I had a deer run into the side of my car last weekend. It left one good sized dent and a couple smaller dents. My comprehensive insurance deductible is $500 which isn't much less than what the body shop said it will cost to repair. I'm not claiming it on my insurance. I'm not too keen on spending several hundred dollars on a car I paid $2800 for. The big dent is in the rear passenger side quarter panel. The back side is easily accessible from the trunk. The paint has very little damage. I'm planning on just pushing the dents out. Any good sites or advice to get the best results? I've done some bodywork on my truck but I'm hoping I can get good results by going paintless. I've seen some videos of people using dry ice or a hairdryer/can of compressed air combo to pop dents. Um, right!

 

Bummer about the car. For broad, non creased dents I've had decent luck with a suction cup style puller. You might be able to find a cheap on at Harbor Freight.

Once you get the big part of the dent out you might try alternating between a heat gun and an icebag to work the smaller areas. I've seen my buddy work some magic that way.

Bobby

 

I won't try to explain how it's done...because I don't do it, but some of those paintless Dent removal guys are good..some are terrible. It's all about moving the metal .
Ask around..local car dealers, used car lots ..see who they recommend....set an appointment"with the vehicle in question", ask what he/she can do...then ask about the guarantee...

A good one will guarantee they're work..these guy's fix dents,dings may not take on a 1/4 panel that some deer ran into ...
Good Luck!

 

The paintless guys are good on smooth, small dents like from hail, but if they have a crease at all at the edge, they can't do much. I'd do like Bobby says, maybe assisted with a rubber mallet against a blanket on the inside, and if there are creases left, and the paint is still tight, leave them alone! You might get the crease out but it is likely to ruin the paint. I'd rather have good paint than a smooth body with primer or a rust spot.

 

I'm sure you will get some good how to advice on this post but I was thinking if you had a school close by that had a good knowledgable teacher it would be a good lesson to teach his students and it might not cost you a penny.

 

I've had decent luck with the suction cup type pullers (also used to handle plate glass and windshields) in combination with a rubber mallet (or using one or the other).. worked fairly well in a dent I had in the fender of my FS bronco after a run in with a bull (long story, but the bull won)

 

I thought about learning how to do PDR so I invested in a multi-DVD set of instructional videos. Without going into a lot of detail, when a PDR tech works on a dent he/she works from the outside in...this is counter-intuitive to many of us who grab a hammer and dolly and start from the center (the deepest part of the dent) and work outward. The best way to describe how a PDR tech works the metal is to say that they gently nudge the metal until it goes back to the original shape. The reflection from a flourescent light is used to gauge where the panel is high/low by looking at how the light bulb is reflected on the paints surface. I saw in one of the videos a guy rammed a tire into the quarter panel of a Camry which caved it in pretty good...it took him about 45 minutes to restore the panel back to perfect shape. I would use PDR if you have someone in your area that you can do a "prior job history" check on to make sure they know what they're doing. Most charge by the hour ao you don't want to be paying some newbe to be there scratching his head for 8 hours. Good luck...

 

Most steel structure has a memory, so if the dent has stretched any surrounding metal, it won't go back perfectly, and an oil-can effect may result. But sometimes reversing the dent itself allows the surrounding metal to "find its way home" and one will never notice there was a dent there. An obvious dent too far stretched is one where the paint has cracked. Anyway, as the others suggested, you may find a good PDR guy. Usually you'll see them traveling, following hail storms all across the country.

 

I've had PDR done a couple times now and a GOOD tech can do wonders. Counter intuitive maybe, but the right way to remove collision damage is the reverse the force that caused the damage in the reverse order it occured. The center of the dent was the first place contacted, so it should be the last worked on, and vice versa, the edges were the last to move so should be the first removed. You'll need to put some reverse pressure to the center of the dent with something like a porta power. Don't apply so much force so it does more than slightly bow the panel outwards, and spread the pressure with a piece of wood or similar. If using a wood block, take the time to heavily radius all edges and corners first so you don't accidently put in a new dent. Work slowly and gently. Using a hard hammer against a soft dolly (body hammer with rubber or wood dolly) or a soft hammer with a harder dolly (plastic or rubber hammer with steel dolly) will prevent stretching of the metal. Use the hammer with tenderness, like you are ringing a glass bell, not like you are driving nails! Be sure all steel tools have been polished to a mirror finish and all edges and corners smoothly rounded. You should spend more time preping your tools than doing the actual body work.

 

Without seeing some pics it's hard to say. You could try a toilet plunger (suction) all the way to what Axracer said. Better yet a big racing sticker. Good luck

 

I'm still working on it. I've tried the suction cup but the dent is too concave to get a good seal. I can sort of get to the big dent from inside the trunk but a large brace is in the way so I can't really get at it with a hammer. I know it sounds silly but I may try deflating a basketball or football, put it between the brace and quarter panel and slowly inflate it. I'm not spending the money to have it professionally removed since the car isn't worth it. Thanks for all the help!

 

Bummer about the suction cup. Sometimes they can be a pain to get a good seal. Sometimes you have to work at it and just like any other technique you have to work it in small areas and "sneak" up on the dent.

Cool idea with the basketball! I think they make an airbag specifically for that purpose but a basketball is a whole lot cheaper and readily available. Lete us know how it turns out...cool idea

Bobby

 

As long as the brace is strong enough it should work. Indeed they sell inflatable bags for this purpose. The difference between using the ball and the bag is the ball may try to pop out. A football may be a better choice. Tap around the outside edge of the dent with a hard plastic mallet available at your local hardware store as you push it out to unlock the dent.

 

Try a good PDR guy. I rebuild vehicles totaled by insurance companies for a living so do a lot of body and frame work. I have a couple guys I use and a good PDR guy can work wonders on a dent. Be sure who you use is good and not just a guy with tools as they can mess up more than they can fix if not good. If you know someone at a new car dealership ask who they would use for hail damage. Most car dealers have someone on retainer, at least here in a part of the country that has hail storms. My pdr guy took out over a hundred hail dents in a hood and truck lid on a car I bought in less than 2 hours. Would have taken me that long to just prep the two pieces for paint much less fixing the hail dents.
Good luck
Larry