[quackman]

Well, I'm the king of the idiots- I tried reversing out of my garage not noticing that the DOOR WAS OPEN. So when reversing the door caught on something-- the lawn mower handle. Which is a blessing in disguise as it had some give to it unlike the side of the garage door opening which i could have just as easily hit and this would have been much worse.
I had just taken the top off the car the day before and was rushing a bit to show an old friend the car and had a few things on my mind... whether to just start the car and hop out while it warmed up in the garage to show my friend the hardtop inside or to just reverse it out right away and let it warm up outside. Well I did the latter but not before closing the door, ugh. The combo of wondering where to let the car warm up and the strange, new sensation of having the top off was on my mind I guess... I stopped as soon as I heard the noise from the door hitting the lawn mower.
Feel free to call me stupid, I know
AT first I only noticed a small nick in the paint on the door's edge where it hit the lawnmower handle, very tiny. But a few days later I noticed what you will see below in pics. Two "cracks/crunches" in the lower fender panel edge and the front clam edge near the door.
Anyway the real reason I am posting here is to get some opinions on whether the damage should be taken care of immediately if it can spread and if so could the damage just be repaired with some body work? I'm hoping such an insignificant area needn't cause a whole replacement of the clam and fender
On to the pics
click to make bigger






click for bigger ones
Well? how bad/dire does this look? I've always felt that these hinges had too much give in them.... i can even go around to the passenger side and a little bit of a push allows the door to move pretty close to having the arm near the fender. I've already had the dealer "adjust" the driver-side door as it seemed to be sagging a bit. I could hear it rub as I closed/opened the door each time before they adjusted it. These hinges don't seem too sturdy and the "arm" connecting the door to the hinge can be disastrously bulky as seen above.
But yeah, aside from this, absolutely loving the lotus, no other real problems with it.

 

[tesprit]

Sorry to see these results of your momentary lack of attention.
From the photos, it appears the door shell (fiberglass part) moved forward on the side impact door beam (aluminum extrusion inside the door attached to the hinge) and made contact with the rear edge of the fender/clam. The damage to the clam edge doesn't look that bad from the photos and depending on how picky you are, it probably could be touched up without any further spreading. This may not be the extent of the damage though. If the door shell was pushed forward on the beam, you will need to inspect the attachment points where the shell is bolted to the beam for damage. With the door open, try to GENTLY push the door forwards toward the hinge along the beam to see if it moves easily and listen for crunching/cracking noises indicating damage to the mounting areas inside the door shell. If it seems to move easily or you can hear bad noises, removing the interior door panel and inspecting the attachment points would be your next step. The photos also seem to indicate the front edge of the door shell is no longer properly aligned with the clam, but it is hard to tell. Is this the way the gap between the front edge of the door and the rear edge of the clam always looked on your car?

 

[Vampyre]

The photos also seem to indicate the front edge of the door shell is no longer properly aligned with the clam.

I also noticed this and it does not look right to me either.
How does the other door and clam meet up?

 

[quackman]

I also noticed this and it does not look right to me either.
How does the other door and clam meet up?

Surprisingly, the other door looks more "out of place" than the driver side one, but in a different way. The passenger door seems to stick out from the car the slightest bit when compared to the rear clam that meets with the door.
I looked for this sticking out on the driver side door there and it seems to not stick out in this way, looking more "in place."
As far as the part you two are talking about, as far as I remember from looking at it last night, no it doesn't seem to look weird near the front clam, i think it's just the photo's angle.

But besides that, does this damage look like it necessitates a quick-ish repair before it can spread? Or should it be fine(but ugly) for a while, as it's in a hidden-ish area?