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Your Quick Guide to Paintless Dent Repair in the Lone Star State
You’ve been hit with one of the three main types of damage on cars: dents.
They’re annoying, they’re unsightly and, ya’ll, they’re just far too common. When the hail comes down and the hood of the vehicle is out on the drive, you’ll likely come across dings and dents resulting from hail damage. Luckily, because it is so common, there is an easy fix (so long as your pickup doesn’t need scratch repair, too).
As an autobody shop, the Dealership Autoplex Collision Center sees a lot of dents. Especially after the 2020 storm of grapefruit-sized hail, we had our work cut-out. But we’re also here to tell you there are no worries about a dent here and there weather it’s for hail repair or ‘reversing into a bollard’ repair.
1. What is Paintless Dent Repair?
Paintless dent repair, or PDR as it’s more often referred to, is a quick process that deals with any door ding removal. If you can imagine giant suction cups getting to work on dent removal, your vehicle’s body will just pop back into place.
Of course, it is a bit more than a giant suction cup; there’s more tools to the trade. But the premise is the same when it comes to dent repair.
The main idea is that there’s no paint, no filler, no sanding and no nothin’. It’s simply using specialist tools and gentle force to massage and tap damaged panels from behind to get the body back into shape.
2. Does Paintless Dent Repair Really Work?
Yes, it does! It involves a few tools, but the process is relatively straight forward when you understand the flow of metal after impact.
It helps to know that your car’s body is molded, meaning the metal wants to go back to its original shape, it just needs a little help.
Have a look at the general steps to fix a dent with PDR, but know they’ll vary depending on the size of the dent and if it’s for your flatbed or your Benz.
Step 1
Assess with Light Panel
Grabbing the light panel and holding it against the dent helps to identify crowns (protrusions) and dips that are invisible to the naked eye. Where the light bends and the body isn’t supposed to, that’s where the job begins.
Step 2
Start Glue Pulling
The first hands-on job is removing some of the bigger and deeper dents with hot glue and brute force. It’s a case of adding in the glue tabs and pulling them off with all your might and a slide hammer, until there’s a pop. Just be sure to work outside-in.
Step 3
Crown Tap-Down
Now a good majority of the door ding removal has gone down, it’s time to take the tap-down tool and hammer to deal with those crowns identified in Step 1. As well as this, the glue tabs have pulled the metal up, so it’s time to get ‘em back in their place.
Step 4
Heat Treatment
Before any underneath work or fine tuning can go ahead, a heat gun needs to warm the metal and paint job. This makes the area more malleable and prevents paint chips, otherwise it wouldn’t be a paintless dent repair.
Step 5
Cyclical Push-Up and Tap-Down
Using various nylon-tipped push-up bendable johnsons and tap-down pecker sticks, it’s a tedious job of pushing up and tapping down through massaging the area. Although that might’ve seemed a little obvious.
Step 6
Fine Tuning
Almost exactly the same as the cyclical push-up and tap-down but with more accuracy to get the perfect finish. More often than not, the tap-down tools will be sharpened with some sandpaper to increase the level of accuracy.
g. Polishing
The final step involves grabbing a buffer and some polish to bring out the shine and make sure the dent specialist did their job with paintless dent removal. Plus, it makes the finish as good as all git-out!
3. Is Paintless Dent Repair Cheaper?
PDR can be far cheaper when it comes to hail damage removal or even having a large collision dent removed. And, as long as there isn’t already any paint damage, scratches, chips, edge dents or previous body repair on the 4-wheeler, there’s nothing to stop you getting a paintless dent repair job.
As there isn’t any need to use extra paints, sanding machines or fillers on the body, it automatically takes the bill down. Plus, it doesn’t take as long to repair, either.
Did we mention that factory paint job warranties remain because there’s no paint damage?
So, your wallet is secured in more ways than one with a good PDR job.
If you’ve been hit by a grapefruit-sized hailstorm or if you’ve just come out to the track to find a dent in the door, then you should try giving your dent specialist a dial.
That’s where the Dealership Autoplex Collision Center comes a-fixin’.
Give us a call today on (972) 242-0092
to schedule your PDR, check-out our website or give the team a holler at the autobody shop in Carrollton, TX.
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Paintless Dent Repair | PDR