Is this a common problem with 308's?

Yes it's common...repair should be done by a competent body shop.

 

Yup, had it all straightened and refinished by a body man, when I was having the entire front of my 308 repainted to correct all the paint chips.

 

Could you guys give a little more detail on exactly what part of the car we're talking about?

 

It's really that common?

That is surprising - it would take a real hack shop to dent that up.

 

GearHead,
Some damage may be caused by techs not being careful when using a lift, but I believe it can also be caused by driving over a curb, or sharply angled driveway or parking garage entrance....stuff happens...there it was when I got my car, and it was a documented 15k miles "garage queen" so go figure. But was expertly repaired (straightened) and refinished by a body man.

 

Flashman.
It only takes one 4" speed Bump at 15mph.
You have to be careful when racking the car on an asermetric lift as the best place to place the pad is on the frame behind the front wheel,but you have to be careful if you do not have the lift pad set outward of the frame it can slip inward this is why I always use a small block of wood on the lift pad and lift the rack barely to the point of the wheels off the ground and then check your set.
On the front this damage will occur if you do not follow this proceedure.
I,m glad you had a good guy fix it .
Kind Regards
Wayne Hynes.

 

If all that's bent is the pinch-weld, & area close to it, then all that s/b required is for the dent straightened out, the repaired area resprayed w/primer & body schutz ( textured chip guard), & then masked & resprayed black.

If the bend extends up into the color then It'll be very hard to repair it w/o doing some repainting.

Good news is that with computorized color matching almost any color can be invisibly matched & touched up.

 

Oh yeah, its common! Its a difficult area to see. I, embarassingly enough, did not notice damage like that to mine until I brought it home from the dealer after the purchase. I did inspect the car when it was up in the air at the dealer, yet the arms of the two post lift might have obscured the view of this area. Nonetheless, I'm not sure if it happened during life with the previous owner, or a careless drive during the dealer life during service shuffles.

After noticing it, I made an appointment a local shop repair the area as well as the jack points on both sides of the car. While leaving a parking space before the repair, my son saved my butt, alerting me to a low curb I almost crossed over!

The seating position is such that it's easy to do! You just can see those low curbs...you have to be situationally aware, or muster up those $800-$1200 repair bills!

 

I have a bit of this damage at the pinch weld too, but mine shows the edges of some kind of braided wire beneath the weld. Anyone know what that is?