Rick Potter
02-09-2017, 5:10 PM
My wife parked her Ford C-Max and ran the front nose of the car over a curb that was a bit too high. When she backed off, the plastic air dam behind the bumper broke loose from its plastic rivets, and almost came completely off. Now, this is not just your usual air dam, it is like a skid plate looking thing that extends (in three parts) back way back past the motor. It is a sort of streamlining belly pan (plug-in electric car) that helps with gas mileage.
She limped it home very slowly, since the front of the pan was hitting pavement on any dip in the road. I took a look, and it had ripped out one of the plastic rivets from the bodywork, but the others came out without damaging the surrounding bodywork. It is absolutely impossible to get your hand down from the engine/motor compartment, and I could not get to half the area I needed to, without a lift, and the car is too low for ramps. No kidding, open the hood, and you cannot see daylight under the motor.
So, next day, I took it to Upland Ford, and showed them how I thought we could repair it by putting two new rivets next to the damaged area, and replacing the others. To my surprise, the service adviser agreed, and I asked how much it would cost. He said he would take it out back to the body shop and have them put it on a lift to find out.
I waited maybe 20 minutes for him to return with the estimate, then he brought the car back, told me it was done, and there was no charge. The body guys had the rivets in stock, and they saved the belly pan, rather than replacing it. WOW. If they had to replace parts, I figured the price would be about $4-500 total, and if they just did it my way at the dealer labor rate it would be a minimum of $100.
Sure was nice of them. Thanks, Ford of Upland.
She limped it home very slowly, since the front of the pan was hitting pavement on any dip in the road. I took a look, and it had ripped out one of the plastic rivets from the bodywork, but the others came out without damaging the surrounding bodywork. It is absolutely impossible to get your hand down from the engine/motor compartment, and I could not get to half the area I needed to, without a lift, and the car is too low for ramps. No kidding, open the hood, and you cannot see daylight under the motor.
So, next day, I took it to Upland Ford, and showed them how I thought we could repair it by putting two new rivets next to the damaged area, and replacing the others. To my surprise, the service adviser agreed, and I asked how much it would cost. He said he would take it out back to the body shop and have them put it on a lift to find out.
I waited maybe 20 minutes for him to return with the estimate, then he brought the car back, told me it was done, and there was no charge. The body guys had the rivets in stock, and they saved the belly pan, rather than replacing it. WOW. If they had to replace parts, I figured the price would be about $4-500 total, and if they just did it my way at the dealer labor rate it would be a minimum of $100.
Sure was nice of them. Thanks, Ford of Upland.