Removing dents without panel beating

[John S]

Hi everyone, here is another way of removing dents using a cigarette lighter and liquid air, interesting

http://www.metacafe.com/watch/963248/remove_car_dent_with_a_lighter/

Also with dry ice
http://www.metacafe.com/watch/494805/remove_car_dents_with_a_dry_ice_block_www_mastrik_com/
and another claiming compressed air but actually CO2
http://www.autoblog.com/2007/05/29/video-car-dent-removal-with-hair-dryer-and-compressed-air/

 

[Styria]

Hi JohnS, this is going to be an interesting experiment on my part. My 'Gleaming Beauty' has a small dent on the right hand front guard and it will be interesting to see if the treatment shown in the video will do the job.

An 'interesting' distraction was provided by Metacafe ! One of my mechanic guys lives on that site and I have often wondered what it was all about. Now I know. BTW, just digressing, I'll keep you guys posted as to how the treatment works. Regards, Styria

 

[OzBenzHead]

Wonder if that might be the way to go for Boris's hail-damage dents? Might try it - nothing to lose, as the panels would otherwise need repairing by more traditional means, or replacing, and the car's getting a total respray while we're at it.

Is the heating-then-cooling likely to weaken the steel, or perhaps - in the way of annealing - even strengthen it? I thought the cooling part of the annealing process was done at a slow, consistent rate, so perhaps the hair-dryer+quick cool is destructive of the steel's strength.

Any metallurgists on board?

 

[WGB]

I use a guy called the "Dent Wizard" in Perth.

He is used by the main agents and for very small sums of money he does a brilliant job.

About 4 years ago he came to my house on a Saturday morning and took 11 hits from Honkey Nuts out of my Subaru and two from my E320 (Also from Honkey nuts - I now never park under red Gum trees) for about $220.

Use care when playing with stretched metal surfaces.

Bill

 

[John S]

A hair dryer will never heat your cars metal enough to have any effect on its strength. However a number of late model cars use thin high strength steel, so they may not respond to the dry ice system as well as the older models.

I have never tried dry ice to remove dents so I am only asuming that it actually works because of the web pages I have viewed.

 

[Michel]

You ought to see paintless dent repairs done by the special crews that chase hail storms in Australia. What would have (in the old days) required replacement of panels or serious and laborious dent repairs, filling and full resprays (two to three weeks solid for a full job) take less than a day and require no paintings.

You are challenged to see any difference in before and after...

 

[OzBenzHead]

Trouble with those "paintless dent repairs" mobs is threefold (or was, when they passed through Lismore recently):

1. They are not locals, and take away business from the local repairers;

2. Being non-locals, when/if the job goes bad (e.g. rusts from the underside of the dings) one has no hope of redress;

3. They were not interested in dealing with non-major insurers such as Shannons - only the likes of NRMA, CGU, etc.

Lismore does have one resident paintless dent repair operator (a franchisee of the Dent Wizard chain). He was interested in repairing my 116 - but was also tied to a regular panel shop where some of my job would have needed doing, and that shop was plainly and openly not interested in working on something where they had to actually repair real steel; they preferred plastic wheelie bins on which they could simply replace whole panels. Hence my long search for a suitable repairer.

 

[Michel]

Trouble with those "paintless dent repairs" mobs is threefold (or was, when they passed through Lismore recently):

1. They are not locals, and take away business from the local repairers;

2. Being non-locals, when/if the job goes bad (e.g. rusts from the underside of the dings) one has no hope of redress;

3. They were not interested in dealing with non-major insurers such as Shannons - only the likes of NRMA, CGU, etc.

Lismore does have one resident paintless dent repair operator (a franchisee of the Dent Wizard chain). He was interested in repairing my 116 - but was also tied to a regular panel shop where some of my job would have needed doing, and that shop was plainly and openly not interested in working on something where they had to actually repair real steel; they preferred plastic wheelie bins on which they could simply replace whole panels. Hence my long search for a suitable repairer.

I agree on all of that....
And for our Benzes, I would also prefer conventional.
But for quick late model insurance work, you can't beat them

 

[WGB]

They are locals where I live and I use the guy that Diesel Motors in Perth uses.
I also pay for it myself and don't bother with the insurance.

Bill

 

[OzBenzHead]

I wouldn't bother with insurance other than third-party property, either, if it wasn't mandatory courtesy of my club's rules for historic plates issue.

But, as I do have the insurance, I plan to get my value from it.