Paintless dent repair?

[Bonnewagon]

Specifically, the glue gun method. You take a plastic disc and apply a dab of melted glue to it then stick it on the dent. After it cools and hardens, you use a small clamp/vise tool to pull the dent out. Spray with alcohol to remove the glue. Sometimes it takes a few tries. If you pull it out too far then you tap it down. They are saying that modern paints can flex enough so that if the paint did not crack with the dent, then repainting in not needed. Then I even found someone using dry ice to shrink a dent back to it's original shape. So has anyone tied these methods? Is it worth investing in the tools?

 

[online170]

Dent repair is not as black and white as you're making it out to be.

You need to study the cross section of the dent and realize which way it has indented. Sometimes it cheats to one side or the other. Pulling it straight out or the wrong way can make it crinkle on itself.

It takes experience to know which way it naturally wants to relax and to help coax it in that direction.

You might get lucky wth your method or you might make it worse. I personally don't trust myself enough to attempt it.

 

[kalidromos13]

Bonnewagon, I tried the glue gun and suction cup method on my cutlass years back. The dents are very shallow and hardly noticeable, but it didnt work to pull them out. I tried multiple times. I have seen some videos of people using the Hot and cold method, but personally, I've never seen anyone do it in person. My co-worker had a tundra that got side swiped and he took to a PLDR guy and he got them all out!! Couldnt even tell there were dents, so i guess in some cases it works.

 

[Jeff L]

Dent repair is not as black and white as you're making it out to be.

You need to study the cross section of the dent and realize which way it has indented. Sometimes it cheats to one side or the other. Pulling it straight out or the wrong way can make it crinkle on itself.

It takes experience to know which way it naturally wants to relax and to help coax it in that direction.

You might get lucky wth your method or you might make it worse. I personally don't trust myself enough to attempt it.

I agree with you 100%

Tried a few of the do it yourself dent repair kits where you use the hot glue gun sticks like the OP mentioned. No matter what prep I did I never had the post stick long enough to pull out a dent. (My nephew and I were practicing on a parts truck)

There was a dent near a side mirror and pushing out the dent from behind, accessed with the window down and enough room to push on the door skin, and I thought it would look better pushed out and I was wrong. It had new creases and looked worse!

My experience was more mechanical then body work and it is not as simple as it looks unless you have the training and experience.

What opened my eyes was when I saw a demonstration where dents were removed with heat, special tools, and how a hood with a bunch of hail damage was made good as new without any body work. I was amazed because I had no idea how far the process had come. I was old school where the hood would have been sanded, dimples filled with filler, sanded, painted. I have a few door dings on my Monte and would have this kind of service done knowing that all the dings would be gone in a few hours instead of weeks the old way.

 

[Bonnewagon]

Thanks for the replies. I am aware that some experience is needed to analyze a dent. I am an idiot in that regard. In fact I am very good at wrenching, but my bodywork sucks. Conversely, I know brilliant body men that can't change a spark plug. Just different skill sets. OK, I am glad I asked. Even the sites that sell the tools advise that sometimes it is a job best left to professionals. I won't invest in equipment just yet.

 

[pontiacgp]

I had an uncle who years ago would use a torch and a block of ice to get dents out of cars....he was a magician

 

[Ribbedroof]

The sheet steel used on our cars is much stouter than the new stuff. I have a PDR guy at work that is VERY good, but it does have it's limitations.

Like most things, the more experience you get, the better you are at it.

 

[jlcustomz]

I agree , our 20 gauge steel doesn't work as well with pdr or other methods like newer cars.I once paid an older guy that was a former bodywork teacher to try a few spots on my black camino just to hold it over for a while. He really didn't want to try, partly it being black. But I convinced him to & got to learn a little from him.
PDR is much better on the paper cars of today. My wife's friends kia got a front fender crunched in a parking lot. While she wasn't looking , I straightened most of the damage with my bare hands.

 

[STLRegal]

How well would this work on hail damage?
Fortunately, I'm not worried about the paint job on my regal as it's crap already but if I could pull some of the dents from hail and avoid the filler, I'd much prefer to.