Rear Wing Dent - Page 2 - Boxster/Cayman - PistonHeads UK

I appear to have picked up a small (but annoying) dent on the rear wing of the GT4. It had been at the dealer getting some work done and is stored in an empty garage outside of this so I can only assume that whatever happened, occurred at the dealers. I’ve spoken to a well recommended dent guy however he’s said that they can’t do anything with the is as it’s plastic. My question - has anybody come across anything similar (if so how on earth did it happen) and were you able to get it fixed? If it makes a difference, it appears to be almost directly above where the wing supports attach. No damage to the paintwork.

QQ - has the rear wing needed to be off the car at any point? Double check to see if that 'dent' is inline with screw fixing point on the underside of the wing. You suggest that is is so this might be a result of over-enthusiastic tightening. I have seen a few.

Good question, I’ve owned the car for coming up on two years and have never noticed it (but not can’t unsee it)! Wing has never been off to my knowledge and the work that the garage was doing was reprogramming so wasn’t removed for that. You mention that you’ve seen a few - as in dents the same as this? Were they repairable? Edited by Redline88 on Tuesday 18th June 16:20

Redline88 said: Good question, I’ve owned the car for coming up on two years and have never noticed it (but not can’t unsee it)! Wing has never been off to my knowledge and the work that the garage was doing was reprogramming so wasn’t removed for that. You mention that you’ve seen a few - as in dents the same as this? Were they repairable? Edited by Redline88 on Tuesday 18th June 16:20 Yes same divot as this - maybe not as deep though... I don't know about repair options.

The usual method for popping dents from plastic panels is heat. I've successfully used boiling water to remove a huge dent from a badly damaged bumper but that was absolutely mangled and being replaced anyway. Too cool and the dent will not return to shape, too hot and the plastic will become brittle as it cools, or melt with careless use of a hot air gun. You need someone with plenty of experience on plastic panels to get this right. It's a small dent so should be relatively easy to remove but might need manipulation or perhaps a suction cup if it's not accessible from below.

TDT said: Redline88 said: Good question, I’ve owned the car for coming up on two years and have never noticed it (but not can’t unsee it)! Wing has never been off to my knowledge and the work that the garage was doing was reprogramming so wasn’t removed for that. You mention that you’ve seen a few - as in dents the same as this? Were they repairable? Edited by Redline88 on Tuesday 18th June 16:20 Yes same divot as this - maybe not as deep though... I don't know about repair options. That’s interesting. It’s not actually very deep at all, I just managed to catch it at the right angle to show in the picture. Nevertheless, it is annoying.

I'd be reluctant to fiddle with that. As regards heat, I'd start by leaving the car parked outside on a hot, sunny day in July/August and see what happens. Bodywork can get up to pretty high temperatures under such conditions and there should be no risk of damage.

That had been my thinking but it’s been outside in Europe recently with quite high temps and it didn’t make a difference. Would it be worth loosening off the bolt underneath to see if that is pulling it down? Is there anywhere I could find torque settings for that?

I'd be reluctant too, I'm cringing inwardly at the thought but a specialist ought to be able to advise. With metal you need heat alone to manipulate successfully, but with plastic, rapid temperature cycling can be very effective with the sudden cooling of surrounding areas literally pulling out the dent. This one looks very small and shallow however so it's possible that none of these approaches will work.

Does it have PPF? Maybe removed during install? I guess you might have noticed it before though.

That would have made sense but PPF is only on the front end. Where were the others that you saw with this issue?

Slackening off the bolt when the panel is hot and then applying some light pressure with your thumb around the perimeter (or from below) might have some effect. However as the plastic has probably been stressed/weakened then the dent is likely to return when the bolt is torqued down again. I doubt you would damage it further by doing so - unless the bolt has been tightened excessively previously and requires a lot force to undo. Perhaps Porsche have seen, and been able to correct this particular issue before? Edited to add - could this kind of damage be caused by forcibly closing the hatch by pressing down on the rear wing? Edited by 5s Alive on Tuesday 18th June 20:27

I was thinking if it was over tightened then loosening it off slightly (and leaving it like that) would possibly allow for it to relax and then in the heat, it may pop back out again. This could be complete rubbish though!

It's worth a try and the wing shouldn't be able to move with only one bolt loosened. I would check it for movement after every drive to be on the safe side.

Does it have PPF? Maybe removed during install? I guess you might have noticed it before though.

5s Alive said: It's worth a try and the wing shouldn't be able to move with only one bolt loosened. I would check it for movement after every drive to be on the safe side. Check the loosened bolt doesn't drop out on you! As an aside my son's Cooper S (he calls it Christine, don't know why) had a massive dent in the bonnet, the size of a football, where a pedestrian's shoulder had collided with it. Had a quote for £1,000 to fix, left it a while, then one day it disappeared. It had popped itself out. Just needed Ray the dent man to finish off the "repair" for £60.

As others have said it might be best to try to leave it. Not easy - understand how easy it can be to fixate on blemishes once you've noticed them. Failing that consider speaking to a specialist or repair place for an opinion. Ideally somewhere that's encountered this before, and take the car to show them. Would be reluctant for the trial & error approach as this could lead to more damage/problems

SV_WDC said: As others have said it might be best to try to leave it. Not easy - understand how easy it can be to fixate on blemishes once you've noticed them. This!

As an update, it does appear to be directly at the spot where the rearmost bolt attaches to the wing so it sounds like TDT has it spot on. The question then is, should I slacken off that bolt a bit before trying to leave it in the sun? No idea why that would ever have been touched as even with adjusting the wing, I don’t think you would touch those bolts. Edited by Redline88 on Wednesday 19th June 16:13

Me also ... I think every new car should be delivered with a transfer of the first scuff on it. Would you remove it or leave it ?? Call it character

Thanks all. Answering the above, it doesn’t have PPF and I spoke to the only local OPC today (as far as I know they are the only garage that have worked on the car since new). They didn’t have any record of it ever having had work done to the wing and say that it wouldn’t be removed for any other jobs. Had a dent guy looking at something else today and he is pretty sure that it’s caused by the bolt. So sounds like it’s either been over tightened at the factory or for some reason is only showing now or something was dropped on it when it was in the garage a couple of weeks back which they won’t admit to. I honestly don’t see how it could deform like that with an external knock though, especially considering it’s plastic.

To close this out, I spoke with the local Porsche approved bodyshop to get their view on it. I should add that the pic in the OP shows the mark really well but it isn’t as obvious in person (I.e.) you have to catch it in the right light and angle. They think that it’s just manufacturing and is unlikely to have been caused by any external factors, removing the wing etc. They actually had another GT4 in getting some work done on it and had the wing off which I was able to look at. It also had very slight (not as obvious as mine) but marks above where the wing attachment points are. They showed me how it bolts onto the car and it doesn’t look like that would cause this effect, even if the car had the wing removed and put back on. So in summary, it would be nice not to have it and when you know it’s there, I can see it but it just seems to be what it is. Thanks everybody for their replies. Only solution now is to drive it even more - 10k miles in my ownership and counting!!

Nice one. Now get out and drive!

Possibly a bit of a long shot but shouldn't do any harm. Try letting the wing get really hot in the sun, and then spraying the dent with an inverted "air duster" aerosol using the thin pipe to direct the propellant directly into the middle of the dent. Theory: an air duster is an aersol containing pressurised propellent which comes out as a very cold liquid (due to more-or-less instantaneous expansion from a liquid to a gas) when the can is inverted. This cools the dent so that it's much colder than the surrounding material which may allow it to contract and reduce the depth of the dent. I don't believe it would cause any issue with the paint, but it would be worthwhile testing a small inconspicuous area first...