The reality of aluminum body panels.

[ray66v]

Doesn't the torch affect the paint?

No, it did not. Remember aluminum spreads heat out quickly.

Looked really scary to me. Get it too hot, and you're buying a really expensive hood.

 

[jix]

Road salt corrosion in aluminum is BBAAADDD!

 

[MossRoad]

As I've mentioned before, our 2000 Impala was in a horrible hail storm. Just massive, massive dents all over the entire car except the two right-side doors. 1.5" hailstones covering a huge area. A couple car dealerships in there, too. Homes damages as well. There were paintless dent removal shops set up for over a year around here. It was pretty incredible damage on a large scale. Our car alone had hundreds of dents. Planes at airports that sat outside got hit hard, too. Although I'm pretty sure airplane wings are probably thinner than these car panels. I'd like to see some hail tests on the new Fords.

 

[riptides]

... paintless dent removal ....

I wonder if people could chime in on what the satisfaction level is with this technique?

I guess it depends on the paint condition and size of the ding/dent?

 

[sld]

I have had PDR done several times and even on our "nicer" vehicles. I have been very satisfied with it.

The biggest benefit is you don't have to worry about any paint matching which is a huge plus the older a vehicle gets. There is a limit to what can be massaged out but if the tech is skilled you will be amazed at what they can do.

Just last week I had 6 door dings taken out of the Sable I just bought for 100 bucks cash. Can't even find where they were now. This 14 year old car is straight as an arrow now.

 

[MossRoad]

I wonder if people could chime in on what the satisfaction level is with this technique?

I guess it depends on the paint condition and size of the ding/dent?

I was very satisfied with it... and we had massive hail damage. Couldn't see where they popped them back at all.

 

[Diamondpilot]

I wonder if people could chime in on what the satisfaction level is with this technique?

I guess it depends on the paint condition and size of the ding/dent?

I had it done twice. 100% satisfied.

Chris

 

[s219]

Not only was I satisfied, I was amazed. They can work miracles. Dents come out well. Creases, not so much, and they may not even recommend the technique in some cases.

 

[MossRoad]

They couldn't do PDR on my hood

..... it was fiberglass! :laughing:

They did try PDR on the trunk... Some paint around where the rear spoiler attaches was flaking when they tried to give it back to me. I objected, and they went and replaced the entire trunk lid and a new spoiler. But roof, tops of both front fenders, both driver's side doors, left rear quarter and top of right rear quarter all looked great. Go check out some videos of how its done. Pretty amazing the places they can get into.

 

[MossRoad]

Hail dent in an aluminum hood...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z6M3p2QDkdc

There's a bunch of videos regarding aluminum dent repairs and pretty much all of them mention somewhere in the video that aluminum is harder to work with than steel and will take about twice as long, too.