Well yea, you'd have to remove the paint to weld on the tabs and once the repair is done, in filler you'd have to prime it and then paint. Same as any other repair like that. Even if you had access to the inner from a hole it would still need filler, primer and paint for a proper repair
Unfortunately to paint it nicely you'd have to get a shop to do it with a paint booth. You can either blend it at the dog (the smallest area by the wheel where it meets the rear door) or paint the entire quarter panel. I can't give any good advice for DIY paint as I don't do that so I wouldn't really know of any brands and aerosol is get what you pay for. So won't look that great and or won't last that long
I doubt it. It's not very thick metal but the semi dome shape makes it quite rigid. Though I don't know for sure as I've never tried nor seen it tried.
Nearly every car has a dedicated "running board" so that any road damage can be easily repaired. But the brilliant designers at Tesla combined the running board with the rear 1/4 panel making for a tricky and costly repair. Start looking at other high end cars, like Porsche, Mercedes, Lexus, etc. They all have dedicated running boards, all they had to do was add a seam. The wheels are also designed to get curb rash with no tire hitting the curb firs. Still an awesome car!
Whoa that's worse than your title hinted at! It's fixable but certainly a labor intensive repair somewhere in the range of $1500-2600. Might be worth a comprehensive claim imo.
That’s accurate I paid 1200$ for similar damage from a curb. Found 3rd party body shop able to pull it and paint it. Looks good now and luckily that part is steel. But shitty design having entire rocker panel and rear quarter panel one piece. Also the plastic rocker panel underneath is still cracked another 300$ to fix.
Absolutely possible if you have a friend in the industry willing to help you out! Most businesses that provide body work and automotive service markup their prices significantly to cover operating costs. Pretty understandably in this market.
I do hope that your friend is able to source parts though. If they're not able to, I highly recommend that you try to yourself from a junkyard or other sources online before completely giving up and taking it to a body shop or an insurance claim.
I do however, er on the side of caution when it comes to the location of the damage. In my opinion; it does not look like that type of damage could have compromised the battery pack - but I am not an expert, nor do I make any such claims to be an expert on the subject matter of electric vehicles - You should make sure that there is no damage to the battery whatsoever before continuing with the repair for obvious safety reasons. If there is any damage whatsoever to the battery. I highly recommend that you immediately notify your insurance and proceed with repairs through them due to extensive costs related to battery repairs and replacement.
I personally would be willing to pay within the same budget that you stated. I'm comfortable with repairs around $1,000 myself if I trust the person performing them to do so correctly and safely. Beyond that - I personally would have my insurance company handle repairs.
May I ask how in the world this damage occurred? Was it a very steep curb or something similar? The crease center of the panel is very unusual and the lack of scratches leaves me wondering and curious how it happened if you don't mind sharing?
I totally agree wth this.The battery is really important and I have to see my friend first soon just so I know what to do next.
I would share it if only i knew how it happened for sure. It left me wondering as well how it all happened. I just saw it today, unfortunately.
Fair enough! Keep us updated! I'll be very surprised if there's anything more than this panel and surface damage but would like to know otherwise!
Sorry to hear about the unknown situationally I would rather know! I looked closely at the second picture and can see some of the paint damage I was expecting; but really I'm still wondering what type of object could've caused this type of damage so localized. I'm thinking it had to have been a curb or something similar?
Best of luck with repairs! Please update if any battery or structural compromise is discovered!
It’s fixable. Tesla would replace the rocker. Which is over kill. PDR if the tech is really good could pull most if not all out. Traditional body would would also pull most out then grind kt. Fill it and paint it
It’s not a few hundred. Several hundred assuming the guy knows what he’s about. That means finding someone who competes and wins in the various PDR contests so you know that he knows how to do this. It’s a hard crease which is time consuming and uses specialized skills vs just pushing and pulling the metal. It’s also a bitch of a place to get tools into. If it were me. I’d let a shop pull it, grind it , skim it and paint it. That’s a 3 day gravy job for any competent shop. 1 to fix and prime. 1 to block it and let cure and paint. One to let it cure and a fast paint correction and buff. And after 30 days put PPF along the bottom and nobody will ever know. Back “in the day” we used to use a spray on 3M textured urethane product that protected rocker panels from stones and rocks. The texture also cover up minor dents and scrapes. Now everyone use the films.
I don’t know if this will work but my wife’s uncle does car repairs and with some dents, he’s able to use a hair dryer to heat up the plastic moulding and then pop it from behind using his hand. Doesn’t also work perfectly and needs further touching up, but sometimes gets lucky.
Might be worth a shot?
I got my car damaged at the same area due to a debris on the road that was generously passed on by a truck from another lane. At first I was like, yeah nbd. Then I was like I’m paying for insurance and it’s not my fault so why suffer. I am getting it fixed now and it’s 8K total. Glad the insurance is covering it. I just need to pay my deductible of $250. SoCal here for pricing guide.
Very fixable and no battery damage. Take it to a small bodyshop and offer cash payment. This is the rocker panel and it's open "box" panel. There is another panel between the rocker and the battery. No worries a shop can fix this easily! Good luck!
I have this, just far more severe (basically extends the full length of the car between the wheels) and I just got a quote back from my local Tesla authorized body shop — $4,000. Not as bad as I thought it would be, truth be told.
Hate to break it to you, but this isnt something you can fix easy. The metal is creased and basically unrepairable. You can get it darn close but if you look at it in the light you will still be able to see it
Unironically would be cheaper to get some side skirts. Aluminum sucks to work with.
https://tsportline.com/products/tesla-model-3-carbon-fiber-side-skirts
You can try with heat gun and a suction cup. Do not heat on single location for more than 1-2 seconds, keep moving. Or else it will damage the paint. Once the panel is soft, use suction cup to pull the dent out. Choose appropriate size of suction cup based on big the dent is.
Find a paint-free dent repair shop, they have developed a lot of different ways to pull dents that are inaccessible from the back side.
Even if it needed to be re-painted, that area could be pulled with spot-weld studs then normal body work... probably well under $2k.
This one shocked me, but it takes lots of experience and time.
https://youtu.be/DKPfy5djvLc?si=2JY74lVsE_S4QbIT
Just dent the other side and you won’t even notice it.
Lool at this
Ngl, kinda looks cool.
Really does. I would not think twice about this. Only you will notice it, but it looks cool. Ya got lucky.
No offense but there is nothing "subtle" about that damage.
It's subtle if it's not their car.
True. Its a lesson and an honest mistake from me 😅
What happened?
I dunno they lucky it’s white because I couldn’t even spot where the damage was right away
*said the dumb white girl's boyfriend.*
Dumb white girls are so hot
based
Do you know any?
Many, but I keep them to myself.
Where do you find them?
It just happened lol maybe in a few weeks it might look subtle
What was the mistake?
It'll buff out
I was thinking same thing 😂
Pretty standard repair. Weld a few tabs on and pull it out. Finesse, fill, prime, paint.
Yooo! This is what I was thinking. I just need to confirm with my mechanic friend
I've done many like this. EVs you can typically disconnect the HV battery as well if that's a concern. Good luck mang!
Gotcha! Thank you for your input on this 🤙
What does finesse mean?
Likely a few uses of a panel beater and body hammer. Welding a tab and pulling won't do it all
Cybertruck style. Wouldn’t welding cause damage to paint?
Well yea, you'd have to remove the paint to weld on the tabs and once the repair is done, in filler you'd have to prime it and then paint. Same as any other repair like that. Even if you had access to the inner from a hole it would still need filler, primer and paint for a proper repair
Ohhhh I see. Where do you buy paint?
Unfortunately to paint it nicely you'd have to get a shop to do it with a paint booth. You can either blend it at the dog (the smallest area by the wheel where it meets the rear door) or paint the entire quarter panel. I can't give any good advice for DIY paint as I don't do that so I wouldn't really know of any brands and aerosol is get what you pay for. So won't look that great and or won't last that long
Oh so not DIY at all
Ehhh. Maybe, but it wouldn't be that pretty unless you had decent exp with the process and chemicals. Sorry
Ok thanks cool person
Oh man. You are really new to the world it's cute
Thanks lol. Are you an older woman by chance
I am! A/s/l?
Cap
Any chance cold contraction could pop it out?
I doubt it. It's not very thick metal but the semi dome shape makes it quite rigid. Though I don't know for sure as I've never tried nor seen it tried.
Isn’t it aluminum?
The quarter is not. Stick a magnet to it
HaHaHa...I had the same subtle dent and the insurance was charged $11k...that is the biggest body part on your car bro...
Yeah i know it sucks. Its a life lesson for me
Have you tried suction tools? I used one on my suv and it worked great. Not sure about that panel though.
Is it part of the main casting?
Nearly every car has a dedicated "running board" so that any road damage can be easily repaired. But the brilliant designers at Tesla combined the running board with the rear 1/4 panel making for a tricky and costly repair. Start looking at other high end cars, like Porsche, Mercedes, Lexus, etc. They all have dedicated running boards, all they had to do was add a seam. The wheels are also designed to get curb rash with no tire hitting the curb firs. Still an awesome car!
Whoa that's worse than your title hinted at! It's fixable but certainly a labor intensive repair somewhere in the range of $1500-2600. Might be worth a comprehensive claim imo.
That’s accurate I paid 1200$ for similar damage from a curb. Found 3rd party body shop able to pull it and paint it. Looks good now and luckily that part is steel. But shitty design having entire rocker panel and rear quarter panel one piece. Also the plastic rocker panel underneath is still cracked another 300$ to fix.
Im hoping to get less than that. Im going to meet up with a mechanic friend soon. Hopefully, i could lower it to 1000$
Absolutely possible if you have a friend in the industry willing to help you out! Most businesses that provide body work and automotive service markup their prices significantly to cover operating costs. Pretty understandably in this market. I do hope that your friend is able to source parts though. If they're not able to, I highly recommend that you try to yourself from a junkyard or other sources online before completely giving up and taking it to a body shop or an insurance claim. I do however, er on the side of caution when it comes to the location of the damage. In my opinion; it does not look like that type of damage could have compromised the battery pack - but I am not an expert, nor do I make any such claims to be an expert on the subject matter of electric vehicles - You should make sure that there is no damage to the battery whatsoever before continuing with the repair for obvious safety reasons. If there is any damage whatsoever to the battery. I highly recommend that you immediately notify your insurance and proceed with repairs through them due to extensive costs related to battery repairs and replacement. I personally would be willing to pay within the same budget that you stated. I'm comfortable with repairs around $1,000 myself if I trust the person performing them to do so correctly and safely. Beyond that - I personally would have my insurance company handle repairs. May I ask how in the world this damage occurred? Was it a very steep curb or something similar? The crease center of the panel is very unusual and the lack of scratches leaves me wondering and curious how it happened if you don't mind sharing?
I totally agree wth this.The battery is really important and I have to see my friend first soon just so I know what to do next. I would share it if only i knew how it happened for sure. It left me wondering as well how it all happened. I just saw it today, unfortunately.
Fair enough! Keep us updated! I'll be very surprised if there's anything more than this panel and surface damage but would like to know otherwise! Sorry to hear about the unknown situationally I would rather know! I looked closely at the second picture and can see some of the paint damage I was expecting; but really I'm still wondering what type of object could've caused this type of damage so localized. I'm thinking it had to have been a curb or something similar? Best of luck with repairs! Please update if any battery or structural compromise is discovered!
If your friend is a mechanic make sure you ask him one thing. “Do you know a body guy?” Mechanics don’t do body work.
Look at Tesla forums and other posts but bare min people were being quoted $3K
Just get a carbon-fiber side skirt overlay and you will never see this. CMST V3
Tempted to get the side skirts because of this! Definitely will look into it
It's not a cheap repair. Cut and replace, or weld and pull (not a good idea since it's close to the battery). Plus paint and it's several thousand.
Oh yeah, the battery.. that sucks alright. thanks for the input!
Battery is far behind. Probably 2000-5000$ ( I need to fix the se thing )
Why would weeks and pull be bad because of the proximity to the battery?
Heat and sparks + battery = explosions.
If you cut it out you still have to weld the latch in. Spot welding to pull will be a lot less great.
No paint damage looks like so maybe Paintless Dent Repair?
Yeah, ome of my mechanic friend’s told me that
How old r u bro
Look at my post with “similar-ish” damage. Ended up getting 4 quotes, best was $5000. Went through insurance so just paid the deductible.
Just called service and insurance as well, just needed to pay deductible !!
It’s fixable. Tesla would replace the rocker. Which is over kill. PDR if the tech is really good could pull most if not all out. Traditional body would would also pull most out then grind kt. Fill it and paint it
PDR would definitely be the way to go. Not really worried about the paint though
PDR can handle this, should cost a few hundred at most
It’s not a few hundred. Several hundred assuming the guy knows what he’s about. That means finding someone who competes and wins in the various PDR contests so you know that he knows how to do this. It’s a hard crease which is time consuming and uses specialized skills vs just pushing and pulling the metal. It’s also a bitch of a place to get tools into. If it were me. I’d let a shop pull it, grind it , skim it and paint it. That’s a 3 day gravy job for any competent shop. 1 to fix and prime. 1 to block it and let cure and paint. One to let it cure and a fast paint correction and buff. And after 30 days put PPF along the bottom and nobody will ever know. Back “in the day” we used to use a spray on 3M textured urethane product that protected rocker panels from stones and rocks. The texture also cover up minor dents and scrapes. Now everyone use the films.
Well what you mean by subtle ? For me that is anything but subtle.
Oh well, just gotta live with my honest mistake 😅
How old are you?
...yea... no... Rocker panels are super expensive to fix.
Sadly yeah
I don’t know if this will work but my wife’s uncle does car repairs and with some dents, he’s able to use a hair dryer to heat up the plastic moulding and then pop it from behind using his hand. Doesn’t also work perfectly and needs further touching up, but sometimes gets lucky. Might be worth a shot?
I got my car damaged at the same area due to a debris on the road that was generously passed on by a truck from another lane. At first I was like, yeah nbd. Then I was like I’m paying for insurance and it’s not my fault so why suffer. I am getting it fixed now and it’s 8K total. Glad the insurance is covering it. I just need to pay my deductible of $250. SoCal here for pricing guide.
Just buy one of thoese aggresive side skirts that cover and and forget about it
Im looking into it right now!
Can't be seen from the inside. Leave it like this
Take it do dent repair body shop that’s saved my m3 multiple times
Very fixable and no battery damage. Take it to a small bodyshop and offer cash payment. This is the rocker panel and it's open "box" panel. There is another panel between the rocker and the battery. No worries a shop can fix this easily! Good luck!
Heading to my mechanic friends to have him check it! Yeah, was worried about the battery at first but i guess its not that bad. Thanks you!
u/poweroo010 - What did you end up doing?
Improved aerodynamics
Heck yeahh!
I heard that you can fix it with ramen
Perfect! I bought many recently
Get sideskirts. Problem solved.
Just searched up side skirts. Looks tempting to get that one instead!
It'll be a lot cheaper
In spec.
I have this, just far more severe (basically extends the full length of the car between the wheels) and I just got a quote back from my local Tesla authorized body shop — $4,000. Not as bad as I thought it would be, truth be told.
I got mine around 600$ - $1200 for a PDR. Thinking of getting that instead
Within spec
Couldn’t a paintless dent guy do this. I’ve seen dents pulled by glueing and pulling.
call around to paintless dent repair in your area.
“Subtle dent” hahahahaha
Hate to break it to you, but this isnt something you can fix easy. The metal is creased and basically unrepairable. You can get it darn close but if you look at it in the light you will still be able to see it
It’s just a flesh wound
That’s completely fucked up. Why would you say that is subtle and how did you do it?
Google "paintless dent repair near me" Very economical option for a dent like that.
Yes. I just had one similar fixed. Looks perfect
Unironically would be cheaper to get some side skirts. Aluminum sucks to work with. https://tsportline.com/products/tesla-model-3-carbon-fiber-side-skirts
You can try with heat gun and a suction cup. Do not heat on single location for more than 1-2 seconds, keep moving. Or else it will damage the paint. Once the panel is soft, use suction cup to pull the dent out. Choose appropriate size of suction cup based on big the dent is.
Why do people always ask if stuff is fixable with Teslas? Yeah it’s a car just like any other and any body shop can repair anything.
Find a paint-free dent repair shop, they have developed a lot of different ways to pull dents that are inaccessible from the back side. Even if it needed to be re-painted, that area could be pulled with spot-weld studs then normal body work... probably well under $2k. This one shocked me, but it takes lots of experience and time. https://youtu.be/DKPfy5djvLc?si=2JY74lVsE_S4QbIT
Yes, it's the rocker panel. Just got mine fixed last week.
Totaled
No you need to salvage the car
$12-15k.
attach some ground effects on the sides
oh just a couple grand worth of damage right there
Yes but $$$$$$$
That’s subtle to you?!
Speed dent
It might not be fixable but it’s certainly replaceable.
I “subtly” slipped your mum a length sort of encapsulates this as a “mistake “
That is a really big dent. That would cost big dent money to fix.