Tension spring on my garage door snapped and shot off with my car and me inside. Hit my sedan, denting the roof, upper part of my rear driver side door, scrapped all the way to my c pillar and hit the side of my car. Now I have a bunch of dents and scrapes. Looks like ****. I was in the garage when it snapped as was only hit with a few metal shards. Either way, I need some body work. Gonna try and buff out some of the scrapes/scratches this weekend for a quick fix. FML.

...rant over...

Holy crap Dave! So sorry to hear this happened. Glad you or the family weren't standing under the garage door when it gave out. What a freak accident....geez.

Garage door is still hanging/mounting. The spring and cable snaped on one side. We have a two separate garage doors for each car.

I was lucky I was actually in the doorway heading out of the garage so it would have blocked me some if the spring shot my way. Damage is not a ton, but I just HATE minor dings/dents on my car. Any recomendations for trying to buff/polish out deep scratches? Products, etc?

dam sorry to hear

pics of the damage?

That sucks man! Glad your ok! Hope you get everything fixed.

I will snap some pics tomorrow. Nothing too major, but enough to drive me insane. Will see what insurance will cover as there are door dings anyway that can be fixed as well.

dammm

sorry to hear man

hope it all works out!

Had the same happen to me once, luckily the car was not in the garage when it happened. I feel for you.

Pics would really help.

Maybe post in the detailing section and ask some vendors for product suggestions.

I'm sure they'll be able to help out.

Sorry that happened Dave

I install garage doors, and I can tell you... there's supposed to be a 'safety cable' that runs through the extension spring, so that in the event it breaks (the all do after a while) the two halves won't go shooting off in either direction.




The cost of garage door work varies in different parts of the country, but what you may want to do is when you call around about getting the springs replaced, ask about having your door converted to torsion springs.
It's a FAR better system, much safer, and the door will run smoother.

Here's an extension spring (notice the lack of safety cables )



And here's a torsion spring setup:




When a torsion spring breaks, it just makes a loud noise. Since both ends of the spring are firmly bolted (one to the center support, one to the shaft) no parts go flying anywhere.

Broken torsion spring (gap develops from spring losing tension, not from parts coming off)

damn dude !!!!!!!!!!!!! wtf .. this just happend ???

Sorry to see this happen but glad to hear no one was hurt. Hope you can get the car back with little hassle/work!

Good info Ashley

Sorry to hear, Dave! Do you have a buffer for the scratches? I'd recommend starting with Meguiars M105 on a yellow pad followed by M205 on a white pad.

Dave at least you or your family wasn't hurt, that's a good thing. But I'm sorry to hear about the ride, that sucks. What a random thing eh? Are the dents too big to have paintless dent removal fix them?

Good luck with the repairs, if you're trying to buff out some scratches and stuff you'll need a pretty aggressive polish and pads depending on how deep they are. The Detailed Image has a great DIY on polishing out scratches somewhere on their website.

Random yes, but not as random as you may think.
I've seen many a garage with busted sheetrock from where an extension spring broke and pitched itself across the room.

It's really worth it to anyone reading this, if you have a garage door, check to see if it has extension springs (run along the upper tracks and stretch out when the door is closed)

If so, MAKE SURE they have safety cables in them.

With the door closed and the spring stretched out, there should be a cable running through the INSIDE of the spring, attached on each end.
If you're missing a safety cable/s, you should add them... all springs eventually break.