Body shops have always used hammers, dollies and other blunt tools to push out dings and shallow dents, but they were limited by stiff sheetmetal, brittle paint and poor access for those standard tools. And if repairers couldn’t get in back of a dent, they often used a suction-cup puller. Unfortunately, the cup usually leaves a raised rim around the dent. And that means grinding, filling and painting.
In many ways, carmakers have made paintless dent repair possible. Today’s lighter-gauge sheetmetals are easier to bend, and body paints are now flexible enough to stretch without substantial cracking.
In paintless dent repair, technicians use a number of hooked metal rods to reach inside body panels and gently massage the dent until it’s flush with the surface. Rod manufacturers determine length and hook design according to the different types of dents and tight spaces each tool will be used for. The AAWC offers 38 tools and will soon add five more. Lengths currently range from less than 5 in. to more than 4 ft.
Technicians usually can’t see the panel’s exterior side when they’re working. That means it’s difficult to judge at what point they’ve brought the dent flush. To compensate, most use powerful fluorescent lamps that can be squeezed into cramped spaces. That way they can see the dent’s convex side as they work. With the rod in place, they use a gentle prying motion to massage out the dent, starting at the dent’s perimeter and slowly working toward the center.
If the dent is a long reach, technicians sometimes have to brace the rod against a strong inner body panel parallel to the damaged one. If none exists, they slide the rod through a ring-and-hook and run the hook through a hole in a nearby body brace or panel. That connection acts as a fulcrum while they work the dent.
Paintless repair has a downside, however. Even with today’s pliable paints, a magnifying glass will still reveal tiny cracks over many small dents.
In such cases, the repair may include a dab of touchup paint. But most car owners will find that preferable to the cost of painting an entire panel. You also avoid the risk that the new finish won’t match the rest of the car. Appraisers notice mismatched paint come trade-in time and assume the damage was far worse than just a few dings.
