I have often seen at our Spring and National Rally’s some people who are knocking out car panel dents but, have never stopped to see how good the panel looked after it had been treated. Is the damage really invisible or not. I ask because I have one piece of damage done to my drivers door that normally I would fill in and respray the whole door but at the moment I can’t be bothered as I want to get the rest of the car cleaned and polished ready for my first TT OC club drive. I believe that Halfords do the same thing but, are they any good.
we have 2 nasty dents in the door of our mk1, but they are right in front of the door strengthening beams so its not possuble to get in behind and push out…depends where the damage is n your car but worth taking the door panel off and taking a look.
Mine is in exactly the same place as yours, so it looks like a fill in and respray, it won’t cost me much as I have the paint it’s all the preparation and finishing off I am not keen on doing, again.
Provided the dent has not broken the paint then the end result is invisible to all intent. Watching how they do it, they get behind and push it out then tap it back in by eye until its gone. Very clever, but I’m not sure its a job I would trust Halfords to do. You need to get a personal recommendation from someone, preferably someone who’s had it done recently and is fussy.!
Someone like me then.
I just had a thought, if I am going to have to fill and respray it I might as well try knocking it out and leveling it my self.
I believe the “professionals” use a piece of round plastic or something that doesn’t mark the paintwork. does any one know what it is made from?
UPDATE The “tool” I understand is made from Neoprene. All I have to do now is find some one who will sell me a small amount to get started.
Professional PDR (Paintless Dent Repair) practitioners use a variety of tools, mostly custom made or specifically adapted for the job. AFAIK, it takes many hours of training and even more hours of practice to become truly proficient.
When you go to collect your Rav4, ask the bodyshop if they can recommend a good PDR man to you.
I had to get one removed from my Mk 1,and he had a pig of a job because of where it was,( double skinned),but what a blinding job he made of it,and saved me planty of pounds.
Not to sure i would use halfords?
Regards
halfords just farm it out to the local PDR guy, depends on how good the individual is really…
When I removed the door panel to see where the dent was it turned out to be above the cross member support in the door so I could at the very least get at it.
I found a piece of hardwood, obechie in particular, about 10" long x about 0.625 " square and rounded the corners off then shaped the end to the same curvature of the door panel.
I didn’t think I was going to be able to tackle the dent as I had forgotten that I had put some sound deadening material on the inside of the outer skin that had the dent in and it is rather soft
Anyway I managed to place the end of the stick against the general area of the dent and just with hand & arm pressure managed to push it back out until it was hardly noticeable. I think the sound deadening actually helped, rather than hindering the job in hand.
There was a slight mark in the paint that had happened when it was dented. This I filled with paint on a small artists paint brush. Tomorrow I will smooth it level with Somme P1500 Wet & Dry used locally and then compound it. I didn’t have to “tap” the dent from the outside either.
The dent was about 30mm long and about 1mm deep, to give you some idea of the size of it.