How is paintless dent repair done? Can I do it myself?

 

Paintless dent repair is done by pushing from the inside out. Then they tap ever so gently from the outside in with a plastic tool to even it all out. It looks and would seem easier then it is, but it isnt easy at all. They have some specialized tools for doing it that basically look like long screwdrivers with the ends ground to different points. They have special spoons and what not as well.



Body shops dont even do it, they usually hire it out to a guy who does this for a living. They will offer it to thier customers, but again, its a outside company that is doing it for them.



I know there is a informecial with that Billy guy for a glue type paintless dent removal, I doubt it works, lol



If you try pushing from the inside out and you stretch the metal too much your screwed. In my area the wholesale rate a panel is about $65, I think retail is 100-125? Not sure about the retail prices. But if you have a couple panels that need to be done they usually work out a deal for you and its definitly worth it for door dings and **** like that. Its not used for large dents.

 

thanks Rob!



I just have the usual series of door dings and finger-dents in the back hatch. Nothing major. My body shop estimated that their contract guy charges $100/panel. I'm a little scared of that number, as I have uh.. lemme count....





6 panels that need repair. Ouch. Maybe I can talk him down to $500. All I got is a dent or two in each panel, and the dents are close together, too.

 

You should be able to talk them down to $400 or so. Also try looking in your yellow pages for paintless dent removal people and call them direct. When I tell you the guy takes about 5-10 minutes a dent IF THAT!

Being as the body shop is re-selling the service calling someone direct might yield more results "I was only looking to spend about $450-500 is there something we can work out?"

I know my friends shop gets multiple panels done on the same car for about $400, it would also help if you got another car or 2 to go in on it then you can really get a discount

 

LOL, Its Harder to push a dent out than repair it? I work in a Body shop i have been on the Smart repair course and to be honist the repair is never 100% right.



The reason body shops dont do this sort of repair is they cant get away with it.



The idear is to take your eye of dent (take the depth out of it) you will always still see the wobble where it was. Its made for car sales men.

 

there are some pretty strong little dents. I'm not talking about just low points in the body. I want them gone, or at least invisible. Anyway, the dents are just in slightly the wrong spot. The light just seems to catch them.... Should I do the paintless dent repair even though I'm getting the car repainted? Should I just fill the spots and have them painted over??

 

my best friend owns a paintless dent repair buisness and i can tell you it is not something to try yourself. when i purchased my fd it had about 25+ door dings, after they were done i was truely amazed, all are gone. my advice is to find a reputable dent removal company (because there are a lot of hacks out there) instead of filing the spots. check with your local highline auto dealer and see who they use(mercedes, porsche etc) if you're anywhere in the milwaukee wi -chicagoland area i can get you a helluva deal on some top notch work. good luck

 

We had a car club event at a detail shop where a PDR guy came and did a lot of cars for our club. We definitely gave him some challenges, but I was pretty amazed at how much they could repair and how nice it came out. It took a while and costs a good bit of money, but the results exceeded my expectations by a wide margin. I had some minor dings along the tops of my fenders from working on the car, and those were all gone and I swear you could not see any evidence that the panel was ever damaged. I also had a pretty good sized bump in the rear quarter panel (note: don't stick your *** into the side of the car when trying to pop the wheels off) and it is now gone, though you can see some waviness if you look closely. You wouldn't notice it generally, though, and I am happy with how it came out. I thought my car was pretty bad, but there were some cars that needed even more help. They had similar results -- all looked WAY better than they did upon arrival, some dents were gone and now invisible, while some left some waviness. I think the PDR guy we used was pretty good, so your results may vary.



Note that they may need to drill holes in the door jambs or behind the tail lights, etc. to get to some of the dents. I don't have a problem with this, but I know some people would not want any holes in their cars.



-Max

 

Where did it say its harder to push a dent out then repair it?



Body shops most certainly do sell these repairs, I would even pay someone else to fix a small ding on my own car with PDR rather then grind, fill, fair, prime, refinish the panel, especially if its a quarter panel.



9/10 the end result of a PDR repair is invisible, and it will stay that way versus using some body filler and re-painting a panel. On a car that has the original paint, it would be a shame to paint a door solely because of a couple of door dings on a car with original paint thats maybe 10+ years old.

 

Ok lets get one thing clear! If a dent is Sharp,large(streched) or the Paint is broken one of these guys CAN NOT repaire it i dont care wht anyone says i have had alot of experiance with these guys, I've even done the course to become one belive me 90% of these guys dont remove the dent completely and can still be seen if you look for it. Thats the hole idear to take your eye of somthing that stands out.



I can understand how its an easy fix and if done right people cant be very happy with the out come but at the end of the day they will NEVER replace body shops. I can repaire ANY dent on any panel perfectly so there is no trace.





"Body shops dont even do it, they usually hire it out to a guy who does this for a living. They will offer it to thier customers, but again, its a outside company that is doing it for them."



I dont know of any body shops that would PAY someone else to do there job? I dont know about the shops near you but we like to stay in busness and we do every thing in house.



Also i dont know about you but i would not like holes drilled in my doors whats that all about? i hope he paints the bare metal after and not just sticks a rubber bung over it. We would take the door card of and dress the dent out not drill holes every where.