PDR work is on the rise and shops can tap into the profits
For car owners, paintless dent repair (PDR)
offers a quick and inexpensive solution for
minor scrapes and dents. For body shop
owners, PDR can be a high-margin service
offering that requires relatively small capital investment.
If a car has minor damage caused by parking lot
mishaps or even hail, it could be a suitable candidate
for paintless dent repair, as long as the paint has not
been damaged.To repair a car using PDR, a repairer
uses special tools designed to tap and pull out the
dent without damaging the finish, eliminating the
need to paint. After the initial investment in tools and
training, the only cost involved is labor. Weather
permitting, PDR can be done outside — although a
bay may be a better alternative for some shops.
“Any people who are interested in how their car
looks will be interested in something like this,” notes
Jason Pdchards, an estimator with Beverly Hills Auto
Body Inc. of Beverly Hills, Calif. A typical paintless
dent repair customer is someone who comes in for
collision work, Richards says.When estimators
initially inspect the car, they point out any minor
dings and dents to the customer and explain that the
shop can easily and economically repair them while
the car is m the shop.That
approach also reduces the
incidence of customers
claiming dings occurred
while the car was in the
body shop.
Beverly Hills Auto
Body doesn’t have a technician
on staff to handle PDR, but instead relies on
Magic Touch Paintless Dent Removal of Los Angeles,
a company that specializes in handling PDR for body
shops in the area. Magic Touch owner CHfFjameson
visits Beverly Hills Auto Body as needed, doing his
work on the company’s lot. He often can respond to
repair requests the same day.
Even with this outsourced approach, Beverly HUls
Auto Body makes a healthy profit margin on paintless
dent repairs. The company charges customers $85 to
$225 for PDR work, depending on the size of the
dent involved and the number of dents on the
vehicle. For a job billed at $85, Jameson typically
charges about $45, which works out to a 53/47 split
{in MagicTouch’s favor).Jameson’s work requires
about 35 to 40 minutes per panel.
Richards says Beverly Hills Auto Body chose this
approach because the shop didn’t have enough paintless
dent repair work to keep a staff technician busy
After the initial investment
in tools and training,
the only cost involved
with PDR is labor
full time. Alternatively, some shops might train
someone on staff in properly performing PDR repairs
and have that person also do wholesale work for
other shops. If that technician were also trained in
conventional auto body repair, he or she could do
conventional work when no PDR work was needed.
As with any supplemental service, advertising the fact
that the shop does paintless dent repair can help bring
in additional work, according to our sources.
Proper training is critical to good paintless dent
repair — and numerous schools offer programs
ranging anywhere from one to three weeks. Shorterlength
courses may suffice for technicians who are
already trained in conventional body shop work
because they already have an edge over students from
other walks of life. Training programs, which often
include tools as part of the package, run in the range
of $5,000 to $15,000.That fee also may include a
technician’s travel expenses, and some schools will
tram additional technicians for up to five years if
someone they have trained leaves a company.
Repairing hail damage using paintless dent repair
typically is more time-consuming than repairing
parking lot dings. A typical hail repair takes a full day
and retails for between $500 and $2,000 per vehicle.
In recent years, insurance
companies increasingly
have begun to encourage
the use of PDR for hail
damage. Because of the
volume of work that a big
hailstorm can create, some
shops turn to national
PDR companies that can send in a group of technicians
to promptly handle the additional work.
Downs Paint and Body of Milton, Fla., chose that
option after a big hailstorm a year ago. “At one time
we had 10 technicians working here. We were taking
in 20 cars a day,” says Linda Downs, administrative
secretary for the company, who adds that the visiting
technicians often worked long hours to complete
their work.The body shops cut of the repair work
was about 20 percent. Downs notes. The narrower
margin, in comparison with what Beverly Hills Auto
Body makes, isn’t surprising, considering that the
national company had the expense of bringing technicians
in from outside the area to handle the
hail-generated demand. Nevertheless, the weather
mishap generated substantial windfall revenue for
Downs Paint & Body.
As shops consider adding PDR, weather-related
windfalls could add greatly to a shop’s bottom line.
