Hail repair experts Colorado tips
Evaluation of your hail damaged vehicle ? 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.
First, you have to pick a proper tool kit. And that’s not easy for a user who has little clue what’s going on. Some of them are cheap — low prices should raise red flags. Others are so expensive (three-figures or more) that they’re probably right up there with the cost of a decent professional repair (although, to be fair, if you buy the kit you can perform multiple repairs). Many of the high-end, expensive tools are intended to be used along the inside of the panel, much like a pro would do. (Gaining access to the inside of body panels can be a chore, though, and often involves careful removal of multiple interior trim pieces.) Alternatives (which tend to be the less expensive kits) flaunt the conventional wisdom that small dents should be massaged back out from behind the painted surface. These options instruct the user to glue a tool to the dented surface and then twist or pull on the tool to pop it out. True, you can go buy the same tools as a pro, but it takes a lot of skill and experience to use them properly.
Another popular method for removing car dents out of plastic material involves using two popular household products: a hair dryer and compressed air. Start off by heating the car dent with the hair dryer at its highest temperature, which will expand the plastic of the car. As soon as it’s hot enough, grab the can of compressed air, turn it upside down, and begin spraying that same area. Since the cold air will cause the plastic to contract, the dent will pop out.
Applying dry ice to the dent is an effective way for fixing hail damage. The huge change in temperature can force the dents to pop out. Everything for you to do is just moving the dry ice around the damaged area to cool the area rapidly. But be careful as dry ice will damage your skin if you don’t wear gloves when handling it. Fixing hail damage by dry ice can be a cool solution, but sometimes it can not remove all of the dents. So in this case, you will need to do additional repairs.
For dents that are fairly small and not deep, a dent repair kit may be an inexpensive and simple solution. These kits are available at any auto parts store and tend to be very user friendly — instructions are always included. The best part is that they usually cost under $40. Most include several stems for various sized dents, a glue gun and a knockdown tool. You may be surprised at how well the kit works and how professional the result looks. We don’t recommend this kit for large, deep dents — you might cause even more damage trying to fix those with a kit. Read more info on Customize my ride.