I had $ 3,000.00 of hail damage on my 4 month old King Ranch. Mostly hood and roof. Would you recommend paitless dent repair or dry ice and why ? They are replacing the hood. Thanks

 

if the PDR guy is good at it then Ive seen them repair unbeleavable hail damage before, but if they are not that good they can actually cause more harm. I'm an insurance adjuster and we recently had a HUGE hail storm our way that coused major damage, unforutunatly the guys who set up in the parking lots were pure amatures, they were over writting the estimates for people and not fixing the cars correctly. Now the ones who went in with alot of the BIGGER body shops in that town were more qualified to do the repair, and in fact to make things easier for my company and customers I selected one shop to do all repairs, the body shop worked closely with the PDR guys, and if they wanted to much for PDR I replaced the panel. I have yet to see dry ice in a working enviroment so I cant give you any information about it. In my OP take your truck to a QUALITY body shop for the repair and let them sublet the PDR company in for there repair.

 

Thanks, I called the local reputable shop today who has a PDR company working with him and they said they want to see the insurance adjusters paperwork befoe they give me an estimate. I think I know why !

 

Tell me, what is the dry ice method of dent repair? I have never heard about that.

 

They heat the dent (or leave it in the sun on a hot day) they put dry ice on the spot to pop it out.

 

Gotcha, thanks yellowboy.

 

Id tend to go with the dry ice meathod. Ive never actually seen it done, but i just dont really like PDR.

 

I would do the PDR method. Its proven and accepted by most insurance companies.
Look at it this way, after a hail storm, you don't see dry ice stands popping up all over the place, do you?

 

How long do you plan on keeping this vehicle?

 

Do the PDR on the roof & let them replace the hood......

 

That's what I'm doing . New hood and PDR on the rest of the vehicle. Oct 8, I'll see how it goes. Thanks for the help.

 

Would you do us the favor of taking a few before and after pictures and posting them to your gallery. I'd like to see how well the PDR does.

Thanks.

Ron

 

Will do. The PDR set up shop with a local guy I have dealt with before. They work FOR him & I deal directly with him ONLY. So I feel safe and don't have to worry about the PDR guys when they leave town.

 

With a good PDR man there will be no visible damage whatsoever.
Heres a good example of how PDR works:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KXWZZsvvj-U

Thats actually the first time ive seen that light being used. Thats pretty smart, cant believe i didnt think of that.

In case it isnt obvious the way it works is a PDR man has a series of pics. These pics come in all sorts of shapes and sizes, think of a fairly long rod bent in all sorts of crazy ways. This is cause dents are commonly difficult to get to and cant be easily accessed. With these oddly shaped pics one can manuver around whatever random components may be in the way and the point of the pic can find the ding. When one finds said ding, he/she slowly works it until it pops out, as can be seen in the video.

Sounds simple right? Exactly. I believe this to be the reason why a lot of PDR men/women dont let you watch how they fix dings. Its a cheap buisness to start up (the biggest purchase is a series of pics i think) and you can do it with a little practice. Im not saying im an expert on PDR but i have done basic PDR repair before so i do have the jist of it.

I typically steer clear of PDR if i can help it. My instructors have portrayed PDR in a very negative light but i think i know why (its kinda off topic though). I think you will be ok though yellowboy because you said the PDR guy set up shop with a local guy. Either way best of luck to you buddy i hope your truck turns out looking great.

p.s. I would also like to see how it turns out. When you take the picture see if you can get some form of light on the panel and a good angle.

 

Nice video. In others that 'light' you mention seems to actually be a sheet with black and white stripes painted on. Great tool for the job and easier to make at home than a light.