Paintless dent repair kits - any experiences?

[Shakermaker]

I've seen a few of these on eBay for around £40-70 and wondered if anyone had experience with them and if so, were they good or bad experiences?

The ones where you get a glue gun, some plastic tabs to stick on and a slide hammer or T-bar to pull the dents out, then remove the tab and wipe away the glue.

I've got a number of small dings and bumps on my little van that I would like to repair, none of them have chipped the paintwork so one of these kits looks like it would be much cheaper than paying anyone else to do the work, I suspect I can repair the look maybe 90-95% in most cases if these work?

[Flooble]

Think I'd rather pay a professional to do it. It's a skill, just like any other. To try it for the first time on several thousand pounds' worth of car ... bit like learning to ride a bike on a GSX-R 1000.

[renmure]

Have a look in TK Max. I picked up one on their shelf next to assorted car bits, steering wheel covers and cheap screwdrivers a couple of weeks ago. Exactly as you describe but was only £14.99. Not had any need to try it yet but it seemed like a good thing to have

[Barchettaman]

I have one, an eBay special dent puller.

It's possible to get things about 60-70% better but anything more then that requires a level of skill and patience that I don't have. Once you've raised the dent you have to knock it back with the plastic punch, that's hard. The pros use a cross-hatched light to see better the raised bits, to knock them back in.

An isopropyl alcohol spray is essential to have on hand, otherwise the plastic thingamyjigs don't stick on properly.

To be honest, in the UK I wouldn't bother. PDR guys are so much cheaper than here in Germany, where you need to sell a kidney or two to get a dent knocked/pulled out.

My daily is a bit of a shed and run on a stupidly low budget so I'm happy to try this kind of nonsense on parking dings, but if your car is your pride 'n' joy then maybe get the pros in.

I have to say though that I was pleased with my 60/70% success, the dents (big crease across the wheelarch) went from 'bloody awful' to 'only noticeable if you're looking hard'.

[Shakermaker]

Barchettaman said:

I have one, an eBay special dent puller.

It's possible to get things about 60-70% better but anything more then that requires a level of skill and patience that I don't have. Once you've raised the dent you have to knock it back with the plastic punch, that's hard. The pros use a cross-hatched light to see better the raised bits, to knock them back in.

An isopropyl alcohol spray is essential to have on hand, otherwise the plastic thingamyjigs don't stick on properly.

To be honest, in the UK I wouldn't bother. PDR guys are so much cheaper than here in Germany, where you need to sell a kidney or two to get a dent knocked/pulled out.

My daily is a bit of a shed and run on a stupidly low budget so I'm happy to try this kind of nonsense on parking dings, but if your car is your pride 'n' joy then maybe get the pros in.

I have to say though that I was pleased with my 60/70% success, the dents (big crease across the wheelarch) went from 'bloody awful' to 'only noticeable if you're looking hard'.

OK, this is actually relatively positive. Its only for my Rascal, but just the fact there are several smaller dings and a couple of larger ones, if I could pull them out just to smooth it down a bit more than it currently is, I think I'd be happy.

Cheers for the advice all - if it doesn't work out, I won't be in any worse a position than I am now.

[designforlife]

I've got a "ding king" kit i got off amazon.

It does work, but is a time consuming process, expect to do several pulls to get a dent completely out, especially on smaller ones.

You have to be ninja fast applying the threaded spigot with the hot glue to the bodywork, or you don't get a decent bond...also make sure the paint has been cleaned with alcohol wipes beforehand.

Edited by designforlife on Thursday 23 February 11:56

[Mikebentley]

Thread resurrection. Anybody used one of these kits recently?

[swisstoni]

They look ok but without the skill to finish the job you aren't going to get a perfect result unless you get lucky.

I would also worry about pulling the dent higher than the surrounding panel. Which would leave you with an anti-dent.

[tallpaul26]

My guy charges £70 for the first dent and £25 for each subsequent (assuming you’re having multiple pulled). He’s an absolute magician, perfect every time, even on swage lines. IME this is absolutely an example of value exceeding cost by a huge margin!