Paintless Dent Repair??

[two_bit_score]

And then there's Mother Nature. I managed to get a nice ding in Sharn Jean's new SUV, just above the windshield, courtesy of a rock thrown by an oilfield truck. I never told her about it, and she never noticed it, although it was there for some time. Last time I looked, it had popped out, and not even a scratch in the paint to show where it was. I just chalked it up to good old Oklahoma sunshine.

A buzzard swooped down and hit the top of a car I was driving once. LOUD! I was sure it did some major damage but where it hit was right near the windshield pillar just above the windshield over the drivers side. So a pretty reinforced area of the roof. But it still put an egg sized dent on the roof.

By the end of summer that dent was gone. I attribute it strictly to heat from the sun during a very hot summer.

 

[two_bit_score]

I watched a guy do a brand new car I bought that had a door ding. It’s magic is all I can say.

I had a coworkers husband who did it for a year. He invested quite a bit of time and effort in training and then bought a bunch of tools. It was a tough way to make a living unless you followed the hail storms around and were gone all the time. I got the idea it is not a hobby thing. I’m not saying it’s not possible I just think it a learned skill and a talent you lose if you don’t do it all the time.

If they are experienced and good at it it’s amazing what they can do.

It seems to be like a lot of things as far as hobbies go. Runs the gamut from very inexpensive to almost a full time, professional-amateur effort.

I think it’s interesting and would be fun to be able to pull a dent out of a friends or relatives vehicle for them. Or, my own of course.

Some of the tools can be pretty expensive.

 

[buck12]

When my 09 F150 was new I dropped about a 3’ x 3’ piece of plywood on the hood and put a couple of pretty good dents in the hood. I also had door ding. I found a guy online that had a stall at a small tire shop. He made my new truck new again. 11 years later and the paint has not popped.

 

[Oaktree]

So how does this work? Is it just heat alone or is there other magic involved?
I've heard of PDR before, but never known anyone who did it, nor have I ever seen it done. I'd imagine it's restricted to fairly minor dents.

 

[rangerfredbob]

A guy from another forum I'm on just got a starter kit from Amazon.

I'm cheap and stubborn so I drive old beaters (newest vehicle I have is from 2000) and when a dent drives me nuts I just fix it to my abilities, I've used a little bit of everything from 2x4's to the cheap body hammer set from Harbor Freight to pry bars to brass drifts... The quality depends on the thought I put into it and whether the initial dent is creased or not. I have not tried the external glue dent pulling but I imagine it works fine, I've been tempted...

just a note, for a dent to drive me nuts it generally is creased and deep enough to draw attention, a minor ding is just character... I wanna get some of the dents out of my daily driver but I'm not going to go crazy, a couple were forced, one made it so the tailgate wouldn't open and another pushed on the tail light, and another made the door hit the fender...

 

[two_bit_score]

So how does this work? Is it just heat alone or is there other magic involved?
I've heard of PDR before, but never known anyone who did it, nor have I ever seen it done. I'd imagine it's restricted to fairly minor dents.

Oh you need to watch some videos on YouTube.

Runs from glue pulling very small dents all the way up to some major repair jobs with light boards and some pretty expensive tools.

It’s fascinating.

 

[two_bit_score]

A guy from another forum I'm on just got a starter kit from Amazon.

I'm cheap and stubborn so I drive old beaters (newest vehicle I have is from 2000) and when a dent drives me nuts I just fix it to my abilities, I've used a little bit of everything from 2x4's to the cheap body hammer set from Harbor Freight to pry bars to brass drifts... The quality depends on the thought I put into it and whether the initial dent is creased or not. I have not tried the external glue dent pulling but I imagine it works fine, I've been tempted...

just a note, for a dent to drive me nuts it generally is creased and deep enough to draw attention, a minor ding is just character... I wanna get some of the dents out of my daily driver but I'm not going to go crazy, a couple were forced, one made it so the tailgate wouldn't open and another pushed on the tail light, and another made the door hit the fender...

That’s what I’m talking about.

 

[rangerfredbob]

If you have dings on a vehicle and can get to the back side, you'd be surprised what you can get away with, start light with prying or hammering then work your way harder until it works. The trick is you have to reverse what caused the dent so just think that way.

The trick is to try things on something that doesn't matter, if you're really bored take some pry bars, hammers and 2x4's to the junkyard and see what works... I was kinda forced into doing my own body work when I rolled my '90 Ranger down a sand dune 1.5 times sideways, didn't want to total it so just fixed it up myself, all original sheet metal, pulled the roof skin, straightened the A pillars and pulled both fenders and got the dents out, there's some areas I couldn't get to so it's not perfect but it's good enough for me...

 

[dodge man]

They don’t normally use heat. They like to get behind it to work it out. They can also glue a something on the outside to get the dent out. The thing is you can’t just pull or push the dent out, the metal is stretched. When the guy did my car, the dealership paid for it since the ding was on it when I bought it. It was behind the drivers door. He said he could drill a hole in the door frame to get behind it or do it from the outside. He did it from the outside. I’m not joking when I say it seemed like magic, I watched him do it and don’t know how he did it. It took him maybe 20 minutes start to finish.

 

[Fuddy1952]

What were you using to heat it with?

I had never done it before but went to YouTube university. I picked a warm sunny day, washed car and you could really see the dent in sunlight. I used a heat gun, alternating high-low. If it seemed too hot I used a little freeze spray. As someone mentioned it's like the metal was stretched.
Starting at one end it began to push up. So I moved along until it was out. I was afraid I'd burn the paint so I was careful. When through I used cold water, then waxed it. It worked ok. That's been a few years, paint's fine.