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New Model 3 Rocker Panel Dent

6.9K views 3 replies 4 participants last post by  Mad Hungarian  
#1 ·
Just joined and happy to be here.

Drove over some kind of metal road debris today and it put a dent in my right rocker panel, just in front of the rear wheel well. One “Tesla Approved” body shop said they would need to remove not just the rocker panel, but also both right side doors, and that those doors and the door jams (and the rocker panel) would all need to be repainted. This seems nuts to me, but this is my first Tesla, and I know next to nothing about bodywork on this car.

I do understand why weld pins would be a bad idea, and would really appreciate thoughts and suggestions on how to have this work done, and good shops in the Washington, DC / Northern VA Metro area.

Thank you all.
 

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#2 ·
What the body shop is referring to is called paint blending. If they just re-paint the rocker panel it won't match the rest of the car, because the paint gradually changes color from the moment it leaves the factory. So they blend the paint over the doors and fenders around it to make sure it looks good.
 
#4 ·
Wow, that seems waaayyyy over the top just to fix a rocker dent.
Mine was far worse and was easily fixed by pushing it out with tools through a removable plastic plug in the wheel well and simply repainting just the rocker, using the natural break line along the top edge as a masking point. It looks perfect.
I can understand the need to blend on a an upper panel like a bumper, door or fender, but this part of the car is so low that it's virtually always in shadow and I find highly unlikely anyone's ever going to notice a faint difference in shade if they can't don't get the match 100% perfect. The argument that the paint will require blending to match because of fading also seems highly unlikely on a car that's virtually new.

For more details and pics on my case see the podcast episode (Operation De-Mangle Rocker Panel, July 19th) where I discuss it (starts at around 46:00)
https://teslaownersonline.com/threads/tesla-owners-online-podcast.6777/page-3