svtmike

Poll says it all:

Does your 2004-2005 TL have body side moldings and does it have any door dings?

Just trying to understand how well the ding-resistant panels are working for people, and if those with BSMs have fewer dings.

Mike

Ania

i know now after i voted im going to get a door ding....

ed99

Knock on wood for door dings. But I had a ding near the front fender. I think it was a dam BMW X5 that ding it.

svtmike

I hope this doesn't jinx anyone! We've had a lot of discussions about this and thrown around a lot of opinions, I thought it'd be interesting to see some facts.

Mike

elee712

is the unattractiveness of the BSM worth the unattractiveness of the dings?

svtmike

Everyone must answer that value question for himself - there is no right answer.

Mike

KJSmitty

Like SVTMike stated, this is a personal "value" question.. I installed the completely hideous BSM's myself. Most people wont even park next to me now due out of fear that they are somehow contagious..

Whatever the case may be, they are working for me..

Doctored5

After 59 votes it's running 21% dings for those without BSMs, 5% for those with them. If this represents about 1 year of ownership & these rates hold up, after 4 years over 60% of cars without BSMs will have dings & less than 20% of those with them will be dinged.

tommyz

I got a pair of "ding defenders" its a mat that is color matched. Essentially similar to those magnetic buisness cards of refrigerator magnets. You put them on before a trip to the mall or parking garage. They absorb impacts from annoying minivan midgets "children" and jealous american car owners.

dingdefender.com

you can get the "blank ones" made for car signs and paint em yourself I guess

svtmike

Yup, the evidence suggests that the BSMs do provide the function that they are supposed to provide.

Mike

Hawhyen51

Coming up on one year, no dings w/BSM (keeping my fingers crossed). After awhile, they don't look too bad ....

johnstl

I park in BFE.....

Lore

Or the owner with BSM is more conscious about where they park their car... for example, I still have "new car syndrome" and park far far away from most people

crashish

I too suffer from "new car syndrome" and it seems to annoy my girlfriend. I don't care though, the longer I can live without any dings the better off I'll be. That said, every moment I spend on my school's campus, I am living in fear of finding a ding on my beloved TL. On-campus parking is lacking severely, so parking in BFE is almost never an option. I think I've been quite lucky so far, though.

Last weekend I went to the movies at the local mall-type deal, and I thought I'd found the perfect spot. There's a parking structure that has a smaller connected lot in which I found a beautifully wide spot. Being rounded, almost all of the spots were tremendously wide, so I went on my way, figuring I was perfectly safe.

After seeing a movie and whatnot, and upon returning to the car, I found a hideous Ford Excursion parked alarmingly close to the driver side. Once I saw that behemoth parked so near I was absolutely sure I would find a fresh ding. Thankfully, though, whoever did that terrible parking job made a very careful escape from their SUV without damaging my baby.

acuraTL44

No body side molding on my TL and no dings. But a part of this may be because it is only 5 days old.

jdb8805

Why hasn't anyone come up with Body Side Molding (BSM) that is Magnetic? So you could put it on sometimes and take it off other times? Or just put it on when parking in a garage or next to a crappy car?

Could you buy BSM and make it magnetic?

Maybe that can be my million dollar idea...

Pro Stock John

BSM's look pretty awful.

I live and park in Chicago, i have two dings right now but I will remove them both soon. I will be moving up North a bit so I might not get any more for a long time.

tommyz

they have magnetic ones. The ones from autobarn with the yellow reflectors are gross.

I still have my satin silver custom dingdefenders from dingdefender.com/

they blend in and cover more area, i cut out the dingdefender logo

1995hoo

I have the BSMs and no dings, but I'm sure I just jinxed myself by voting in this poll and by posting this comment.

I don't think they look bad--I think they nicely offset the groove.

PPLAPW

Have no moldings and heres my one ding.....


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steevr

Hmmmm....maybe we're on to something here. The magnetic ones look dorky, right? How about buying a set of the factory ones and instead of sticking them on the car, buying a thin vinyl magnetic strip and sticking it to the side of the BSM molding that has the tape.

You could then stick them on when you want and they would look totally factory.

KJSmitty

I actually thought about doing this back in Dec of 03. Purchased the magnetic tape and all. It would have worked fine but two things stopped me. The 1st being that the thickness of the magnetic tape and two-sided tape used on the molding caused the molding to mount 1/8 inch away from the paint (the adhesive on the magnet was not near strong enough by itself. The OEM 3M two-sided tape had to be utilized). It just looked out of the ordinary thus most likely someone would just pull it off. Let alone possibly fly off if you attempted to drive with it on.. The second would be the actual use with other than a perfectly clean car. If not clean you would end up with many scratches from applying/removing etc.

It definitely would have worked, just looked a little funky due to the extra thickness..

TBone2004

No BSM and no dings yet. On a previous car I had BSM and took a huge ding from some thumb-sucker, so then I was left with a BSM with a nasty ding/dig/scrape - sure paint was safe, but then I had to look at the ding anyway - so what was the point?

After a year I still park miles away from malls and grocery stores. My wife's '02 we STILL do the same - no dings there either.

I one time went to get out at the gas station to instruct the dope how not to put the gas cap on the trunk and to use the ball thing and my door smacked right into those big bar shaped things they have there (to protect the pumps I guess) Thought for sure my door was toast - nothing, not even a scratch. It was a really smooth brushed aluminum pole thing, not a concrete one - so maybe I was at a good angle that it did not do anything.

leeherman

Yep.

My car is a little over ten months old and has just under 4,000 miles. I'm VERY particular about where I park, and since the TL is not my only car, I can choose to not drive it if I think there's a reason to be concerned about where it'll end up being parked.

Regards,

tommyz

you would need to use a rare earth magnet the ceramic type thats appplied to the removable ding defenders barely cuts it. Rare earth magnets you can ge from ebay. in all shapes and sizes a 1/2 oz one can hold up to 50 lbs.

I got some Neodymium Disc Magnets ( rare earth magnets), rubberized them and used them to stabilize the dingdefenders i use so it wont scratch the paint