Few people realize that it is possible to get rid of minor dents in a car without even touching the paint job. Aaron Baird owns West Coast Reconditioning, a mobile automotive reconditioning company based in southern California. Here, he talks about what he calls “paintless dent removal”, and why it’s the way to go.
That is one of the most complicated things we do, and is also called paintless dent removal. Basically, it allows you to remove car dents while leaving the integrity of the paint job intact. It involves applying no paint or anything whatsoever to the car as everything is done with a set of tools that have different angles and points on the end.
The goal is to get behind where the little dent is. If it’s on a door, you roll the window down, put a protective shield over the window, put a little ledge between the window and the opening, get your tool down in there and basically massage the dent out from the inside. If you are on a fender, you can get out through the wheel well. If the dent is on a hood, you can get access there; if it’s on a trunk, you just pop the trunk to get access.
Quality Job Takes Experience
It takes about two years to get to the place where you can do paintless dent removal and do a quality job as it is difficult to learn. But it involves no paintwork, no body filler, nothing like that. And it is cool because a body shop can fix the dent by putting Bondo on it, which is a body filler, and then repainting. That’s normally how a body shop does it. But with paintless dent removal, you don’t do any of that, and the results speak for themselves.
When you have paintwork done to the car, it will always look different than the original factory paint job. It devalues the car and there is always a chance of a mismatch. That’s why paintless dent removal can be so invaluable. It also takes a fraction of the time and cost about a third of the cost of a traditional body shop job.
Not Always An Option
Keep in mind that if the damage on your car is too severe or paint damage is involved, then paintless dent removal would not be an option. This could include sharp dings, dents, and creases that have been stretched too deep; areas reinforced with double metal such as the edges of a car’s doors, hood, and trunk; damage on the edge of a body panel; or dents with extensive paint damage, including cracked or broken paint.
It’s very true, there is such thing as paintless dent repair even though most people don’t realize it. It’s really convenient and if done right it can have your car looking better than new in no time. Thanks for the article, it was really informative.
Leah Boggins – October 1, 2010 , 4:27 PM