Since of the recent baby boom in dents and dings in our loved cars is starting to grow, I've decided to provide a how to guide and some hints, tips, and tricks to hopefully remove them a little bit if not get rid of them. I am not responsible for anybody who accidentally causes more damage to their car so try this at your own risk.

Keep in mind if you guys try this take it slow because it takes some skill to do some of this but some of you guys might be able to do this naturally by just having that touch and feel.

Dings & Small penny dents.
OK the first dent is the ever so popular door ding. Its so simple to create but its hard to remove just because of the size. Many professionals use something called the Dent-Out and it really does work. I prefer the Max puller MP508 because you have more control with dials and its more professional because it holds the sides around the dent down so that you dont just pull the whole area out. With the MP508 though sometimes you need to do some hammering on the outside to get rid of the rises but that can be done with a small mallet and a flat tip chizzle.

If you feel lucky and dont want to buy the tools to pop out dents your next step or next best thing to do (I do this allot too when I dont want to go through the hassle of gluing pieces to the dent then taking them off) is take 2 rubber mallets (1 big and one small) and place the big one around the dent and make sure that its supported on all sides by undented area. Then take the small mallet and slightly tap on the dent and around it and it will knock the dent as far as the big mallet is on the other side. If you do it right and always have the big mallet supported by undented area all around then this should be done as simply as eating pie.


Fender benders
If you see this kind of dent on polyurethane or polypropylene bumpers its real easy to fix. Just do the heat and cold air combination. First heat up the area pretty well with a heat gun or blow dryer for a few seconds (do this on the inside so you dont mess up the paint and you still have to make sure you dont heat it too much because you might burn the paint and plastic). Then after that you need spray Co2 on the area until its all icy and just leave it alone from then and with in the next min the dent will pop out. It might not come out all the way because it also depends on the dents but it should be better. This usually doesn't work on metals so dont waste your time. Now if you are wondering where to get Co2. The easiest way to get it is to go to a best buy or anywhere where you can buy one of those dust spray cans for PC use. When you use it you have to flip it over and that brings out the Co2. If you have it spraying normally it will just give out fast air.

If this dent is on metal your best thing to do is remove it professionally because I dont suggest this kind of work for amateurs because you could make high points and still ahve the low points and just create more work for yourse.f If you want to do it yourself though you need to get a PDR tool set and I suggest wrapping the tips in something soft for you beginners so you dont create dents going the opposite way also.

The way to remove those dents are to slowly message around the dent and slowly work in until its gone. You have to apply very little pressure so you dont create dents going the other way but this takes alot of time to do.


Wavy Dents
These are easy at first but when the easy part is over it gets harder. Start off by taking a small rubber mallet and hammer gently but with some force around the dents. Doing this causes the metal around to move back in place (when done right) which allot of the times will cause the dent to just magically pop back out. This takes very little effort and as long as you dont hit it hard where you would cause more damage, it wouldn't hurt to give it a try. If this does work sometimes you still might have creases that usually was the main point of impact. Instead of explaining this I will let this guy do it.

I really hope that this helps some people out. If it helps one person out then thats good enough. Feel free to post pictures of your dents and when I see them I will try to help out by posting what I would do and what you could do. Hopefully other people in the same trade as me would help too.

 

surprisingly, it did
thanks

God forbid something like this does happen to my car, I'll give it a shot

 

Nice write up! So when dealing with the small dents and dings, you'll have to have access to the other side which is the inside in other to just tap it with the smaller mallet?

 

When you are popping any kind of dents out its best to have access to both sides unless you are using one of those mechanical dent poppers.

 

one of the best threads Ive ever read here on scion life.
good work.

 

Thanks

I hope many of you guys with dents can fix the problem yourselves and save a few bills.

 

A good thing to remember is body panels have a memory..........and when they stamp the metal to shape it excites the metal at a molecular level and aligns the molicules to the new memorized shape............hammering or shrinking reexcites the metal and it will pull back to the original stamp.........start at the outside as Delta said and work your way to the center..........

____es me off I grew up in abody shop.........wnet to school for it...........and am very good at it and I loan my hammers and dolly's to my best bud and he repaired his entire car in a week and it looks professional..............so I made him fix mine for the loan of the tools............LOL.

 

^ Vearay Naice!

Remember people you can post your pictures here if you want some advice.

 

wow nice write up!

 

Very nice. Though I'd still be too scared to try this on my own. Thank goodness for PDR guys

 

x2
Best money I've spent.
Beach Cities PDR in SoCal.

 

great thread

 

great thread, but i just looked at Max pullers website to check how much these cost... oww man talk about the price of a navi.

 

Yeah its pricey lol. The Dent-Out is way cheaper.

http://www.dentout.net/kits.htm

Use the arrows to navigate side to side.

 

I'll let the pros handle mine...I've used them 2x and could not be happier.
It's worth the cost.

 

Yes it is.^

 

o wow im def trying this this weekend, ima give the hot cold method a try

 

^ NOICE! If its not too much and you get the chance could you show before and after pictures to maybe help out a few other members who might want to do this themselves.

 

I hope this helped some!

 

Hold cold method? can you please explain that? You blow dry then use dust off upside down right?