Strong Wind Cautionary Tale

[Jakeys]

Here in Adelaide we've been having some extreme weather, torrential rain and very heavy wind gusts. So... open your doors VERY carefully.



If it's not obvious, the door is now misaligned by about two inches and won't shut properly. Basically I started to open it, wind gust came, ripped it out of my hand and smashed it open at full travel. When it bounced back, it was ****ed. Doesn't close at all just smacks into the body unless I grab hold of the window frame and door handle and lift up as hard as I can, then push it onto the clasp.

Everything looks visually okay except the door droops down a couple inches and creaks when you move it. Surrounding panels and paint all okay. I've spoken to a reputable crash repairer already and they think because the car is so well engineered the damage is pretty minor. A lot of cheaper cars would have surrounding panel damage or bent pillars but I might get off lucky with a few hours labour taking apart the hinges, taking the door off, realigning and putting it all back together.

Never heard of this happening before but they reckon it's actually pretty common to see cars that have gone through this!

[JustCruisn]

Wow I am astonished.
The door should be super stong, it is a VW after all. You should be able to climb on it and jump up and down, then close the door no problems.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yc4P6VdIPRE

[Jakeys]

It was about an 80km/h wind gust, based off of the Bureau of Meteorology data. Hard to imagine wind pushing a door that hard but it was powerful enough to actually pull it out of my hand (Not that I was gripping it tightly, usual casual opening the door grip) and throw it open so fast I didn't even have time to react. I would say I could kick the door as hard as possible and jump in it like in that vid (Seen that before) and it would be less stressful on it.

I've definitely never seen anything like it but both my insurer and the crash repairer said it's relatively common although usually it causes more damage so the fact my door still shuts with effort is lucky.

[Hillbilly]

I know the feeling well as I used to have an XF Falcon Taxi in a windy city. Had an interesting discussion with a cop one day when I parked facing the wrong way outside a restaurant in a back street.

Why because it was blowing so hard it would have ripped the doors off it if I had stopped with the wind behind me.

He wasnt amused till I turned around and got him to catch it when I opened it. Mutterd a bit and went away.

[Roc]

It works the other way too!
The missus was just about crushed to death when a gust of wind caught the Scirocco door and slammed it shut.

Crazy weather here at the moment!

Hopefully it's not too much to get that fixed mate.

[Jakeys]

It works the other way too!
The missus was just about crushed to death when a gust of wind caught the Scirocco door and slammed it shut.

Crazy weather here at the moment!

Hopefully it's not too much to get that fixed mate.

Jeez yeah I would rather not be on the receiving end of a door clamping me like that. Good point!

The crashie (Silver's for SA folks) is pretty confident it will only need what I mentioned in the first post so I can get away with $2-300. If it's more than that then I'll claim with Shannon's, who I spoke to on the phone already and they will cover it as a natural event/storm damage, so no change to my premium/rating one, I will just pay an $800 excess and they will cover any damages. So it won't be insane, whatever happens.