My undercarriage got smashed in. Floorboard is pushed up. How do i fix it?

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Jun 14, 2004 | 02:08 PM
  #1  
So like it says, my undercarriage got smashed in. i noticed it when i was cleaning my car and noticed the floorboard was popped up. At first i thought something was under the floormat, but i wasnt that lucky. Its popped up probably at least an inch. I dont know what happened. I let my sister borrow my car not too long ago. I suspect she hit something and didnt tell me. I'd like to think i would remember hitting something that would leave this kind of dent. Here are some pics. (note: Pics are kinda big. didnt have time to shrink them down.)

This is on the passenger side of the car.
http://home.carolina.rr.com/mrglynis/103-0316_IMG.JPG
http://home.carolina.rr.com/mrglynis/103-0318_IMG.JPG

This is on the drivers side of the car. It looks like it might be dented but not nearly as bad.
http://home.carolina.rr.com/mrglynis/103-0319_IMG.JPG

Kind of hard to see, but i think you might able to see the floorboard popped up.
http://home.carolina.rr.com/mrglynis/103-0321_IMG.JPG

Ok so first things first. What the he** could she have hit that would cause that kind of dent? My god. Ok, so now what do i do to fix it? Just pull up the carpet and hit it with a hammer? If it hadnt noticebly pushed the floorboard up, i wouldnt bother with it. But its definetly noticeable. Any advice you guys could give would be great. Would i be better off taking it to a body shop? If theyre just gonna bang it out with a hammer, i'll do it myself. Thanks alot guys.
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Jun 14, 2004 | 03:00 PM
  #2  
Quote: So like it says, my undercarriage got smashed in. i noticed it when i was cleaning my car and noticed the floorboard was popped up. At first i thought something was under the floormat, but i wasnt that lucky. Its popped up probably at least an inch. I dont know what happened. I let my sister borrow my car not too long ago. I suspect she hit something and didnt tell me. I'd like to think i would remember hitting something that would leave this kind of dent. Here are some pics. (note: Pics are kinda big. didnt have time to shrink them down.)

This is on the passenger side of the car.
http://home.carolina.rr.com/mrglynis/103-0316_IMG.JPG
http://home.carolina.rr.com/mrglynis/103-0318_IMG.JPG

This is on the drivers side of the car. It looks like it might be dented but not nearly as bad.
http://home.carolina.rr.com/mrglynis/103-0319_IMG.JPG

Kind of hard to see, but i think you might able to see the floorboard popped up.
http://home.carolina.rr.com/mrglynis/103-0321_IMG.JPG

Ok so first things first. What the he** could she have hit that would cause that kind of dent? My god. Ok, so now what do i do to fix it? Just pull up the carpet and hit it with a hammer? If it hadnt noticebly pushed the floorboard up, i wouldnt bother with it. But its definetly noticeable. Any advice you guys could give would be great. Would i be better off taking it to a body shop? If theyre just gonna bang it out with a hammer, i'll do it myself. Thanks alot guys.
I can't make it out that well, but I'm wondering where you've got the jack stand placed in the 318 pic. Is it on the unibody? I wouldn't bang it with a hammer. If it were me, I'd see an autobody shop for a "free" estimate and then see where that goes. If it's driveable, maybe leave it as is, unless it gets too bad for rear passengers. Good luck, and just make sure it's not more serious than you think.
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Jun 14, 2004 | 03:23 PM
  #3  
Is it just me ... or does it look like that jack stand fits perfectly where that dent is?

But seriously, you need to find a better place to hold your car up with jackstands. I agree with Frank on that one ...
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Jun 14, 2004 | 04:41 PM
  #4  
Thanks for the replies guys. I'll probably end up going to a shop just to see what they say.

As for the jackstand. I assure you it was under a very solid part of the car. I dont know what its called. But i assure you i would never get under the car if the stands werent stable. As it was i had another jackstand under there too. You just cant see it in the pics. And yea right where i the dent is, is where i've placed the jackstand before. I couldnt really get good pics of it if i had the jackstand under it this time though.
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Jun 14, 2004 | 05:52 PM
  #5  
ouch...That looks like someone drove over a curb.... be tough to just bang that out to the original shape without severely weakening the metal...

+1 on what the others have said about the jack stand not being in a recommended spot.
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Jun 14, 2004 | 06:41 PM
  #6  
maybe you could a big f*ckin hammer
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Jun 14, 2004 | 07:47 PM
  #7  
Quote: And yea right where i the dent is, is where i've placed the jackstand before.
There's your answer right there. Notice that there aren't really any scrapes on either one of those dents, which would mean that they were straight pushed up, and not dragged over an object like a curb.

There's a reason why the instruction manual recommends only putting jackstands in four certain spots, because the floorboard WILL get pushed up. I've seen it before. And I'm pretty sure your sister didn't do it, unless she was using those jacks to get under your car which is highly unlikely.

You might want to check to make sure you didn't put a new dent in your undercarrage where you put the jack "this time" also, because that's definately the wrong place too.
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Jun 14, 2004 | 09:42 PM
  #8  
OK i dont mean to bash on you bro but i agree with everyone else. My boys car looks exactly like that and it was from the jack stands. Try a shop and see how it goes. If anything, learn from this and never do it again when you get another car. good luck
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