Experience with Paintless dent removal?
 

We walked out from the store yesterday, and noticed that the rear hatch of my wife Mazda 3 had a ft long vertical dent that wasn't there before, right away I knew some a**hole banged a shopping cart there and just walked away. Since we just bought the car less than a year ago, although used, I can't just let it stay. I'm going to get mad everytime I look at it. I've heard of the Paintless dent removal where they just pop them out from the back, anybody here have experience with them? I've heard mostly good things about them, but also heard some saying it ended up worse than before.

I've had a friend who got a few dings out of his door when I was living in Toronto Canada. He went to Dent Doctor. I saw them do the repair and it was amazing! We all stood there with our jaws dropped... The repair was all on one body panel (passenger side door) and Dent Doctor repaired 3 dings to perfection. He said in order to get a good fix you need good light. His repair bay was bright as hell and his trick was to put one strip of black electrical tape on the underside of every flourecent light. He said that the strip allowed him to see horizonal body lines better.

I think I remember rates of being $250 for 1 dent repair and $50 per dent on the same body panel. If he has to repair another body panel it would cost $250 again plus $50 per dent on the same panel. Am I making sense?

Anyway I would recommend paint less dent repair. Look for clean and bright shops.

May I ask which body panel and where? Only asking because he said that dents close to the edge of a body panel are really tough to get straight. He also mentioned that it takes a lot of skill to get a dent out of a body line crease. For obvious reasons a dent in the middle of a flat panel would be easiest.

+1 for paintless dent repair. I had a few dings and there is a "dent doctor" here in Dallas/Fort Worth and I think it was about 50 per dent because i paid abou 150 total and about an hour later it looked flawless. I think 250 for one dent is kind of a ripoff but if it works and is cheaper then a true bodyshop fix then you still win.

It was awesome with one horrible dent (it looked like someone wacked my right rear quarter panel fender HARD with a golf ball) he said he could get "most" of it out but it still wouldnt be perfect after all his work it was perfect to ME! You would be surprised at what they can do with paintless dent removal.

Dent Wizard is another national business. I used them once to remove a small ding on my RX-8. The final bill was just a little over $100. That's a rough ballpark number since they charge based on the estimated job (number of dents, time, etc....). The guy who took out my dent was pretty skilled. I was impressed with his work.

However, keep in mind that they are not miracle workers. As implied by their title, scratches in your clear coat and paint will remain. In addition, as the above posts mentioned, they also need access to the ding. Sometimes they cannot access a ding from behind, in which case your only option is to go to a body shop.

Hope that helps.

Cheers

I will be visiting one next week and add my experience here. I have two minor dents from my last airport visit.

I think my old miata had 1mm thin sheetmetal, so I was always going in for the dentless fixes - best way to go. But beware of guys who over-charge, last year a a buddy got charged $250 and it took the guy 30 minutes, I still tease him about getting hosed.

Thanks for the experiences. Those dents were right next to the Mazda Badge on the hatch, so it's not anywhere close the the edge...had it been at couple inches to the left, the badge would probably took the hit and no damage done.

416to212, your rate make sense. Basically $250 for the the first dent on each panel, then $50 for each extra. She has one on the front fender too, where it curves in toward the hood... one of those places you never though would get dent. Anyway, I was hoping to fix that too, but maybe too expensive at this point.

I'll bring it in for an estimate today and see what I got. Now if she would just quit following so close, maybe we can take care of the paint chips too.

The used car dealers use them a lot.

Talk with the manager when he's not busy to get some recomendations & pricing.

When we bought our IS300, it came with an oddly-shaped undulating impression on the roof that looked like someone was throw onto it in a drunken stupor or something. Since the paint was unblemished, our shop recommended paintless removal. They pulled the headliner down, and spent a few hours pushing the dent back up from underneath... Awesome job, you'd be hard-pressed to know something had been done to the roof

meh...I had a few that the guy tried to take out and left itty bitty dents on instead. It looks better than before, but its annoying to me when I wash it and can see the itty bittys...

I'm a huge PDR fan—it's like magic. And, as you probably know, they don't actually 'pop' 'em out—they carefully and gently massage 'em out.

Wow, US$100 a dent is pretty darn expensive ! In Singapore, we can get it done for just US$20...

+1 for PDR. I had some pretty sizable dents on 3 different body panels. the guy drove to my work, and in two hours, my car was back in pristine condition. The price tag was very reasonable also, just $250 for about 5 separate dents on 3 different body panels.

I just found another dent, that makes three total. I hope this is not going to cost me allot.

I was going to get a free estimate, that was until my wife came back from the bodyshop. It so happened that the bottom dent was right next to the bend line on the back, it actually folded inward and cracked the paint. To repair it properly, the hatch has to be repainted. $800. I was pissed (as if I wasn't before) and decided to call the insurance to see what they say. They say since the wind blew the cart into the car, it would be covered under comprehensive (hey, it was windy...and we, the agent and I, decided that it would be the best chance to make it under comprehensive). No cost to me, and no rate increase. Awesome.

It still sucks that no matter what you do, even parking out of the way, Murphy's always working hard to screw you. At least I can sleep well tonight.

Thanks guys, next time I get a ding, I know where to go :ylsuper:

Oh no, I just went by the dent remover, and he wants $400 - 500 and about 5 hours to remove mine! WTF? I need to research this some more.

I made a thread on paintless dent removal a few months back:

https://www.rx8club.com/series-i-exterior-appearance-body-kits-27/paintless-dent-removal-108517/

I love it! If the person knows what they are doing and have been doing it for a while, no dent is un-fixable. The best things about it is that it is:
a) Cheap
b) Does not require repainting or matching paint
c) Can be done in a few hours

The only negative aspects are:
a) Leaves a small hole inside that must be plugged
b) Streched metal cannot be fixed.

Hope this helps.

Anybody ever try "dry ice" ?? I once heard that dry ice will contract the metal and pull dents out.

I think it'll crack your paint first. That and how can you control which way the dry ice will contract metal?

LOL - who knows, that's why I ask. I heard this back in my high school days.

Just had PDR performed this morning. I do not drive my vehicle often and my driver's side suicide door mysteriously had a ding show up. It is more of a weekend car and I had just washed it last Friday (ding was not present at that time). I had some relatives over on the weekend and noone is fessing up (the car is garage kept and noone enters the garage except myself).

The ding was 2 to 3 inches long and the PDR tech drilled a hole in the suicide door jamb and pushed it out. He then plugged it with silicone and a grommet. I brought directions to remove the inner door panel, but we decided to just drill a hole (since removing the panel appears to be difficult - often brekaing clips, etc.). I had another crease in the back quarter panel (purchased car new this way and initially thought they were body stamps, but turned out that nothing was attached behind the panel that was causing the crease). I removed the trunk lining and he was able to clean these up as well. All in all, it took him about an hour to do everything and cost me $80 total.

I have used this guy before and have been using PDR for several years now. The right technician is awesome and I would highly recommend PDR over traditional body work.

I used Fix-a-Dent here in austin. It was about 100 bucks for the whole car...

I must be getting ripped off then...

Yeah. My dent removal was about $100. For $4-500, it must either be a big ass dent or in a really hard to reach place, or the guy thinks you're rich with money to burn.

mabdeliz,
Sounds like your tech was just lazy to remove the door pannel. Drilling should be of last resort. The tech drilled my car, but just because the dent was in an "enclosed" body part (the right, rear fender arch).

I'm going to call him and discuss. I have the appt on Friday. My dents are no bigger than a nickel. Two in the fender around the vents, and one under the mirror on the door. That must be the one that will take the most time.