It seems like "paintless dent repair" is the latest craze. How is this done? Please don't speculate on how it's done. None of this "my brother saw it at a place two towns over" stuff. None of the "it can't work" stuff, either. It seems to work, and people seem to be paying a lot of money for it. How is that dent repair done? It seems like they can do it without access to the back of the panel, which blows my mind. Thanks, Matt
I got a question too, about dent repair... Their are a few dents on a car that im purchessing.. Does that, ****tion cup thing (on TV) accually work... How it works is, there are a plunger type thing, that sticks on the dent, there are 4 long bars that you tightn... When the plugner thing is super tight, you pull up with all your strenth, and the sheet metal pops right back up, with little or no bondo... steve-
I would think that it would only work on newer **** boxes and nothing made out of real Detroit steel.
Matt, I have a PDR guy come to my shop for lightweight stuff every once in a while, and he's good. He DOES have to gain access to the back of a panel(not necessarily direct access to the damage)to push and pry out the dent(s) Works good on latemodel(read that,"thin-***") sheetmetal, as long as the dent isn't sharp, on a style line and the paint isn't broken. He did a new Impala roof with hail damage ALL OVER in about 5 hours---charged me $400. If we'd filled, primed/blocked, refinished, r&i'd gl***, it would have been over twice that. Bottom line, we both made money, saved insurance co. money, made customer happy. YES, it works, BUT not on everything and it takes a certain skill to perform. mid-tenn mike
I'm no expert but I've seen it done. Take this for what it is worth. It works - most of the time. All depends on the dent and its location though. A simple door ding that didn't break the paint can be popped out like you wouldn't believe. The techs I've seen do it have done most all of them to the point to where you couldn't see that it was ever there. Cost about $50. I have a one foot square "wallop" on the side of my Ranger truck bed and they said they could get it out to about 90% with only minimal distortion still remaining. It is so large that it was going to cost $200 though and I didn't want to spend the cash. They use a crazy amount of weird little tools. Some suction cups and long and short rods with all types of ends on them - flat surfaces, little balls, etc... I've heard of dry ice being used on hail damage on a hot day but haven't seen it done personally. The suction cups obviously go on the outside. The rods go in behind interior panels. I saw a dent worked out of the 1/4 of an early '70's Porsche once. It was a black car and the dent was a pretty good one - 'bout the size of your fist on a compound curved panel, in a hard-to- reach spot. It came out and you honestly couldn't tell it had been there. Cost about $75. It is real and it is worth a shot for minor dents that haven't broken the paint. Find a tech that has been in the business for a while. Some guys have 10 years experience now days. If I was 18 years old and looking for a career, I'd look into the training. These guys stay busy at car lots and body shops. Most travel like the Snap-On man with their tools in the truck. Just making rounds. JH
I bought a brand new black '02 GMC 2500hd. About 2 weeks after i got it, i was washing it..well, i'm short and the stool i was standing on slid out from under me and right into the p*** door below the chrome trim. Put a 3" ding in it..Looked like **** and i was sick!! A friend sells cars and he called a guy who specializes in paintless dent repair. He had the truck for about 45 minutes, and came back PERFECT!!!! I really don't know how they do it, other than there shrinking and stretching the tin. And i'll agree, the tin used to put these new cars together is a lot thinner than the old days..may not work as well.. Rat.....
[ QUOTE ] If I was 18 years old and looking for a career, I'd look into the training. These guys stay busy at car lots and body shops. Most travel like the Snap-On man with their tools in the truck. Just making rounds. JH [/ QUOTE ] I second that idea! Lots of those guys follow storms, tornados..... I met a father/son team about 8 yrs ago that just up and decided to do PDR for a living---made 75 large the first year while still on the learning curve.
I'll throw out my 2 cents. Yes it works, like anything else, there are people who are good at it, and some not so good. I've done a little bit, but most of the stuff I work on is getting painted, so it's faster to push it out and file it off. The one thing you have to watch out for if your having it done, is how they gain "access". Most of the "traveling PDR" guys I've seen pull back the weather strip and punch or drill holes to get the picks in. Then dab some silicone in the hole, or stick a plastic plug in. Or just leave the hole. No corrosion protection, just hack it and move on. I've also seen a lot of PDR work that is still very visible(if you know what your looking for)and many times the paint will be fractured, leading to rust later on. Don't get me wrong there is some quality work going on, (one of my friends is very good, and will not do a dent if your not willing to pay for trim removal, for access)but buyer beware! If your having the work done, make sure the guy will stand behind what he does. As far as the "dent king" on tv goes, what a ****ing rip off.
It works great on newer cars with thin metal.they usually wont even try to repair older cars..I had some pulled out of 95 Pathfinder and they did an great job they were pretty fair sized dents too.
It does depend on the skill of the guy doing the work. And it CAN be done to old cars, just takes a bit more time, and effort. I sold my 54 to a guy, who put a few dings in the roof and door. The car was lavender pearl, with a Candy purple roof, so I wasn't too hot on doing "touch-ups" on it, for him. So I got him a PDR guy. I later saw the car and could barely tell where the dents were, some were perfect repairs! Mostly they use type of pry bar, with a s**** shaped end, so it smoothly pushes out the dent. They pry/rub the low spot until it is level with the rest of the sheet metal. If the spot is stretched, and comes up too high, they use a light hammer on a teflon punch, again, with a smooth end, to 'shrink' it back down. They use a fluorescent light set up to reflect on the panel to check for straightness. It does take a lot of skill, the right tools, and some experience to do it right. I've got a lot of respect for the good ones in this business.
We've had this done on a blazer that had large hail damage on all the panels of the vehicle. Large hail mind you. Some dents were as large as an inch in diamenter and an inch deep. Insurance quoted the normal bodywork for repair and we had enough money left over to play with and repaint a different color. The work was close to perfect. The guy looked like a surgeon with tools on his table in various lengths and shapes. These tools fit between the panels and allow the doctor to force these dents out by slightly prying on the areas. The trick is to find the exact area or you can cause more damage. here's a pic of the final job.
I just had this done on my '03 Dodge Dakota. There was a dent in the quarter, between the wheelwell and bumper, along the bottom edge of the panel. I honestly don't know how it happen and I was pissed. Because there was NO paint damage, I knew it was a good candidate for "painless" removal. The guy took out the taillight and worked the panel from behind and it came out great. I had to pay $125, but the truck is new and I wasn't going to let it go. If the paint is good, it pays to stay on top of damage like that or else the next time it happens, you give up and let the truck go to hell.
as I was traveling west to Rogues RanchRun last month something jumped up off the Interstate and put a golf ball sized dent in the drivers door of my brand new truck. At the RanchRun Don Dillard (drd57) gave me the number of a fellow near L.A. that could work this out. When I arrived at his shop I asked if it would be all right if I watched. He went in through a fastener hole in the bottom of the door with a pick and slowly m***aged the dent out. Fifteen minutes and $75 you cannot tell where this dent was. The fastener hole got a little elongated but it is covered with a rubber weatherstrip. The whole process is based on leverage and someone who knows what they are doing.
Thanks, guys, for the responses. It's nice to know that there's no black magic or snake oil invovled, just a patient guy who works methodically. That I can understand!
I just got a video detailing the process, because I'm thinking about doing it here for side work(since no one else is offering it) I hadnt heard of it either until my Landcruiser was done (in Houston Tx). There are quite a few tools needed, especially the lamp that projects gradient lines down the panel, which lets you see the when the dents are out. But it really boils down to the skill of the tech. Supposedly takes a while to get good at it. I'll have to learn by hands on as the schools cost $4000 to $6000.00. The video suggested practicing at a junk yard which is what i'm gonna do when I get the tools.
I did a complete on a '72 Ranchero a few years ago... and I put a ding in the door. It was fresh paint... maybe two months old... anyway, I was sick... Here's this $5000 paint job that I just ****ed up. So my paint and body buddy says he knows this guy that can take it out with the PDR process... the guy comes out from Sacramento... works on it for a half hour... and gets it to the point where you can't even tell it was ever there. He heated the paint up with a heat lamp... pushed the dent out... hammered it back flat with a punch and a hammer... and then sanded it a tad and polished it out... blew my mind. The guy was a real craftsman... for sure... and was proud of his work. Sam.
here i did some research for you and this is what i got http :// auto.howstuffworks.com/paintless-dent-removal.htm hope this works It works great. A couple of years ago I had m***ive hail damage to my car - every single panel was dented. When I got the car back, only one dent wasn't fixed perfectly and they rebated me $20 for it. (I made a profit of $4k on that incident. Insurance gave me a check for $6k, I paid Hailmasters $2k). It took them significantly longer than a couple of hours. They had my car for two days, but I won't complain. Basically what they do is use hardened tools that look like oversized dental picks to m***age the dents out from the back side. I've never had a dent get pushed back in, but I'm sure the body panel is weaker at those points. The Hailmasters site has a bit of information about how they take the dent out. They pretty much chase hailstorms all around the country and set up tents to do the work. I imagine it's pretty lucrative. About the cost of it:- If the dents are fairly small, you could probably get them repaired for about $100 apiece or less. If the dents are repairable by this method, it would certainly be much quicker than leaving it with a car workshops. But bear in mind that paintless repair will not work on all dents. For example, did the paint get damaged in either dent? If so, then you're going to need the fender repainted, and, of course, PDR will not help for this. Does either of the dents have a sharp crease? If so, then there's a good chance that paintless repair will not work. To get more information, you could talk with a PDR tech, or there are several paintless repair sites on the internet with more information.
One more story. A few years ago my neighbor kids were playing softball in the street in front of my house. My OT Mustang was parked in the driveway in front of the garage. You guessed it. The ball went up on the roof and rolled down right on the top of my LF fender. I was amazed at the size if the dent. The PDR guy gained access several different ways and got it out perfectly. Like explained above, he used a number of long "s****s" and duct tape wrapped rods, took him about 30 minutes. He also had a fluorescent shop light fixture mounted on a tripod he used as a "target" to see when it was straight. Very cool.
Highly polished hammer and dolly and some finesse. They use hammer and dolly polished to a mirror finish and then know what they are doing to a certain extent.
lots of youtube videos on it. did watch a guy walk some dings out of a black 64 lincoln door and was impressed.
Yeah! ...And it still works! I made a tool to 'roll' out small dents where accessible from behind. It's a 'yoke', (forked pair of 1" X 7" steel straps) with a standard roller bearing on a bushing and a 5/16" shaft. Works way better than a s****... The heat lamp (or heat gun) is handy if used sparingly. My daughter was flying on her skateboard and put an oblong ding (1/4" deep!) in the p***enger fender of my 635 CSI BMW Coupe. (imagine!) That was what I mfg'd the 'roller tool' for. I finished it up with a cake of dry ice...(placed by leaning a 4" X 4" square post on the dry ice) Dent came out sooo close...the dry ice pulled it to perfection! (daughter Amy did some of the work, placing and watching the dry ice...) This repair was made 8 years ago. (however relevant time is)
I saw this thread which has been inactive since long before I became a member . Not long after retiring from the USAF in 1994, I took a cl*** on PDR in Springfield, MO. The cl*** was one week long and included a set of quality tools for $5,000. This "school" was only an introduction, covering the basics. After returning home and practicing on my own for a few months, I felt confident enough to test my skills on the local car lots. My efforts were well received and I had a LOT of work. Over the course of two years, I made enough money to pay off my mortgage. Later, over two summers, doing work only for ALFA, I did so much PDR that I developed Carpal Tunnel Syndrome (and spent the money on a Pro Mod drag car). Rather than have surgery, I retired from the PDR business. I still have two full sets of tools, which I'd make someone a good deal on, without, (or including a week of training).
I really believe the PDR market is now saturated. These guys are everywhere causing a lot of compe***ion. There was a guy in my area called the Dent Doctor that got in on the ground floor. After he was in business about two years I was in his office and he had a plaque from the Dent Doctor franchise welcoming him into their $250,000 club. Thats nothing to sneeze at. Ten minutes labor with a $75 charge and no expense on materials is not too shabby. Real doctors don't do that much better. The guy also works for Mercedes and Lexus dealers going down a line of used cars taking out dents. Lots more profitable then running a body shop with no call backs. I wish I had the foresight to get into the PDR field. Its a no stress job and one you can set your own hours on. Perfect to run out of your own shop. Plus lots of money off the books.
There is stress, when working for others you don't set your hours...they do and the IRS is not dumb about cash transactions..........but, all that said, it has been very good to those who had talent, drive and pursued it. Ray
This is a 10 year old thread. So lets go back to '99 After scrimping and saving I bought a new truck. Crew cab 4x4 power stroke. I owned that truck about 16 hrs and got caught in a 2" hail storm. 500.00 they pulled all the dents out of the hood and fenders. The roof would have been a lot more so I just left them.
After observing one of the 'Paint-Free Body-Work Wizards' working on a newer Buick at the local dealership, it became obvious to me, that this method is effective not because of the tools, or the skills of the people who practice the craft. It works because of the tempered metal used in late model cars. Tempered steel became a necessity as ever thinner metal was used to reduce weight, one of many tricks auto manufacturers employ to increase fuel mileage. If there is no major crease or ruined paint, it can be pulled, or pushed back into the original shape, and will be good as new. Otherwise you're back to bodywork 101.
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