...well, more of a distortion or undulation. Noticed it the other day. It's really shallow, around 3/4 of the way down from the tailgate window to the blended edge, and only really visible by distortion in the reflections. I'd say it's about 2cm across, barely perceptible to the touch.

 

 

Normally I'd just growl something profane and get my local PDR specialist to work this out, but I'm really stumped as to how this one got there. Now this is quite a hard panel, so I'd expect to see evidence on the paintwork if it'd been clonked. But the paint's pristine there. Just leaning on it should not be sufficient force (and I don't permit leaning on my car anyway). And from the position I think we can rule out a horny shopping trolley.

 

This leaves me with the following possibilities, if external influence can really be ruled out:

• A small manufacturing error that was always there and I only just noticed. (It's possible.)
• It warped in the recent heatwave.
• Misalignment in the tailgate stressing the panel incorrectly during normal opening/closing.
• Some latent stress in the sheet metal that has only just manifested, perhaps because of at least one of the above two reasons.
• Aliens.

Any ideas?

Edited 12 August, 20196 yr by ettlz

You won't remember this,but perhaps you met some guys who look like Blues Brothers cosplayers, and carry pen size torches?

Illuminati?

 

Could you highlight the dent, all I can see are reflections.

3 hours ago, gumdrop said:

Could you highlight the dent, all I can see are reflections.

 

To be fair it is very shallow and difficult to see without moving around a bit. I might be able to find a better environment elsewhere for the zebra-stripes effect. It's more-or-less in the centre of the image, where there's the irregularity in the reflection of the brickwork.

 

 

I'm just wondering if this sort of thing can happen spontaneously in bodywork.

Edited 13 August, 20196 yr by ettlz

7 minutes ago, ettlz said:

 

To be fair it is very shallow and difficult to see without moving around a bit. I might be able to find a better environment elsewhere for the zebra-stripes effect. It's more-or-less in the centre of the image, where there's the irregularity in the reflection of the brickwork.

 

 

I'm just wondering if this sort of thing can happen spontaneously in bodywork.

 

It looks as if it has been "leaned" on, but it is quite a stiff panel. My son is London based and his cars and vans get a lot of  (naughty) cyclist damage ,

fists, feet etc.

I have seen and had to remove similar and it has just been someone leaning hard with a palm of a hand while polishing a panel.

It's not the pointing of the brickwork that's wonky is it?

If it was a lean it wasn't me, and I wasn't in the car at the time. You'd think that particular panel would be quite lean-resistant too, given owners might push down on it to close the tailgate or hold it to steady themselves. Oh well, however it came to pass, it looks like it's off to the dent remover next month. (Grumble grumble grumble, can't have nice things, etc.)

Edited 13 August, 20196 yr by ettlz

I’d bet on that being caused by someone pushing the boot closed too hard. 

My Octavia had similar dents on the tailgate. 

On 13/08/2019 at 19:55, punyXpress said:

It's not the pointing of the brickwork that's wonky is it?

Damn, you got there first! Nice work 

 

As above, looks like it was leaned on.  Another culprit could be a low light or similar in a multi-storey car park. 

That does it. If I can't electrify it, are there any Fabia accessories like these?

 

https://www.screwfix.com/p/pest-stop-professional-bird-spikes-10-pack/41902

 

I just think putting a sign in the rear window reading 'IF YOU LEAN ON MY CAR I'LL LEAN ON YOUR NECK' seems a bit aggressive.

Edited 15 August, 20196 yr by ettlz