Car door ding

Has anyone used a dent remover from auto parts stores & do they work ?

Reply to
desgnr
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You'll have better luck asking over in the rec.autos.* groups. But what do you mean by 'dent remover?' A suction cup thing, or one of those slide hammers you screw into a drilled hole, or the strange-looking crowbars and hand-held anvils body shops use to blacksmith a dent? Some work, some don't, depending on the dent. Depending on where the ding is, and if it has any sharp creases in it, sometimes you can remove the interior panel, and pop it out 'good enough' from the inside. If the paint is cracked, you'll end up repainting the panel, so as to avoid a rust spot. (Modern 'clear coat' finishes are almost impossible to spot-paint and have it look right for long, in my experience.) Some body shops offer so-called 'paintless dent removal', which uses dry ice or liquid nitrogen or something, but it is mainly good for superficial dents like after a hail storm or something.

Modern cars are like beer cans- with the thin metal they use these days, some wrinkles are inevitable. IMHO, if the dent is minor and the paint is solid, best to just live with it. Once you break through the factory finish, it'll always look patched, no matter how good a DIY job you do. (Unless you a have a spray gun, paint booth, and experience, of course.)

Reply to
aemeijers

aemeijers wrote: ...

They all work, just for different purposes...

In general, like many things, if you have to ask you don't know enough. The local community college/tech school body shop classes are one place to get sorta' ok to good repair work done relatively cheaply w/ at least some supervision that don't screw it up totally...

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Reply to
dpb

Depending on the type of ding, it may be possible to remove the inside panel and push the dent out.

Reply to
Ed Pawlowski

This one does

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but I've seen it used more skillfully

Reply to
Eric in North TX

They work, if you know how to use them. OTOH, you'll likely never do enough "dent removal" to acquire the "know how" part. There are specialists who do this for a living, often for used car dealers. The ones I'm somewhat familiar with travel from dealer to dealer and do ten or twenty cars at a whack.

One such company is "Dent Doctors".

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Reply to
krw

Yes, they work for dents that are at least the size of the suction cup. They won't work for small sized dings.

Reply to
Rocinante

Yeah, and make it worse.

I agree with using a paintless dent removal company.

$25.00 and be done with it.

Reply to
Ron

That would be a happy Ed end, ding.

Sorry, that just popped out.

Reply to
Stormin Mormon

The metal skin on today's cars have a "memory", and paint is more flexible, at least to some extent.

Several years ago, a baseball bounced off the top of one of my front fenders, and left a dent two inches across, and about a half inch deep.

At a local car dealership's body shop, they wanted 300 dollars to fix it

- Lord only knows what it would cost today.

I removed enough of the inner fender screws to be able to be able to get a sawed off broom handle up inside, then pushed on the dent from the underside, and it popped right back into place - looked like the dent was never there.

I'm not advocating anyone try this - just saying it worked for me.

And I do remember mumbling something to myself about the crooks at the body shop ...

Joe

Reply to
J O E

My sister had a similar moment. She pulled the dent out with a toilet plunger. Really.

Reply to
Stormin Mormon

"Ron" wrote

Why would it make it worse? Come and take a look at my wife's car and tell me where the ding was. I'll bet that $25 you can't find where it was. Not a guarantee it works with every ding, but it does with many.

Reply to
Ed Pawlowski

Are you implying that your sis drives a piece of,..... never mind. 8-)

TDD

Reply to
The Daring Dufas

So have I on an older car, but it wasn't a ding, it was a pretty big round dent in the door.

Reply to
Ron

I did something very similar a long time ago. I was at a softball game. The team was warming up and some dumb ass (ok, it was me) missed a ball and it hit my brand new car in the front corner panel. The ball left a nice dent. I was able to remove the plastic wheel well and work the dent out using a softball from the inside.

Reply to
Ned Flanders

Naah, she drives Toyota. But, she knows her s--- when it comes to dent removal. "sucks to be you" might be her motto for body and fender guys.

Reply to
Stormin Mormon

Did you try a toilet plunger? How did it work out, for you?

Reply to
Stormin Mormon

I see no one has mentioned the "freeze the dent out" method. Seriously, take a look:

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I've never tried it, myself, but apparently works on smaller dents, as there are dozens of different vids on the web. The hairdryer version looks like a further refinement of the original freeze only method. Give it a shot and let us know how it works out.

nb

Reply to
notbob

And many people make it worse by trying yo do it themselves. If it's a nice/newer car there is no way in hell I would try and do it myself.

YMMV

Reply to
Ron

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