Dents and dings in your vehicle's body can make the car look older and lower the value when it comes time to trade or sell the vehicle. Removing dents can be expensive, but if the dents and dings are minor enough, you may be able to take your vehicle to a shop for paintless dent removal and make it look new again.
Paintless Dent Removal
Like it sounds, paintless dent removal is a process of removing small dents from the car or truck's body without using body filler and does not require repainting. The technician using this process will work on the dents with special tools that allow them to push the dents out from behind the panel in very small increments.
The technician will work in small areas, so the paint is not chipped or damaged, and when the process is complete, the original paint on the vehicle is undamaged, but the dent is gone. There are some limitations with paintless dent removal, but for minor door dings and dents that are not too large, it can be a very cost-effective way to restore the vehicle's body to nearly new condition.
Qualifying Damage
Paintless dent removal is often used to remove dents from hail damage or door dings that appear after a grocery store trip. Minor dents that are not too deep are often the best candidates, but some larger dents on a flat panel that are not too deep can also be removed this way.
The technician doing the work will be able to tell you if paintless dent removal will work after inspecting the damage to your car or truck, so getting an estimate from a shop the specializes in PDR (paintless dent removal) is often the best place to start.
There may be a dent in the car that looks like a good candidate but is determined to be too deep or in an area that the tech cannot reshape. In most cases, an experienced tech can look at the dent and tell right away if the process is going to work or not.
Deep Creases and Scratched Paint
A dent that is relatively small but has a deep crease in it is not able to be repaired using PDR in most situations. The crease stretches the metal panel so far that pushing it out is extremely difficult. Often the panel will not spring back to the original shape, and the damage will leave a deformity behind after the repair attempt.
If the paint is chipped, it is also an indication that paintless dent removal will not work because as the panel is pushed back, the chip will often worsen and peel away from the body of the car. A traditional repair will need to be used in this situation.
Contact a local paintless dent removal service to learn more.