taimysho0

i bought my 2014 c7 recently and the previous owner told me these cars are hard to get door dings since the car is mostly made of some plastic type material. any idea how true this is?

Steve_R

It's absolutely true. None of the outer panels are metal. You can get chips in the paint, but no small dents.

Zymurgy

The panels will flex some and spring right back. On the Stingray, the hood and roof are carbon fiber, the doors and quarter panels are sheet molded composite material.

JMII

Its true... I had an "incident" with my C7 and sure enough just a few light scuff marks. A metal panel car would have been dented for sure. If it gets hit hard enough it can crack, but you are not going to get any dents or rust

Dundon929

I put this to the test yesterday...Driving through Santa Fe, NM The car has never been rained on and then WHAM...black clouds and hail out of nowhere some large marble size. Cars around me got small hail dents...dried off the Corvette and looked fine...WHEW!

taimysho0

awesome thanks all! i wonder if this is common with cars in this price range and beyond or just corvettes. any one know if other cars that are cheaper than corvettes have this? they should make all cars like this haha

Zymurgy

Yes, other manufacturers are using SMC (or similar) for a variety of body panels. For example, the Lincoln MKS deck lid is SMC, The Acura NSX has SMC trunk, front and rear quarter panels. The Jeep Wrangler has a SMC roof. Most bumper covers are some sort of SMC material. The Corvette has been ahead of the curve on the use of such materials, and is continuing to lead as more parts are made of carbon fiber. This trend will continue to increase not only on the Corvette, but across the automotive industry.

JMII

It was a claim to fame another GM brand: Saturn. They used plastic and not carbon fiber or other pricey composites.

The Corvette has had a fiberglass body since day 1 in 1953: https://media.gm.com/media/us/en/gm/..._corvette.html

proexpert

Ever see this Saturn commercial? Corvette panels are similar in their resistance to dents, even from baseballs.

Tommy79

So how would a C7 handle hail?

Zymurgy

Tommy79,

See post #5.

Skid Row Joe

They'll scuff, mar and chip paint, but won't dent. He was telling you right. However, they can be damaged nonetheless. ..

owc6

I can tell you this is true from personal experience.

During a storm, a medium size tree fell on top of our Saturn, and destroyed the windshield, but the paint was undamaged. The tree bounced off the car, flipped clean over the Dodge Ram next to it and took out a porch railing, so I know it hit the Saturn pretty hard!

joemessman

I accidentally, of course, rear ended someone and thought for sure I had really done a whole lot of damage to the front fascia. When I got out of the car to look there was not one indication I hit them! I had a 3M clear bra on it and it wasn't even scuffed. I hit it pretty good too. I just couldn't believe there wasn't any damage. The car I bumped didn't have any damage as they had one of those big plastic bumpers on it. The lady exclaimed that she couldn't believe there wasn't a huge dent in my car.

Tommy79

thanks.. missed it completely.

trapdoor

I apparently need a bit of education about what these cars are make of.
As commented on above the Corvette started life as a fiberglass body on frame construction. Carbon Fiber is still a fiberglass just with carbon fiber material used instead of conventional fiberglass.
Now I see terms like "sheet molded composite material" which still sounds like fiberglass but could also be some kind of plastic like the Fierro and Saturn cars used. (I think)
Could someone set me straight of what the body of these cars are.

Apocolips

Let me first say that I know nothing about the car painting art. But have always wondered about the following: I had a Cyber Grey 2014 that when the paint was chipped because of a rock or something the primer below the paint was white and showed up badly. I now have a 2017 Arctic White GS and when chipped it has a black primer which shows up even worse. Why not white/lighter primer for white cars and black/dark primer for darker painted cars? I’m sure that there is a reason but???

krwunlv

Dingless - that's an awkward way of not assuming gender of the vehicle. LOL

Zymurgy

This may help:


This too:
Top 9 Things You Didn't Know About Carbon Fiber

joemessman

I never understood that either. I researched that very question on the Internet and didn't see an answer.