Anyone on here do PDR (Paintless dent removal) for a living?

[Heaveho]

If so, what's the training programmes like, as I'm fascinated by it as a possible part time job. I'm guessing as an outsider looking in, you never stop learning and gaining knowledge, so on that basis I'm wondering how long it might realistically take to become competent enough to be well regarded.

[TV200]

I had a dent taken out of my boxster about 5 years ago- by the chap who does it for Porsche GB (thankfully he also works cheaper for Chipsaway in Reading). He said then that it took 2 years of working with someone to see if you were any good - I think its at least as much art as it is science (though appears to be magic too) and you'll either be able to do it or not. Good luck.

[Heaveho]

Thanks. I've always thought that if you really enjoy doing something, you're more likely to be good at it, but that theory doesn't always stand up to scrutiny.

I've been looking at courses and have had one particular place recommended to me by my own tame pdr guy, the cost there is eye watering, but when those already in the trade are telling you to consider them, I might have to bite the bullet.

[SIMON67]

I tried it years ago together with smart paint repairs. I soon realised that paint was easier to pick up so parked the PDR. I did a training course but realised that practice was the key. To practice, I bought a banger that I could dent, fix and repeat in lots of different places. Ultimately I couldn't get good enough quickly enough so gave up.

[dentmanwarren]

Certainly helps if you’re a little bit “on the spectrum” and the usual ten thousand hours to master something applies. Having the right mindset could get you fairly competent in a couple of years at 40 hours a week. The reason so many people do a course and give up is you can’t earn while you’re practising, unless it’s dealers at the bottom of the food chain and the dents they want doing for ten or twenty quid a panel will put you off for life.

There are also two types of dent guy, trade and private. Trade is about speed and quantity, as long as it looks a lot better then happy days. Private is about quality, it needs to be flawless and the customer will be watching everything you do while talking about what PDR they’ve seen on YouTube. Some do both trade and private but most stick to trade because it’s less hassle to turn up at the same place at the same time every week and smash a load out than it is to go through the whole customer enquiry/estimate/booking in malarkey which will eat into your evenings.

[InformationSuperHighway]

I actually did a bit on an old car of mine by buying the tools on amazon.

It was incredibly satisfying and I think I managed to do a decent job as a first try (To the quality standard I was OK with). I almost wanted more dents in my car to try some more!

I would say though that the difference between 'good' and 'perfect' is huge. I got mine to 'good' first try having some fun.. getting to perfect is what takes the thousands of hours.