In the first place let’s start with some car paint care tricks: In order to protect new car paint, you have to invest some time and effort to clean the vehicle on a regular basis. There are several car waxes and polishes available on the market. Although some car product manufacturers claim their products produce long lasting results, you will have to re-apply any product every few months, so the exteriors look appealing. If you’ve purchased a new vehicle that has a shiny coat of factory paint, avoid using too many detailing products as they rob the car of its original luster and also damage the paint.
Paintless dent repair, PDR ? Dents near edges – If a dent of any size is situated near the very edge of a body panel or near a seam, PDR repair may be impossible. The reason for this is that in order to repair a dent using these techniques, you need to access the back side of the dent. The dent has a crease – If there is a sharp crease (like a folded page) in the dent, PDR likely will not work. Older vehicles – If your vehicle is older than 1990 or is a classic car, the odds are good that attempting paintless repair techniques on a dent will damage the paint. This is because the paint quality on older body panels can’t withstand the strain of the repair techniques.
For small dents on your car hood, a car dent repair kit may be a simple and inexpensive solution. You can easily find these kits at any local auto supply store and they are very user-friendly. Each kit often includes a knockdown tool, a glue gun and many stems for different sized dents. You may be surprised at the way the kit works and the professional result it makes. But we do recommend this kid for small dents only. For deep, large dents, it is better if you take your car to garage as the repair kit can not fix them and even cause more damage.
A good paintless dent repair might look perfect, or close to it,but the metal underneath that shiny paint is still damaged. It’s thinned out and its structure has been weakened. But as long as the paint is still there and it’s not immediately obvious, that’s probably good enough. After all, it’s not a safety concern or anything. Just remember: Sometimes it really pays to hire a pro. To DIY or not to DIY? I’ve never tried to use an at-home paintless dent removal kit to bang one out myself; however, I have owned a car that I had completely repainted because paintless dent removal wasn’t an option. And it’s a pain in the butt. And it’s expensive. And I’ve also made some bad calls in terms of judging what I can handle myself … and what I’d just make worse. That said, I’ve never bought a product from an infomercial to attempt a car repair.
Use Hot Glue, Wooden Dowels, & Screws: When you attempt to take out dents yourself, you always put the risk that you might further damage your car, whether you make the dent worse or chip the paint. A safe way of trying to take out big dents on your car is by using several wooden dowels, a few screws, and a hot glue gun. Simply place two nails into each side of the dowel and put the hot glue on the bottom. Place the dowels glue-side down in areas around the dent, repeat as many times as needed to cover the area, let them dry, and pull each one out until the dent is gone.
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! See more details at Paintless dent repair.
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 want to polish your car and are considering buying a buffer, you can see my simplified approach to car polishing for the true beginner to achieve professional results. As the saying goes, “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure”, and your car is no different. If you are just consistent with the basic instructions I have provided here, your car will not only look fabulous year after year, but will retain much more of its original value when you are ready to sell. Want to save your time and maximize your car detailing efforts. Unless you are a die hard car enthusiast, I actually recommend you find a quality, 100% cloth or hand wash, and take your car there at least every 2 weeks and let the crew there perform the grunt work of car washing.