get more stuff done by pro's than most would. however, I've toyed with the idea of re-surfacing my garage floor, and having a trench running front to back of the car. Not too deep. Not a full "pit" but just a trnech low enough to happily seat me on a trolly going under the car WITHOUT the need for jacking the car up. Drainage is the only problem ive thought of so far That and the possibility of the wife parking a wheel in the trench lol This is where i miss the big sharp curbs of the UK. Memories of my dad working under the car, always involved the car being half on and off the curb at the side of the road (in a cul-de-sac), leaving PLEANTY of room to work underneath..... ..on an angle of course
I don't think he can read... A lot of members just look at the pics. Just like the thread I did, with new pics explaining why I had the stock bonnet back on. I was still asked why the stock bonnet was on though :banned: :bash:
