Any experience with PDR: Paintless Dent repair?

[dingnecros]

So I have a parking lot ding about 5-6 inches on the lower portion of my 01 honda accord 4dr lx sedan. The ding is on the front passenger door - probably caused by some high truck/suv door. There is no paint chipping or any scratches but I absolutely abhor it.

I was thinking if one of those paintless dent removal services can get rid of it for me. Has anyone used it before? how have the results been? is it worth the cost?

Will post pics if needed.

 

[Raizinman]

One of the great benefits of the PDR is that they can do the repair in less than a couple hours. No need to leave your car for days and have overspray on everything. That is the bright side. The downside is that they think that their PDR is the next best thing after sliced bread and want to charge as much as a full body shop repair. My philosophy is that they should get between $40 and $50 per hour for their actual work. They rarely use any supplies at all. Instead, what they will do is estimate the repair as a body shop, and then discount it slightly to give you the impression of a better deal. Try and get the PDR guy to give you an hourly rate instead of a package rate.

 

[woodie1]

I've had good luck with PDR. You should get a recommendation or two before hand.

 

[bruceb]

Wether it will work or not depends on the dent. If it just a dent like from a softball or similar, then it should pop out. However, if the dent has a sharp depression in the middle of it, like from a door edge or the like, it may not pop out. You can try and worst case, you will need a body shop.

 

[RGUN]

I have had absolutely fantastic experience with PDR. They can easily pop out door and stone dings, and the sharper ones are slightly more difficult, but still take less than 10 minutes and you may only be left with a slight witness mark which is not noticable.

I use dent xpress, which charges $80 for a single dent, or $100 for the entire car (no matter how many dents).

 

[FlashG]

Do any of these places do light scratch repair?

 

[woodie1]

Originally posted by: FlashG
Do any of these places do light scratch repair?

You would have to phone and find out.

Most body shops can buff out light scratches in no time.

 

[EvilHorace]

"Do any of these places do light scratch repair?"

You'ld probably be better off at a detail shop. Although a body shop can do it, it's often not enough $$ for them (especially if they're busy) and odds are they'll try to blow you out of the water rather than try to help you reasonably. I went to one last summer, had a few dings, scratch on the roof and minor scratches elsewhere. A guy told me it needed to be completely stripped down and re-painted for about $5K or so, yeah (I don't think so).
A PDR guy finally came around to the dealer I work for and fixed most of the dings and some scratches but this guy's not as good as others I've used before. Some of those guys are very good but not all.

 

[JulesMaximus]

I had a few door dings on the right side of my Maxima fixed while at the dealership a couple years ago for $50 and it was worth every penny. You cannot tell those dings were ever there.

 

[cheesehead]

My dad, using a sort of suction cup jack thingamajig, used this to pop out dents on his Mazda3. Admittedly, it wasn't perfect, but I was surprised how well a $20 "seen on TV" kit plus a mallet and some hot glue managed to fix it.

Perhaps you could try asking on Craigslist for a local recommendation?

 

[Zebo]

My buddy owns a shop which does this and you really need to get a recommendation. It's really an art to do right. He does great work and makes tons of money but can't get any good help for secondary profits. Like I said it's an art.

 

[Nutdotnet]

Originally posted by: Zebo
My buddy owns a shop which does this and you really need to get a recommendation. It's really an art to do right. He does great work and makes tons of money but can't get any good help for secondary profits. Like I said it's an art.

x1000

PDR is amazing, but it also takes amazing technique as well.

If you live in, or nearby, a fairly metropilatan (sp?) area, go over to Autopia.org and post up in their regional forum asking for a PDR recommendation. Even though most of the guys over there are professional detailers, they have close ties to PDR guys (some may even do PDR as well) since it's so closely intertwined with making your car look great.

I'm lucky to have a great PDR guy in Anchorage...which is by far a big city. If anyone needs work done in ANC let me know and I'll pass his information on.

 

[Pacfanweb]

Originally posted by: FlashG
Do any of these places do light scratch repair?

Yes, some of them do. Dealerships and car lots use paintless dent removal all the time.

They can do wonders a lot of the time.

 

[JEDI]

Originally posted by: dingnecros
So I have a parking lot ding about 5-6 inches on the lower portion of my 01 honda accord 4dr lx sedan. The ding is on the front passenger door - probably caused by some high truck/suv door. There is no paint chipping or any scratches but I absolutely abhor it.

I was thinking if one of those paintless dent removal services can get rid of it for me. Has anyone used it before? how have the results been? is it worth the cost?

Will post pics if needed.

goto home depot and buy one of those rubber suction cup tile pullers.

worked great on a my car

 

[Dman877]

The best PDR is done from inside the body panel, not with a suction cup. They basically just rub the dent out and the hammer it back in with a rubber mallet. They repeat the process five or six times until you can't tell where the dent was.

 

[ProDent]

Some of the answers here crack me up!

Just for the record... 99.99% of the dents you get in your car will not just pop out, with a suction cup or whatever method you use.
The glue puller thingamabobs you see advertised on TV for $20 will work if your proficient at glue pulling paintless dent repair. Unfortunately, that method is even harder to learn to do correctly than traditional PDR is, and there are much better pullers/glue/tabs than come in those chezzy little kits.
There are some great sources on the internet to find a technician in your area. The largest forum where PDR techs gather is www.doording.com There is also a national NFP organization of PDR technicians that does list the members in each state at www.napdrt.org If you still have trouble finding someone close to you and have no luck searching on the internet, go to one of your local new car dealers and talk to the Used Car Manager. About every new car dealer in the country uses a PDR company to recon their used car inventory and they should be able to tell you whom they use and when they are in the area.
Just my two cents.... Tim

 

[grimham]

I've had great luck on the two times I had PDR done. Of course it's only as good as the guy/gal doing it, if you don't know what you're doing you can make it worse.