DIY Paintless Dent Removal

[johnsmith222]

I'm curious if anyone has had any success doing their own paintless dent removal at home?

Unfortunately someone decided to dent my roof by walking/jumping on it. The car isn't in the best condition cosmetically, where I wouldn't be too bothered if it got any minor damage by accident. Even though it's towards the end of its life, I still park it in the furthest away possible space.

The damage on it bothers me far more because it was intentional, and it is at eye level.

I have pulled the larger more obvious dents out using a combination of a suction pad, heat gun, and large slide hammer (used with care). I've also tapped down what I'd consider "high spots" with a protected rubber mallet.

I've gotten it to the point where the only people that would notice it are people who already know the damage is there. It looks rumpled, and there is an obvious couple of creases.

I'm not willing to pay someone to make it perfect, as that would probably piss me off more than just living with it being the best it can be from a bit of work on it.

I've ordered a PDR light, and a PDR knock down tool. I should really get a smaller slide hammer to pull up any small dents too.

I'm not sure if I'm just wasting my money, and even then there's always the chance it'll just get vandalised again shortly by the same person (it was a random attack, as I saw it being done. It was drunk teen boys.

[Wacky Racer]

Morons.

I was sitting in my car in a car park in Leeds about thirty years ago, waiting for my wife to finish shopping and two lads about thirteen jumped up on a car roof opposite and ran across about fifteen cars parked side by side.

One was a brand new Porsche 911 Turbo,

They ran off laughing before I even had time to get out of the car, not that I could really have done anything except call the cops.

Good luck. One of the advantages of running a shed.

[Easternlight]

I have had a go at this and it's no where near as easy as they make it look on YouTube.
I did make an improvement but not what I was hoping for.
They do a lot of sticking things on with hit glue, pullers etc and never have I seen them pull the paint off.
I feel if I tried that that's exactly what would happen!
There's a lot of potential to do damage, once the paint cracks you're screwed.

But those that have the experience can work miracles.

There was a thread on here years ago with a 911 that was jumped on.

Edit
997 actually
https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?t=12...

Edited by Easternlight on Thursday 3rd July 21:50

[johnsmith222]

Wacky Racer said:

Morons.

I was sitting in my car in a car park in Leeds about thirty years ago, waiting for my wife to finish shopping and two lads about thirteen jumped up on a car roof opposite and ran across about fifteen cars parked side by side.

One was a brand new Porsche 911 Turbo,

They ran off laughing before I even had time to get out of the car, not that I could really have done anything except call the cops.

Good luck. One of the advantages of running a shed.

That would be heart-breaking to have that happen on a new 911 turbo. I came across carwow Mat s video where he had someone repair the roof of his 911 where someone had done the same 1 month after ownership. The PDR guys did an amazing job and made it look brand new again (it took 2 days and a lot of expertise/experience though).

Thanks. This might sound odd but the car is actually a bit of a shed, but didn t start that way when I got it 10 years ago. It has quite a bit of sentimental value where I ll keep it going as long as possible.

If someone had accidently hit it and apologised, I probably would have been relatively cool with it. Mistakes happen.

For some reason though, because it was intentional, and at eye level every time I use the car, I d prefer to improve it and make it easier to forget it happened.

I'll give it a go and see how I get on.

Easternlight said:

I have had a go at this and it's no where near as easy as they make it look on YouTube.
I did make an improvement but not what I was hoping for.
They do a lot of sticking things on with hit glue, pullers etc and never have I seen them pull the paint off.
I feel if I tried that that's exactly what would happen!
There's a lot of potential to do damage, once the paint cracks you're screwed.

But those that have the experience can work miracles.

There was a thread on here years ago with a 911 that was jumped on.

Edit
997 actually
https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?t=12...

Thanks easternlight. I suspected I wouldn't get anywhere near what the pros on youtube can do. Some parts I've been quite lucky with, and although it's probably 85% of the way there (by eye. I'm sure my PDR light will reveal a lot more) I would like to get it to the point where it just looks like normal dents. it's quite rumpled at one section.

I know the slide hammer with the glue on attachments you are talking about. I've not bought it yet, but will see how I get on with just the knock down hammer and pdr light. I also have some access under the headliner so may be able to improve things from underneath.

Although I have a lot of mechanical experience, this is a different skillset/technique than I'm used to, so it won't be perfect.

Thanks for the 997 link. They did a great job on that! Mine wasn't anywhere near as bad as that thankfully, but I think they might have been planning to do that until I scared them off.

I'll give it a go and see how I get on. Thanks.

Edited by johnsmith222 on Thursday 3rd July 22:37