Paintless Dent Removal

[Bumper]

Does anyone have any experience with Paintless Dent Removal? How well does it work and what should it cost? Thanks!

[kaisen]

It works VERY well. I've always been impressed. In my experience you will pay anywhere from $30 to $100 a dent, depending on how difficult it is.

E

[Don Plumley]

Yes, it is magic and I've had two done that are amazing. Just make sure the guy knows what he is doing. There are a fair number of folks that paid $100 for the training video sold in the classified ads of Popular Mechanics magazine.

Recommendation: Get a referral from the local Porsche/MB/BMW shop.

[wcc]

If you don't mind them drilling holes then it works great! Especially if you have any dings on your doors or fenders a lot of times they drill a hole to get access behind the panel. Then they just put a body plug in. Obviously not all dents require an extra hole, only when they can't get access to it.

[kaisen]

Sometimes a drilled hole is neccessary, but more often it seems to be a time-saver. If you find someone who knows what they are doing, you will never tell there was a ding, and never see where they were.

IT IS AN ART. Find an artist. Pay for an artist.

Bumper - Where is the dent?

[Jims5543]

My brother does it for a living. He trained for 6 months and now he only gets certain jobs. He is still considered an apprentice and will be for over a year maybe more.

His boss is good and took 2 door dings out of my MINI when I owned it. One was a doozy and you could never tell it was there after he was done.
(People are a-holes BTW- that door ding made me very mad)

Make sure you go to one that is well established and reputable.

As far as drilling holes in the body panels. I'll ask my bro about that. I had never heard of it. I know sometimes my brother and his boss will simply say no to a customer and not take their money because a dent is in the wrong place and cannot be removed.

[cegerer]

They can look at you car and see if there are spots to get the tools in without drilling - usually there are. There ARE certain dents that can't be removed. I had 3 small dings removed from my M3. They didn't have to drill any holes. Two of them came out PERFECT. The third? The dumba$$ cracked the paint trying to get the dent out. Afterwards, he said he probably shouldn't have tried to remove that one because it was close to a crease in my fender flare. The ding is smaller than a dime and the paint crack is only 1/4 inch but still ..... So ASK ahead of time whether there is ANY chance that it won't work.

[rs6er]

I had a pro at a local dent day remove 5 tiny dings in my engine lid. They cam out perfectly. He also told me that he could not do a small dent near a crease in the taillight. He did about 20 cars that day and didn't drill any holes.

[jhc]

I have posted these before on the 911 forum but I think these guys do wonders.

[KevinP73]

Originally posted by jhc
I have posted these before on the 911 forum but I think these guys do wonders.

I've shown these pictures to the guy who does my pdr and he said he wouldn't have even tried to iron that out. Your guy is exceptional.

[DavidI]

I recently hired a guy to do a job on a car. Basically, they use long rods angled toward the end. It is kind of like a huge dental tool. The guy wedges something between the panel and window (for a door ding) to insert the rod. He gently pushed outward from behind the dent forcing it back into its original position. The last process is to gently tap a brass rod around the dent from the outside to make sure it is flat.

The guy I hired was amazing. A few dents cost me about $100 and it was well worth it.

Good luck, David

[epbrown]

Originally posted by jhc
I have posted these before on the 911 forum but I think these guys do wonders.

I had something similar to that fixed on my 928. I was at the car wash and some guy was wandering around checking out cars, and when he was my dent he said he could fix it for $20. Came out perfectly, but he used various sizes of suction cup rather than rods. A friend of mine had a ding pulled by someone in the Autozone parking lot, and they did drill a hole for access behind it.

[Bumper]

Thanks for all of the great advice. I think that I'm going to give this a try. The dent in question is on my 2001 Audi TT Coupe on the edge of the front wheel well. I'll take before and after pics so everyone can see. Any recommendations for a tech in Westchester County, New York?

[rs6er]

Originally posted by Bumper
Thanks for all of the great advice. I think that I'm going to give this a try. The dent in question is on my 2001 Audi TT Coupe on the edge of the front wheel well. I'll take before and after pics so everyone can see. Any recommendations for a tech in Westchester County, New York?

Ultimate Collision in Peekskill has dent days occasionally. That's where I had mine done. You could probably call them for his name/number, I know he does work for a lot of the expensive Eurocar dealers in Westchester.

[ruf-porsche]

Originally posted by epbrown
I had something similar to that fixed on my 928. I was at the car wash and some guy was wandering around checking out cars, and when he was my dent he said he could fix it for $20. Came out perfectly, but he used various sizes of suction cup rather than rods. A friend of mine had a ding pulled by someone in the Autozone parking lot, and they did drill a hole for access behind it.

Hey EP

Which car wash was this guy at? I have a couple of door dings on my 525it that I would like to get fix.

Ruf

[epbrown]

Originally posted by ruf-porsche
Hey EP

Which car wash was this guy at? I have a couple of door dings on my 525it that I would like to get fix.

Ruf

Hey Don,

It's the coin wash at Addison and Western, next to Waveland Bowl. He's not there regularly, though - I'm there twice a week (2 black cars, remember) and sometimes I don't see him for weeks. I'm keeping an eye out, as my 325i just got its first ding.