C30 Body : Reason for marks on bonnet shut panel?

[2.4TSE]

I collected the C30 T5 SE Sport that I'm giving to my wife today and still have the smile on my face. In fact, I'm wondering if she'd like my V70 instead

Question: Lift the bonnet and a black plastic trim panel is revealed against which the bonnet shuts closed. Follow this trim panel to the right and it starts to bend back as it reaches the right hand headlamp case. For the few inches before it bends back it is very scuffed right on the rear lip and a quick peek show that so too is the paint on the metal structural panel underneath.

The marks are such that they look like they have come from a spanner handle knocking on the edge of the panel during maintenance, but maintaining what? The car has had three scheduled services from new and the absence of other tell tale signs convinces me the bodywork is all original, so I'm puzzled!

Ideas, please?

TVM,
2.4TSE

[markt1]

Hi can you post some photos then we can all have a good look i do a little bit of spannering but my trade is painting cars so i maybe able make sense or someone else may
Regards Mark.

[2.4TSE]

Sure thing!

Will probably be on Sunday as I'm up at sparrows o'clock this morning, Saturday, (so ought really to be going to bed now!) and won't be back home until the small hours of Sunday morning.

[2.4TSE]

Well I took the photos on Sunday, but thanks to work overload it took until now to post them! I'm glad I did take them actually as the precise location of the marks is a little different to what my brain recalled; rather than being before the slam panel bends out to clear the rear face of the offside headlamp in fact the marks are on this section.

The last two photos are of course taken with the camera inside the engine bay pointing back towards the front of the car.






Cheers,
2.4TSE

[Clan]

first impression is something heavy has been dragged past the panel has the engine ever been out? Or perhaps the engine has gone forward and rubbed it in a front accident?

[2.4TSE]

Hi Clan,

No evidence of an insurance claim in the paperwork or via other checks I have made and the paintwork on all the panels feels "right". By this I mean it all has the same light swirl marks consistent with three years of hand washing and before I polished it and thus removed any evidence felt the same to the palm when a hand was dragged over it. Before I purchased the car I also removed both headlights to check the hidden ends of the chassis rails and both appeared unmolested and unrepaired and with a layer of dust on them commensurate with three years of use. None of the engine mounting bolts or those associated with major structures show spanner marks. I would therefore be amazed if the engine had ever been out.