Do you guys have distortions/ripples along the door/window edge?

[EdwardNorth]

Along the top of each door, along the rubber lining where the window goes down, I have these waves/ripples/distortions in the metal. They seem to be concentrated starting just underneath the mirror to about 1/4 or 1/3 of the way towards the back. They vary in size and sharpness, but you can really see them when you squat down and look along the top of the door from the front or back of the car. Otherwise when you look at the car from a normal angle, they don't really show up.

I had some exhaust work done on my car, and the jackass who did it kept putting a hand on the car in various places when he was bending over to position the lifters under the car for lifting it. I'm trying to figure out whether or not he was careless and put weight on the edges, thus creating these ripples. He did a shitty job on my muffler anyway so maybe I'm just seeing something that was already there, but mentally connecting the two because I'm pissed at him.

Please take a look along the top edge of your doors for me and let me know what you find. Thanks guys.

 

[EdwardNorth]

Come on, can't someone with a 2G run out and look real quick?

 

[EdwardNorth]

bleh...

 

[Sephroth57]

i dont have any ripples..

 

[Seattle GST]

i have no such distortions/ripples on my ride. I would go to your nearest mitsu dealer, and have them check it out. . . might be under warranty.

 

[EdwardNorth]

Thanks for looking.

 

[Raph]

nothing here either..washed my car today

 

[Syndicate13]

I still have no idea what you are talking about. Can you take some pics for me and then I'll check on mine after I know what you're looking at. My car has some miles on it also so if it's a normal wear issue it should be there.

 

[EdwardNorth]

What I'm talking about are very slight distortions along the top part of the doors by the mirrors. You can only see them from a very extreme angle, such as standing at the front of the car and ducking down so that you can look down the length of the door starting underneath the mirror (think looking down the edge of a knife or sword to see how straight it is). If you are too close you won't see it either, so you need to be back either behind the rear bumper or up in front of the front bumper.

On each door, there's a little "wavy patch" there where the curvature of the door starts going slightly back up, just before the rubber lining of the window. I think it's just because of the extreme angle and curvature that I'm seeing them, combined with whatever pressure the structural/safety reinforcements are placing on the metal from the inside part of the door panel.

I'm pretty sure they were always there, and I see them a bit on other cars as well. I just wanted to see if you guys noticed them too.

If you look at it from any reasonable angle you can't see them. The distortion is just a matter of how the light is being reflected, it's not an actual ripple or distortion in the quality of the metal itself.

Does that explanation help at all? I don't have a digital cam so I can't take pics unfortunately.

Thanks for humoring me here guys.

 

[Syndicate13]

Well I can homestly say that I've never looked that hard at my car before.

 

[EdwardNorth]

I hear ya. It's just that this thing is mint, and I'm busting my butt to try to keep it that way.

If you think THIS is bad, you should see how obsessive I am with my FD!

 

[Raph]

DUDE! those are paint distortions(from the factory) just go look at any new car(showroom new) like a Hyundai or something in a lower price segment..just check out the paint where the roof meets the hatch or on the tail gate around the liscence plate area(metal parts) where the metal is usually thinner..then ull see those ripples

ive tried making pics..but u really cant photograph em...

 

[EdwardNorth]

I just got a digital camera and I took some pictures of what I'm talking about.


If you look inside the area I circled red, you'll see the reflection of the ladder curving at a couple places. This is due to the very slight ripples that I see in the very upper edge of the door. If I look at it with the right light hitting it, the ripple fills and makes it look like an actual slight depression in the metal, as if someone had pushed it down a bit.

The area I circled blue represents something else -- that rubber/plastic strip along the bottom of the window has a couple ripples in it too. Anyone else have some imperfections in their strip(s) too?

I'm still trying to figure out if this was caused by a person, or if this is caused by some structural thing or other in the door itself and it was this way the day it rolled out of the factory...

What do you guys think? 99% of the time you'll never see it, but unfortunately I can pick it out every time, see it any time I'm standing behind the passenger side of the car, and it has been bugging the crap out of me ever since I first noticed it months ago...

Thanks guys.

 

[vault415]

I had rippling on the rear quarterpanels of my car, parallel with where the hatch closes. I was told that it happens to cars over time, especially with hatchback cars. Like you said, it's gotta be from lifting it up and flexing and all that...it's only sheet metal. But I'm no body expert. I got it fixed when I had a repaint done.

 

[halik008]

I'mma give this thread a healthy "bump". I just got a digital camera and I took some pictures of what I'm talking about.


If you look inside the area I circled red, you'll see the reflection of the ladder curving at a couple places. This is due to the very slight ripples that I see in the very upper edge of the door. If I look at it with the right light hitting it, the ripple fills and makes it look like an actual slight depression in the metal, as if someone had pushed it down a bit.

The area I circled blue represents something else -- that rubber/plastic strip along the bottom of the window has a couple ripples in it too. Anyone else have some imperfections in their strip(s) too?

I'm still trying to figure out if this was caused by a person, or if this is caused by some structural thing or other in the door itself and it was this way the day it rolled out of the factory...

What do you guys think? 99% of the time you'll never see it, but unfortunately I can pick it out every time, see it any time I'm standing behind the passenger side of the car, and it has been bugging the crap out of me ever since I first noticed it months ago...

Thanks guys.

dude u couldn't take darker picture???

seriously i can't see shit..

halik

 

[EdwardNorth]

dude u couldn't take darker picture???

seriously i can't see shit..

halik

DUDE it was taken at night in my garage, and that's the best I could do with editing it and saving in MS paint.

You can still see the general area that I'm talking about though, for anyone who couldn't figure it out before. That's the important thing considering I'm trying to get people to look at their 2Gs and see if they have any distortions there themselves. I'm not trying to win a freaking photo contest.

 

[Thomas91169]

i have a few ripples on the sides of my doors and front fenders. curved metal like that warps very easily when pressure is applied(like leaning on it or another car door hitting it). dont think about it too much, more than likely youre gonna be the only one to ever notice it.

 

[RamenPride]

i have a few ripples on the sides of my doors and front fenders. curved metal like that warps very easily when pressure is applied(like leaning on it or another car door hitting it).

yeah, most people don't notice the dings and dents on the sides of my car from idiots who didn't watch what they're doing when they opened their door

 

[EdwardNorth]

Thanks for the replies guys. It seems with these cars that the slightest little touch can put a ripple in the skin. Not one that you can really see unless you get on the type of angle I show in my pic, but one all the same that us owners can always pick out.

The more I think about it though, the more I realize it had to be there when I bought the car in the first place. It's not really possible to place your hand up under the mirror the right way to cause a depression from weight, plus the lining along the window hasn't been distorted at all. If it was caused by someone, the lining would be messed up too so it has to be structural.

I guess the only way to keep a car completely ripple and ding free is to never drive it, and truck it everywhere you go because it would have to be a show car.