jack made a hole in the body !
 

I was changing the tire on my corolla and strangely enough the jack actually broke the underbody of the car and went through it. now there's a hole in the underbody. some body ! arghh...:mad:
well, i'm wondering how to get it fixed now. should i get it welded by going to a body shop or is there another simpler way to get the whole mended.
thankx.

could ;you
 

post a pic of it?

hard to tell much by verbal description.

tom w

well it's under the car. not sure if the pic would be visible but i'll try to take one tomorrow

Not supposed to jack them up from their. MB's will do the same thing. If it is a newer car with some value I'd get it welded. For an older car just fiberglass it.

Very interesting. What year model is the car? Was the jack located on the floor panel, rather than the frame? Hattaras is correct with his statement. Putting that much weight on a floor panel is trouble.

Good luck - we will look forward to the photos and model year of the car.

Look on the bright side, you screwed up when you were using a jack (?) and you're still alive and well, typing messages here at ShopForum! :)

it's a 96 corolla,
yes I am thankful to Allah that I'm safe and sound. I didnt have the tire off when this happened. I'll try to take some pics but weather out there isnt all that great today. I liked the idea of using fiberglass to fill it out so I'll be visiting the local autobody shop to get some solution as well.
thanx again everyone for the great input.

Next time ask Allah where the owners manual is, you could have avoided this mess altogether now.

@n8nod..,
I'll ignore your comment.
as for the owner's manual, the jack had slipped hence dislocated from the original point of where the car jack should've been positioned.
perhaps you'll think a bit before posting in future.

If it's a non-structural panel, (and I hope it isn't if the jack is all it takes to punch through!) here's what I'd do, given that the car probably isn't worth a big dollar welding repair (most of which will be removing carpeting and interior around the weld area so you don't burn the car to the ground)(and don't forget how vicious flammible some undercoat is, like creosote). First, you should hammer the panel flat or back to it's original shape, leaving a seam or tear to fix. Then you need to mechanically re-join the metal along the tear line(s). This can be done by welding, or use patch pieces of sheet metal and pop rivets. I cut my patch pieces to size, then butter the area where it will lay over the floor metal with flexible seam sealer. This stuff is like glue, stays flexible, and does the job of waterproofing the repaired seam. Fibreglass will crack after time and leave you open to water penetration, but it's an option I guess if you are careful to clean the metal thoroughly. After many years of fixing rust holes in old floors, I've gone over to rivets and seam sealer, since it's easier, faster, and the repair usually outlasts the surrounding metal. You don't have a rust issue here though, but flexing of floor metal is always a problem, so take this for what its worth as an option.

I agree with the metal patch/sealer/pop rivets fix. Pop riveting is a GREAT invention. Not extremely strong, but strong enough and easy to do. And this is a repair that will not be very visible.

i agree
 

assuming it is just floor pan and not structural shapes such as rocker area.

tom w

yea it's the floor pan.

Did that with a Z-24 years ago (almost). Couldn't figure out why the car wasn't lifting off the ground until I stopped, opened the passenger door and saw that the passenger-side floorboard had been raised considerably! :eek:

I lowered the jack and stomped the floorboard down until it was normal...I was pleasantly surprised how easy it was to deform that area...not much metal to it.

Fiberglass is kind of a pain to use if you never have tried it. Have a welder patch a piece of metal onto the damaged area and coat it with roofing sealer to prevent rust...

Duct tape?
 

I mean, it is a 10-year-old Corolla.