Automotive hail repair? PDR is a specialized form of autobody repair where technicians use special tools and techniques to slowly reduce a dent down in size until it completely disappears. PDR is a learned skill. Through trial and error, technicians gradually begin to understand the specific areas of a dent to manipulate, exactly how to manipulate certain locations of a dent, and the specialized processes and technologies used to remove a dent without the need to repaint the area.
1st let’s start with some car paint care tips: Undercoating: Although waxing the car and polishing it produces good results, you need to protect the car from long term damage by undercoating and rust-proofing it. When the car metal is oxidized, rust sets in and destroys the surface of the car. To avoid this, you should consider rust-proofing the vehicle, particularly if you reside in a state where the humidity is high.
So, we’ve explained what the procedure looks like — assuming it was done properly. And as you could probably guess there are a lot of ways an amateur or first-timer can get it wrong. It’s different than most other car repairs because it’s not about mechanical prowess; it’s more about control and the ability to maintain a steady hand and a gentle pace. You can’t rush it. The problem is, once a sheet metal repair starts to go awry, you’re usually much, much worse off than if you’d just left it alone. Metal holds its shape, but only to a certain point. Let’s say you get a dent in the hood — nothing too drastic, just a shallow, even dent with no sharp creases in an area that’s pretty easy to reach. You think it’ll be easy to pop it out on your own, so you begin to massage the underside while holding your shaping tool in place. You’ve made good progress so far, and a casual observer wouldn’t even notice the flawed area. But it’s not exactly perfect, and since it’s been fairly easy to this point, you decide to keep massaging the area to make it flawless. After a few more minutes of massaging, you realize that you’ve pushed it just a little too far. And now you’ve got this flabby area on the hood where you stretched out the metal. And there’s no easy way to shrink it back down. Keep going and it’ll stretch even more. Lesson learned.
The two techniques mentioned above will remove the majority of hail damage on your car, but a professional job at your local auto body shop is recommended for deep dents or badly damaged surfaces. The services tend to be cheap, fast and rarely require a new paint job. However, it is a good idea to compare prices and offered services at various body shops to see which package works best for your wallet and car’s situation.
If you can not expose your car to the sunlight, you can use a hair dryer instead. Just aim the hair dryer to the areas you want to fix, and wait until the dents even out. The ideal distance between the hair dryer and the car should be 2-4 inches. While using a hair dryer, there should be an interval of 2 minutes. If the car’s paint starts discoloring, you should stop applying heat right away. Use a rubbing compound or wax to revise the paint color.
I don’t care if you wash your car yourself (more on that strategy later in this page) or you take it to a quality car wash. (Yes, not all car washes are created equal) This is not an option as dirt is your #1 enemy when it comes to the finish on your new car paint. And this doesn’t mean once every 6 months whether it needs it or not. This means regularly and consistently. (A minimum of once a month…minimum!)
We recommend going to a professional repair service to avoid a lot of extra costs. Meet EvidentPDR in Colorado. Ben Lincoln has been working on cars since childhood and found a passion for Dent Repair at an early age of 15. Not many find their calling in life so quickly, let alone in the dent repair industry. After identifying his passion, he harnessed his talents and became the 256th person to become VALE Master Craftsman certified in the world (there are only ~600 as of July 2018). During the last 12 years he has assembled a veteran team to share his vision: To deliver the best workmanship, relentlessly focusing on customer service, and going above and beyond expectations to make sure every customer is proud to do business with Evident PDR! Discover more info at https://www.evidentpdr.com/.
Apply the dry ice as many times as you need to, but it should pop out eventually if the dent isn’t too deep. You can also try heating up the dent first, with something like a hair dryer (similar to the hairdryer and compressed air tip above), and then apply the dry ice to it. Suction is one way to get out a dent, but the problem is finding a dent puller with the right amount of power. Well, why not just create your own? All you need is a pot (or bucket), a vacuum cleaner and some tape and you can get that dent out of your car in no time.