Several weeks ago I was notified by our business park no more taking up two spaces. There are several of us with nice cars that did this and mind you this is in a parking lot with excess of 100 spaces and less than 40% are ever used. We all parked at the far end of the lot and in my case if I knew the real estate company next door was having a meeting (every Thursday) it was a good opt to leave the car in the garage and walk to work. I'd do this to make sure I wasn't inconveniencing someone else. So now I'm terrified about my car doors. Ours is basically an office park of doctors and a few other businesses. I can see the entire parking lot from my window and what I see, the lack of care and respect for other people's property is appalling. The Crossfire side panels are pretty vulnerable to door dings. I decided I needed to come up with my own protection to prevent the dings. I checked the internet and came up empty so I took a trip to the local craft store. I decided on styrofoam because it was light and would absorb much of any impact. Then came how to mount and make sure the entire thing didn't scratch the side of the car. As you can see in the pics it ain't pretty but it works. The main thing you want is a fairly thick piece. I wish I could have made them a little longer but these work just fine. I glued some 100% cotton terry material to the part that would touch the door (3M styrofoam spray glue) and then used 3M strip magnets with adhesive on one side. These strips are rubberized and wont scratch or rust. I then painted the styrofoam as close as I could to the car color. I have another with a lanyard through it that attaches to the door handle and you roll the window up, I did that thinking they may not stick in a storm but the magnets I used are fine. They are wide enough and stick out from the car far enough to keep just about any door way away from my door and just yesterday some idiot in a pickup put a nice gash with his door in one of my protectors.
just thought I'd share this idea with the forum, I'm looking into some other variations of this same idea and I'll post them when I get them made up.
Here are some pics, total cost was about $25 and about an hour of work.

Pat

Attachment 2461Attachment 2462Attachment 2463

 

That's a bit much man. I think that would attract more attention to your car. Just park way the hell out in BFE. If it's THAT busy, take another car.

 

Yeah I know the feeling, I always take up two spots when I'm out bar hopping or hitting the theaters.
I just get so sick and tired of dirty looks from people when I take up 2 spots. It's like wtf, I spent a sh*t load of money on this car, only to have some inconsiderate ahole slam his/her Buick's door into my pristine machine. I say screw everyone else... there not gonna feel anything for your car when you get some nice creases in the door panels. Make them suffer not you!
There just isn't any respect for other people's property anymore

 

In principle, I'm sure we all like the idea and its intent but....I have to agree with Steenport.

But as long as we're on the subject of door dings, has anyone had much trouble in this regard with their XF? I've been lucky with mine so far, but I also get this gut feeling that the XF door is a bit more resistant to this than some other cars. I could easily be wrong.

I do remember how my Mazda RX7 used to seem to get a new ding each month, and I noticed the same on other RX7's too. But I've owned other cars that seemed to handle the minor mishaps without showing a visible ding.

 

Yeah I'm pretty sure the XF will ding easily, metal isn't that thick.
I know RX7s are known for being light cars especially the third generation. I think the R1 RX7 had thinner skins on it than base model...hence they ding so easily.

 

The doors ding easily, I just had 3 removed and I don't want more. Unfortunately Steensport567 there isn't a BFE in our lot and I can't take another car, don't have one. Its my way of protecting my property. I have to ask you if you have any dings on your car? I don't know about you but it made me sick. I do what I gotta do. All I can say is if you keep your car nice like I do you wont feel real good when you do get one.
Quite frankly the attention it gets is far outweighed by the protection it gives me.

Pat

 

I feel your pain when it comes to people not caring about other people's cars. I always take up 2 spaces or park very far away from other cars too. Another idea you could do is buy 2 white cones and put one on each side right next to your doors. Just an idea.

 

Oh yeah, they ding pretty easily. I was waxing mine last week and if I looked at just the right angle I could count five (!) dings in my driver's side door alone. They're not the full-blown slam the door into it kind of dings, but the kind where people are being considerate and open the door softly and let it rest on your car while they do whatever they need to do.

I can't do the two spaces thing because I think that's bad form, so I plot my parking very carefully. But sometime even when I park in BFE with lots of open spaces everywhere, there will be some a-hole that has to park right next to me. I think they do it just to annoy me.

I found a good website that has lots of parking strategy which I think has been mentioned here before. Check out http://www.parkingbydesign.com/parkingframeset.html.

 

thanks for that!... just about stopped laughing!... steve

 

i would never take up two parking spots... parking far out or not.

talk about asking for someone to mess with your car... a beacon imo. it just irritates others for principle sake.

i just park far out... near no one else... and take one spot.

but that's just me.

 

I have to agree Bob everytime I go somewhere I park in damn near the last spot (my family makes fun of me for doing this) and almost every time someone parks next to me. I get so freakin mad. That's why I keep the baseball bat in the car. an I for an I...

 

Thanks for that Bobs. In my 40 years of driving I think I'm aware of most of that stuff and a lot of the time the 6 of us or so that have nice cars do park next to each other. In that case I don't use my gizmo/s. Someone thought they actually draw attention to my car. What I've noticed is that the car is so low in profile you really don't see them until you are in the space next to it.
They are not pretty but so far they have worked for me and I just wanted to share them with those of you who flip out at a ding.

Pat

 

I'm sorry but that's down-right ugly on a beautiful car like ours. I park out and walk. Don't mess with the doors. I've had mine a year now and have
no dings. I'm just careful. Good luck

 

I have to give you credit, but I too think you're taking it to the extreme. And for taking two spots anywhere in a lot, you might as well put a sign on top of your car... "hey screw with me". BTW, I've had my car going on three years and have no door dings... knock on wood.

On a lighter note, check out this site on the finer points of parking in public: http://www.parkingbydesign.com/index.html

 

I hope you're kidding about the bat and the I for and I thing. No matter how it hurts, it does not justify that type of action on your part. You would be drawing attention to yourself and would be lucky to get off with a severe a$$ kicking if caught. You might end up wearing that bat where the sun don't shine... and be careful who you mess with in states with liberal gun carry laws, you may end up looking S&W eyeball to eyeball.

 

You must not have ever read to many of my other posts. Yes I am kidding. No I don't carry a ball bat in my car. (can you imagine the noise of it rolling back and forth in the hatch area?) Liberal Gun states? Liberals don't carry guns. Its the southern conservative states you really need to look out for.

 

Nice idea Pat. If it gives you some peace of mind, do it.
The sad reality is that there are a lot of inconsiderate people who couldn't care less about your car and the nicer it is, the more inconsiderate they are.
I always park in a corner or end spot away from the action. Never park diagonally or take two spots or you'll lose other peoples respect and some half baked looser with anger management issues may be having a bad day and take it out on your car.
Have a nice day! ...

Don't worry, be happy!

 

I always park far as possible but never take up two spots. I try to get a wall or curb to my cars right since most times other cars only have a driver and this protects the right side of the car. Then I try to leave as much space between my car's left side and the car (in case one shows up) on the left in case there is a passenger in their car...

 

I find the only place I really have to use these is at work. I am very creative when it comes to the other places I take my car. They are ugly and I'm working on another design. You have to understand our lot is never more than half full ever and what we get are a lot of old people going to doctors and dentists and contractors with pickups to the management office, it was pretty much come up with something or suffer the consequences. I sat and watched an old man back into a car four times trying to get out of the lot, and yes I put his plate number on the car he hit.

messy - I totally agree but they are on the car only when I work and as Fritzhauf said, its piece of mind. Anybody gets cute, then it becomes a vandalism claim to my insurance company. The three dings I had removed already came out of my pocket.

Pat

 

The perils of driving something that draws attention! I see the same thing, knuckleheads that have to ding you simply because you are being cautious. Dings are going to happen, if you don't want them, do what the ferrari guys do, don't park in public (un monitored) places, or leave it in the garage.

I have one bumper rub so far, I was able to remove the mark, so it wasn't that bad, but so far so good. I'm just glad that Patpur found a good dent remover, I hope never to need them, but...