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PDR Blog - covering paintless dent repair, PDR, hail damage car insurance claims, and everything you need to know about auto dent removal and repairing a car with hail damage.

4/7/2019

7 Comments

Pro Tips For DIY Car Dent Repair

 

The ultimate guide to repairing car dents and dings yourself.

Paintless dent repair expert tips for DIY hail damage repair.
Repairing a car dent yourself is not for the faint of heart. But if you are determined to fix a car dent on your own, check out this guide on how to DIY auto dent repair like a pro!
A bad result after someone attempted DIY paintless dent repair.
Many people with car hail damage often ask for DIY dent repair tips that we can give. Many of them have cashed out their hail damage insurance claim check without fixing their car and are now in trouble with the bank that holds the note on the vehicle. After getting an auto hail repair estimate, some vehicle owners may be unhappy about the cost of PDR dent repair service. Others are just bored and want to fix car dents at home for something to do. Some are actually pretty handy and do many things DIY, from changing their own oil to remodeling a home bathroom. Some may even have a little bit of experience working with auto body shop repairs and know a fair amount what they need to do to make a car dent repair with PDR dent removal. However, we give the exact same answer to everyone, no matter how handy or experienced with DIY car repair they may be, and that is: unless you know what you’re doing, trying to perform DIY paintless dent repair on your car using paintless dent removal is almost always a very bad idea. While there are hundreds of PDR dent repair videos showing someone effortlessly making a DIY car dent repair, most of the guys in the videos are professional paintless dent repair (PDR) technicians. In addition to their years of training and work experience, they are using special PDR tools and dent repair lights that are not available to the average person who wants to try a dent repair DIY. The sheet metal on a car is very soft and will crinkle or bend with only slight pressure. If you don’t know what you’re doing, it is very likely that you will make a mess of the dent you’re working on and that your car will no longer be repairable using PDR. If that happens, your only choice for repairing your hail damaged car will be to take it to an auto body shop to have conventional dent repairs performed. Conventional auto body shop dent repair consists of filling the dent with a body filler and repainting the entire surface of the panel. Unlike PDR dent repairs, which usually take a day or less, body shop repair could easily take a week or longer. Likewise it will cost much more than paintless dent removal. It is important to note that most insurance companies will not cover any damage you cause to your vehicle attempting to perform DIY dent repair, so you will be stuck paying for any repair bill out of pocket. In addition, your insurance company may give you a hard time if you ever have another hail damaged car insurance claim. There are plenty of other reasons why attempting to perform paintless dent repair is not a good idea for most people. (Check out these PDR dent repair frequently asked questions.) If you still want to try and fix a dent yourself, here are a few tips to help you with DIY dent repair: 
  • make sure you are working indoors out of the sun
  • That you have proper lighting for PDR. 
  • You should also order some professional paintless dent repair tools. 
  • Find a diagram of the vehicle’s trim components, to help you gain access to each panel
  • When you start working on a dent, be mindful of the leverage created by most PDR tools, start out slow. 
  • Be careful not to crack the paint, stop if you do.    
Once they get in there and start poking around, most people find DIY car dent repair is much more difficult than they thought. For guys that really love their car, most quickly realize they are about to make a big mess that will require some serious body shop time to have repaired. However if you don’t care what your vehicle looks like, or how high/low it’s resale value is, you might find DIY paintless dent repair to be right up your alley. Just to put it out there one more time, if you attempt do it yourself car dent repair it is going to end badly 99.9% of the time. Your car will end up at a body shop where it will have to be filled with bondo and repainted, costing you much more than you were ever going to save by doing the repair yourself and diminishing the value of your vehicle to boot! If you have car hail damage or need other dent repair service, call or stop byDealer’s Hail & Specialty today. They are paintless dent repair experts and their master certified PDR technicians will fix your car dents quickly, correctly, and at a great price!

Dealer's Hail & Specialty

The #1 Choice For Auto Hail Repair

7 Comments
Kate Welling link
6/5/2019 06:49:18 pm

You mentioned that most people find DIY dent repair a lot more difficult than they originally thought. I could see why this would be, especially since DIY means you're not going to a professional who knows everything about the topic. I'll look into finding an auto service in my area to help me with covering up some dings in my hood from hail.

Reply
Stefan Bradley link
7/16/2019 02:54:52 pm

I am glad that you mentioned how you shouldn't be working in the sun when making repairs. My uncle's car has a lot of dents in it and they need to be repaired. I'll be sure to help him find an expert that can help.

Reply
Callum Palmer link
7/23/2019 09:38:11 pm

I've got some pretty bad dents on my hood that I need to get fixed. Now I don't think that the hood has to be replaced, but I do want to get it fixed properly. I'll probably find someone to do a paintless dent repair on it.

Reply
Mindy Jollie link
8/9/2019 02:18:35 pm

I didn't realize that sheet metal on cars is so soft and can crinkle and bend with light pressure, so it makes dent removal a much more difficult DIY task. My sister's kid decided to use a baseball bat on her driver's side door, so now there's a giant dent. She'll have to find an auto body repair shop so she can get that dent fixed.

Reply
Jay Jorgenson link
9/9/2019 02:17:20 pm

My car got a dent last week when I was parking my car. I like how you explain if you want to repair the dent on your own to make sure you are working indoors. Thank you for the advice. Although I'd rather search for a professional to take care of the dent.

Reply
Brad Erwin link
10/16/2019 02:36:32 pm

I didn't know that by cashing an insurance claim check without getting the vehicle repaired you can get in trouble with the financing agency. A friend of mine is really big into the whole DIY thing. I will have to mention this to him before he attempts to repair his damaged vehicles!

Reply
Eli Richardson link
11/1/2019 03:27:15 pm

It was great you elaborated on being indoors when repairing a dent. My brother backed his vehicle into a tree and dented his car. I better suggest him taking the care to a professional so he won't damage the paint.

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