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Paintless dent repair, PDR

Posted by MartinSeze

Automotive hail repair in Macungie, PA? In the first place let’s start with some car paint care advices: Repair times are up to the severity of the hailstorm and the damage on your car. For the light or moderate damages, the repairs may take from 1 to 3 days. But for heavy damages, it may take you 2 to 3 weeks as that damages will needs body shop participation, for paint work and panel replacement.

This technique is popular among automotive enthusiasts when it comes to the removal of small dents. The idea is simple: heat will inevitably cause the metal surface to expand and (hopefully) pop the dent out. Remember that the more time the car spends time under the sun, the better this technique will work. Use a plastic and/or leather conditioner for the car’s interior, so as to not damage it while exposing the car to maximum sunlight. If the sun’s heat isn’t particularly strong that day, a simple hair dryer could be used in conjunction with the sun to concentrate the heat to a specific area. Point the hair dryer to the dented area for two-minute intervals until the dent pops out. Be careful not to touch the hot lip of the hair dryer on any painted surface. A two-to-four inch gap between the dryer and the surface is recommended.

Apply the dry ice as many times as you need to, but it should pop out eventually if the dent isn’t too deep. You can also try heating up the dent first, with something like a hair dryer (similar to the hairdryer and compressed air tip above), and then apply the dry ice to it. Suction is one way to get out a dent, but the problem is finding a dent puller with the right amount of power. Well, why not just create your own? All you need is a pot (or bucket), a vacuum cleaner and some tape and you can get that dent out of your car in no time.

Don’t underestimate the necessary step of decontamination prior to application of your chosen wax. If you fail to do this step, you will get disappointing results regardless of the type of wax you have chosen. And yes…even that brand new car straight off the dealer lot will in have some form of pollutants already on the car paint from its travel from the factory to the car dealership. Clear coat is the top layer of your cars paint. It acts as a protective layer to filter out UV rays. But your clear coat is what you are trying to take care of with the above requirements. People get confused about clear coat vs. car paint. Virtually every car today is finished with a clear coat as the top layer. Think of it as car paint with no color added to it.

So, we’ve explained what the procedure looks like — assuming it was done properly. And as you could probably guess there are a lot of ways an amateur or first-timer can get it wrong. It’s different than most other car repairs because it’s not about mechanical prowess; it’s more about control and the ability to maintain a steady hand and a gentle pace. You can’t rush it. The problem is, once a sheet metal repair starts to go awry, you’re usually much, much worse off than if you’d just left it alone. Metal holds its shape, but only to a certain point. Let’s say you get a dent in the hood — nothing too drastic, just a shallow, even dent with no sharp creases in an area that’s pretty easy to reach. You think it’ll be easy to pop it out on your own, so you begin to massage the underside while holding your shaping tool in place. You’ve made good progress so far, and a casual observer wouldn’t even notice the flawed area. But it’s not exactly perfect, and since it’s been fairly easy to this point, you decide to keep massaging the area to make it flawless. After a few more minutes of massaging, you realize that you’ve pushed it just a little too far. And now you’ve got this flabby area on the hood where you stretched out the metal. And there’s no easy way to shrink it back down. Keep going and it’ll stretch even more. Lesson learned. See extra details on Paint Protection Film Colorado Springs.

Undercoating: Although waxing the car and polishing it produces good results, you need to protect the car from long term damage by undercoating and rust-proofing it. When the car metal is oxidized, rust sets in and destroys the surface of the car. To avoid this, you should consider rust-proofing the vehicle, particularly if you reside in a state where the humidity is high.

If you are interested in learning how to do paintless dent repair, make sure that you take the time to gather the right tools and supplies, learn about the detailed process of PDR, and then spend time practicing your own repair techniques on metal panels from the local junk yard before you start doing repairs on your own vehicles.