Should I be worried about these dings & imperfections in the steel under the car???

I’m afraid I recently had a bit of an excursion off the road. Old Michelins, slippery conditions, oops :-(((. The car didn’t really run into anything, but did slide/bounce over things, damaging some plastic bits. I had the car carefully checked and was given the all clear, but for the above mentioned plastic things. But then I had a closer look and saw two things that worried me. Under the side skirts (regular skirts, not the aeroskirts) there is what seems to be a thin piece of steel that extends about 1 inch below the side skirts, from the front wheel arch to the rear wheel arch. I noticed that on both the driver’s and passenger’s side, this has a few small indents (as pictured). The sort of thing you’d imagine would happen if you park the car with the wheels on one side up on a curb, and then when you drive the front wheel off the curb, the underside hits. Furthermore, if I hold a straight edge below it, it is not everywhere flat – as shown by the gaps in the photos between the straight edge and the car. This could result from the same, or (presumably in the middle) from driving into or out of a steep driveway that drops below a flat road (as I sometimes do). Encouragingly however, if I hold the straight edge where this metal piece meets the side skirt, it seems (almost?) perfectly flat. I looked at another 996 and this piece of steel seemed to be flatter everywhere, except for one ding, which was actually a bit worse than any on mine. So I’m wondering if a bit of damage to this part (on both sides) should worry me. I’m hoping that this part plays no structural role, mainly serves to protect things that do from curbs, driveways, etc., and an impact that could cause this damage would not be strong enough to compromise the rigidity of those things that do and therefore of the car. Or perhaps this part is where the side skirt is welded to the bottom of the car, and a bit of damage of this type does not jeopardize the weld. But I fear it is the opposite: The part contributes to the rigidity of the car, and an impact that could cause the damage shown would also weaken connected frame bits. Second, in the photos on the driver’s side, you can see that unlike on the passenger side, there seems to be a small little ridge on the bottom of this piece of steel. I did not see this on the other 996 I looked at, though that was several years newer (both are 3.6 liter Carrera 2s). Could this indicate an accident repair, for instance that the driver’s side skirt was replaced and/or (re)welded in? (I had a PPI when I bought the car and the guy who did it told me the side skirts were slightly damaged and needed repainting, but was sure it was nothing to be worried about. When I then saw the car, they had already been painted, so I never saw the damage myself. They looked perfect, though the texture was clearly different from the wavy OEM coating that protects this part from stone chips, rust, or whatever.) Thanks for any help understanding the state of my car!!! Passenger side rear Passenger side Passenger side Drivers side front Driver's side Driver's side rear

Jeeze Louise!!! Its time to part it out

Blueprint your side skirt lol. Love that. I have absolutely nothing to backup myself but my take is probably it's nothing to worry about.

i'd be more worried about the amount of your forearm hair growth - have you seen a doctor??

You're obsessing - it's fine.

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Doesn't look especially furry to me. Maybe quit waxing - I think your "normal" needs to be reset. Hehe. OP, it looks like you pretty much dodged a bullet. Suspension completely OK? We'd love to hear the story of how you Jeeped your 996...

I'm pretty impressed actually. I don't know how you went offroading and still managed to keep the black rocker trim piece just ahead of the rear wheel well intact. Our cars don't have the typical pinch weld jacking points like some other cars do so you should be all good.

You ask "Should I be worried"? My answer is "that is entirely up to you". If worrying kind of turns you on then, be worried. My slant on the whole matter is, it is what it is. If you can fix it then fix it. If you can't then *** it. It is what it is. It's happened. Looks to me as though that car at one time was jacked up incorrectly. They missed the jacking points. Maybe the slight damage you are looking at was there all along. TIMHO.

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Thanks - but don't be don't be too impressed. The rocker trim pieces have already been replaced. After the accident, the car was inspected by looking from underneath. Only later, looking from the sides, did we notice the dents I took pictures of.

What about that ridge that runs along the bottom of this steel piece on the driver's side, from one end to the other? (You can see in in the last two photos (the first photo from the driver's side is too poorly focused). It extends maybe a few mm below the main piece (from memory, I didn't measure it).) My best guess is that it's from a previous repair. Or could this be normal? And if not, anyone know if a repair of this nature would indicate a major accident? (While I probably shouldn't care if the car had a previous accident if I was happy with the car before discovering it, I'm kind of worried that I may have put a lot of stress on what was already a weak spot.) Thanks!

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Haven't noticed that any suspension arms are bent, and shocks seem to be fine. But then, absorbing bumps is their job, after the tires soften the blow. The other bits aren't supposed to hit anything, right? :-( Not sure about all the bushings. In my experience with other cars, you often can't tell they've gone bad till you start removing them.

You need to call Flat Six Innovations: [phone removed] Ask for Jake. He's an expert in this kind of stuff.

Ah, I get it - this wasn't your doing, you're inheriting all of this and wondering if: A. You banged up some crap B. Previous owner banged up some crap C. Whether A and/or B is cause for concern For your recent off-road excursion, was any of the underbody coating scraped off - i.e. are the areas of concern bare metal, or are they still protected by whatever stickum is applied to the bottom of your car? If the new damage was not extensive enough to bend anything significant and the metal is still encapsulated by the coating, I wouldn't worry excessively. To answer your original question: No, I don't think you should be too worried. As long as the car is still functioning properly and there is no indication of any part failing, button it all back up and keep enjoying the car. If there is strictly cosmetic damage to the body work but the moisture barrier has been compromised , I would clean that area up and reseal it properly to ensure you don't wind up with a corrosion problem a few years down the road. Corrosion is bad; corrosion happening in a place you never check is worse. If someone had welded in a replacement piece, I think it would be much more obvious - welding repairs are fairly hard to mask, and repairs in an area you aren't supposed to look at tend to be REALLY ugly - i.e. some stick welds and a shot of Rustoleum.

Maybe consider leaving future off-road excursions to Bo, Luke, and The General.

Like I tell my kids if your not bleeding profusely get back in the game.

That does not loo very serious to me but what do I know. As I have a C4 I want to know more about offroading it, it is a 4 wheel drive after all. Marc

Same areas of my Subaru AWD was popped worse than that from off-road trips. I wouldn't worry at all for a keeper. For resale value, may take a hit if someone notices.

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Sometimes even the slightest bent arms that isn't apparent to the naked eye can throw off alignment. Best way is to get it to an alignment shop to make sure that everything is still intact. Other than that as others said, I wouldn't worry. Get back in the game and drive it instead of stressing over it. Being on here isn't good either when it comes to managing stress levels for some peeps.

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Exactly - save that it was at least partly my doing :-(

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Any thoughts on how to do that? (I did a bit of searching on how to protect our cars from rust, but I didn't find much, including about resealing.) Thanks!

Nothing magic about it. If you see any bare metal from the dings, sand it with some 600 grit, mask it off, spray on some good quality primer, and spray on some paint. This place has good stuff, I've used them several times. http://www.automotivetouchup.com/tou...paint/porsche/ I couldn't tell from your pix, but I didn't see any bare metal. If not, you are fine.

i couldn't drive it anymore, aero is ruint...