Door dings

[LON O'CONNELL]

I was curious if anybody has had an inconsiderate fool open a door in the side of their precious bird yet and left a door ding in the side of it. I thank my lucky stars it hasn't happened to ours. Of course one good reason is that the car has been parked in a parking lot only 4 or 5 times and only once have we not been standing around it, but we could see it from the resturant.
I surely hope no one has had to come out and find the side of their car door dinged. Just curious if it has happened and how you may plan to prevent it from happening at all or again.

------------------
Yellow/Yellow Prem. 02 Bird w/full accent
1999 F150 Super Cab 4x4 Off Road
1998 Taurus SE Sport 24V

 

[Gobird]

Lon, not yet, fingers crossed.

------------------
02 T-Bird 9293
69 Vette
73 MGB
97 F-150 4x4
2-Seadoo Jet Skies
a dog a cat and a couple hundred fish in my pond

 

[greyfox11]

Lon O'Connel asked
"Just curious if it has happened and how you may plan to prevent it from happening at all or again."
My plan is to discourage my wife from driving the car. Half serious answer, but I have not had a door ding in the past 20 years. Without going into the list, I have owned some expensive cars, but even the PT Cruiser was "my baby" as much as the T Bird now is. You can't prevent them but you can take steps that reduce the % of chances you will get them. Whenever possible park on an end spot. Always better to park on the passenger side of the end spot as more than 50% of the time the car next to you will be occupied by one person. Parallel park whenever possible, and again get the leading end spot.
Two things that DON"T work are a)taking up 2 parking spaces by parking in the middle of them (this enrages people), and b)Parking way out yonder with no cars for blocks (everytime you will return and find one car that loves the spot right next to you).
We are all fortunate right now in that the majority of people who see the car also recognize that it is a work of art and seem to be respectful of that.
Getting back to the wife, she has no interest in any of the above.

-

 

[Kristi]

We were out for supper last night, large parking lot serving Walmart/Sam's Club/Panera Bread Co/Timberline, and what do we see? a black bird parked waaaaay out there by itself. It was about 3 stalls from the ATM and there was a big ol' truck going thru the ATM. He almost hit the driver's side fender. I believe in parking a ways out, but not that far!

 

[Birdman93]

Even parking properly doesn't guarantee anything-came out one day to find a Caddy parked so close to the bird I couldn't get in-and a huge ding in the door. The lady was parked in a handicap spot with no plate or placard-I loved the look on her face when she came out of the store to find her car had been towed-seems she pulled that stunt one too many times. She was even more pissed when I asked her for her proof of insurance, and told her that she would be paying for the damage donne to my Bird-that bill was $300.

Ya just gotta love some people, eh?

------------------
**********, **************************

 

[WJR1007]

No door dings , but. I did get a small "dent" on the rear quarter deck lid, behind the driver where the cut-out curves for the top/tonneau. I was showing the car to the ownwer of a restuarant I frequent and he just had to lean with his forearm on the car to look. By the time I asked him not to lean on it , there was a dent/dimple from him leaning so hard on his elbow. I was livid!

------------------
Blue/Blue Premium
Full Interior Accent
Production #3944 VIN#3847
" Gotta Love It "

 

[icrovop]

My mother managed to open the door into a signage pole in a parking lot. That day I thought I had parked far enough away from both cars and other obstacles, but she managed to hit it anyway. She didn't realize how wide the doors open up. Fortunately there was no ding or dent, just a mark on the paint that was easily buffed out. I have to take Ford to task on the thickness of their paint. They put it on way to thin on all of their cars.

By the way she hit the pole twice. Once when going into the store and once when coming out. Even after I asked her to be careful.

 

[flyboy514]

Thanks to GreyFox for sharing his years of experiance on how to park. They all make good sense to me and some I have not thought about. His tips should help keep my TBird dent free for years to come. Thanks

 

[jodrod]

I too have always tried to park in a right end spot, as greyfox points out, many times the passenger door on the car next to you is not used.

Also, when parking at work (the car is a daily driver) I try to park in the same spot, there again a right end spot. I have found over the years that many times it is the same person parking next to you day to day. This helps remove the anonymity and increases the protection to the car.

 

[Pat Billera]

Originally posted by LON O'CONNELL:
I was curious if anybody has had an inconsiderate fool open a door in the side of their precious bird yet and left a door ding in the side of it. I thank my lucky stars it hasn't happened to ours. Of course one good reason is that the car has been parked in a parking lot only 4 or 5 times and only once have we not been standing around it, but we could see it from the resturant.
I surely hope no one has had to come out and find the side of their car door dinged. Just curious if it has happened and how you may plan to prevent it from happening at all or again.

I am looking into getting a 4" strip made up at a magnetic sine company and painting it black to match my color and keeping in the trunk. The end spot is a must and if the other side has a 4 door car(they have shorter doors), that is a little help

 

[thenewtbird2]

No 'bird yet but the biggest door dings I've picked up on my Lebaron convertible were from just plain driving the car. Once from rock knocked off of open trailer passing by and one kicked up by a passing car and a couple from a sleepy driver sideswiping me with their side mirror.

I never park up close to the stores but there always seems to be somebody who has to park next to me while I'm gone from the car so the car has also picked up more than it's share of regular door dings- car is my daily driver and has been since new so it sees it's fair share of parking lots.

I've also had spots where people appear to have deliberately put their feet on my car and turned their feet (car is black with white primer- really shows!) and I've never parked in such a way as to irritate someone nor do I drive my car in an aggressive manner making potential road rage. Even had someone scrape their boots on my license plate - after they door dinged my car - absolutely no excuse for that as they had had ample room to park their car further away from me. Happened at an auto swapmeet - a place you'd expect people to respect others cars.