Hail damage to wife's brand new car, dealer wants to use Paintless Dent Repair

vetteguy

Diamond Member
Sep 12, 2001
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My wife bought a 2007 Pontiac G6 2 months ago (new). Last week we had a really bad hail storm, and as a result there is a lot of damage to her car. The hood, roof, and trunk are all pretty banged up (I lost count of the number of dents). We took it to the local GM dealer for an estimate (before we called insurance, we have a $500 deductible so if it wasn't going to be much more than that we were going to just pay it).

Anyway, they quoted us $600 for "paintless dent repair", which is something I hadn't heard of but is apparently all the rage, where they remove the body panels in question and massage the dents out from behind. Unsure of this, we took it to another local body shop where we'd had satisfactory work done before, and they quoted us $1600, saying they couldn't do the paintless because of the extent of the damage, and also that if we used the other method the dents could "reappear" in a couple of years.

Has anyone used this method of repair? What are the pros/cons for a brand new car?
 

steppinthrax

Diamond Member
Jul 17, 2006
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Originally posted by: vetteguy
My wife bought a 2007 Pontiac G6 2 months ago (new). Last week we had a really bad hail storm, and as a result there is a lot of damage to her car. The hood, roof, and trunk are all pretty banged up (I lost count of the number of dents). We took it to the local GM dealer for an estimate (before we called insurance, we have a $500 deductible so if it wasn't going to be much more than that we were going to just pay it).

Anyway, they quoted us $600 for "paintless dent repair", which is something I hadn't heard of but is apparently all the rage, where they remove the body panels in question and massage the dents out from behind. Unsure of this, we took it to another local body shop where we'd had satisfactory work done before, and they quoted us $1600, saying they couldn't do the paintless because of the extent of the damage, and also that if we used the other method the dents could "reappear" in a couple of years.

Has anyone used this method of repair? What are the pros/cons for a brand new car?

PDR is currently the latest and best method of dent repair for most vehicles. Its the idea of massaging the dent out from the body from behind. The paint in your case is probably in great condition even at the site of the dent. They use special tools to massage the dent out. Have you tried Dry Ice on the dents.

It's cheaper and maintains the value of the car v.s. replacing the damaged hood with an aftermarket one. Each bodypart on your car has a VIN sticker on it. When it's damaged you can easily see if the VIN sticker is missing or different.
 

DougK62

Diamond Member
Mar 28, 2001
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Paintless dent repair is absolutely the way to go for repairing hail damage. It's cheaper and gives better results.

The guy that said that the dents may magically "reappear" later is a quack, and you should avoid him.

 

exdeath

Lifer
Jan 29, 2004
13,679
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PDR is neat, they also use a suction device to pop the dents out from the surface without drilling and hammering.
 

CalvinHobbes

Diamond Member
Feb 27, 2004
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My car was hit with hail when it was 2 months old I never got it fixed but I have seen the PDR and it does work good in some cases.
 

SoulAssassin

Diamond Member
Feb 1, 2001
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Had a vehicle back in the late 90's with a ton of door dings in it I had paintless dent repair done on...guy went in through the window sill and popped everything out. Looked perfect when he was done.
 

CADsortaGUY

Lifer
Oct 19, 2001
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www.ShawCAD.com
Originally posted by: DougK62
Paintless dent repair is absolutely the way to go for repairing hail damage. It's cheaper and gives better results.

The guy that said that the dents may magically "reappear" later is a quack, and you should avoid him.

That isn't necessarily true. PDR doesn't always work and some spots can "pop" back down with temp changes. However, it is by far the best way to save the value of the vehicle.

To the OP. If your deductable is $500 and the cost is only $600 you'd be better off just paying the whole six hundred then your car isn't marked as damaged plus it's another claim on your insurance. IMO saving $100 now may not be the best decision in the long run.
 

Pacfanweb

Lifer
Jan 2, 2000
13,154
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PDR is great for very small dents. If you have some big hail dents, you definitely might see them again. For small ones, PDR is preferable to paint and body work.

Gotta remember, for the bigger dents, the metal is stretched, and that extra stretched-out metal has to go somewhere.
 

vetteguy

Diamond Member
Sep 12, 2001
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I think we're going to go with PDR for this damage...although I must say the body shop manager at the dealer was a real ass when I questioned him on the process...he seemed to be of the opinion that if I'd never heard of it I was an idiot and was a cretin for not trusting him blindly.
 

CaptnKirk

Lifer
Jul 25, 2002
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The method originated with Mercedes in the 40's as a method for their most skilled craftmen to remove surface defects from the cars when they were finished before delivery.

There are a few that have received the Stuttgart training and they are very good - you will know who they are, they have tools from Mercedes.
I have seen their work, and they are flawless in their skills.

There are groups of 'Hail Gypsys' that follow hailstorms and ply their trade from anywhere that will allow them to set up shop - be careful, they can do the job,
but when they leave you have no guarantee to fall back on.

Word to the wise, if the dealer stands behind the work, no problem.

Up where Cad lives, when you get a big sub-zero temp drop, sometimes small dents will disappear and not return, Ive seen that happen in St. Louis on my pickup truck hood.

 

CADsortaGUY

Lifer
Oct 19, 2001
25,162
1
76
www.ShawCAD.com
Originally posted by: CaptnKirk
The method originated with Mercedes in the 40's as a method for their most skilled craftmen to remove surface defects from the cars when they were finished before delivery.

There are a few that have received the Stuttgart training and they are very good - you will know who they are, they have tools from Mercedes.
I have seen their work, and they are flawless in their skills.

There are groups of 'Hail Gypsys' that follow hailstorms and ply their trade from anywhere that will allow them to set up shop - be careful, they can do the job,
but when they leave you have no guarantee to fall back on.

Word to the wise, if the dealer stands behind the work, no problem.

Up where Cad lives, when you get a big sub-zero temp drop, sometimes small dents will disappear and not return, Ive seen that happen in St. Louis on my pickup truck hood.

Yep, that's true too. Sometimes they work themselves out.
 

woodie1

Diamond Member
Mar 7, 2000
5,947
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I have had PDR done on two of my cars. I'd give it a try provided you can find someone who has a following. The guy I used was recommended by a paint shop and a dealer's body shop.
 

rdp6

Senior member
May 14, 2007
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I had extensive hail damage to my new car from the storm in early June in Akron. The repair place (CarStar) was able to repair all the damage with PDR methods. I am really happy about that because I'd expect that trying to match VW's black metallic paint probably woldn't go well. The guy parked next to me sent his car to the BMW dealer, which did repaint, and he ended up with (his words) poor color matching and overspray issues.

PDR FTW!