Glue stick dent repair

[clipper]

Some stupid c*ck sucker drove into my car on Sunday and drove off leaving a dent in the front wing. The paint is very slightly damaged but as I'm planning to respray the car fairly soon I'm not so worried about that.

What I really want to do is get the dent out. There are no paintless dent repair companies here (don't know why) so I'm looking at trying to do it myself and there seem to be three options:

1: Take the wing off and try to tap it out with a hammer.. (not very confident about this )
2: Buy a dent removing suction cup.. (can't see that working to be honest)
3: Buy a hot glue stick repair kit such as this one:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Original-DING-KIN ... 3efcc754cf

This option seems to be the favourite at the moment, has anyone got any experience of these ? Worth a try or would it be quicker to simply flush 15 quid down the bog ?

[johnt0709]

If the dent is similar to the onee shown in the advert I can see it working, however I would be tempted to try and push it out myself - I can see the benefits in doors where it is harder to get behind the dent.

I can see it pulling out anything that is creased though.

Cool name though King Ding, reminds me of an actor in some exotic films in the 80s

[harry_p]

that's quite a good idea. people have been using slide hammers for decades, but it usually means drilling a hole and screwing in a self tapping screw fo the hammer to grip, which then obviously needs filling and painting after.

i'd be a bit worried about it damaging the paint, but then i guess it's more for making the damage not quite so bad as opposed to a perfect finish? still, i'd test the hot glue on a hidden area first i think.

[Graeme_W]

in my last bodyshop we had a system similar but was alot more expensive and comes with a good pulling gun thing. it can work but is best on small dents tbh and there is a risk that you pull it to much and put a tit in the wing then have to tap that down.

what i would do is leave the wing on and remove the shit liner and then try pushing the dent out. or if you have a panel hammer tap it very slightly but leave teh wing on as then you have somnething to hold it in place. if the dent is big a suction cup can be good.

[clipper]

Thanks chaps

That sounds like some good advice from Graeme_W. I think I'll try that first, having nothing to lose and all that...

I'll see if I can take some photos and post up the result

[m_jermyn]

Clipper this is what I do for a living now.... And I can tell you I use the glue method alot but its no match for pushing.. The kit you are looking at is not bad and is very similar to what i use... Dont expect it to be perfect mate it really is a hard thing to learn but you should be able to get it to a point where its not visible form a distance and it wont catch the eye..

People often ask me how hard is it to learn... I tell them to take a stick of gum and un rapp the foil, chew on the gum for a few minutes then put the gum back into the packaging as it was like a new one... It is honestly the hardest thing I have ever learnt to do... I am a trade panel beater and a trade painter.. and dent repair eclipses them both by miles and miles..

Check out this bad boy This took about 45 mins





I repaired a CRV today that took 6 friggen hours... talk about brain damage

Good luck with it mate show some pics of before and after..

Mike

[Speedtouch]

I've heard that you can use freezer spray then a hot air gun on the dent and it'll just pop out. Or dry ice:

[m_jermyn]

I have tried it several times and i have even seen it on youtube but I cant get it to work.. The theory is good but I think its a myth... A few other dent repairers i know have tried it aswell with same result as me.. If it was to work there would still be ripples that remained that would still need repair...

[clipper]

Clipper this is what I do for a living now.... And I can tell you I use the glue method alot but its no match for pushing.. The kit you are looking at is not bad and is very similar to what i use... Dont expect it to be perfect mate it really is a hard thing to learn but you should be able to get it to a point where its not visible form a distance and it wont catch the eye..

People often ask me how hard is it to learn... I tell them to take a stick of gum and un rapp the foil, chew on the gum for a few minutes then put the gum back into the packaging as it was like a new one... It is honestly the hardest thing I have ever learnt to do... I am a trade panel beater and a trade painter.. and dent repair eclipses them both by miles and miles..


Good luck with it mate show some pics of before and after..

Mike

This thread is getting some great responses

Mike, your first paragraph filled me with hope and confidence, then the second one ripped it from me again...

One question: when you say that pulling is no match for "pushing", can you explain exactly what you mean by pushing ?
Are you talking about applying gradual pressure from inside the dent with some kind of sophisticated tool or are you simply referring to good old hammer action ? I'd been lead to believe that if I try to knock out the dent from inside I stand a very high chance of cracking the paint.

[m_jermyn]

Clipper you are right a hammer will crack the paint..

When I say pushing I mean we get behind the dent and push it from the underside with rods and levers



Something like this



It is done by slowly pushing very gently in the lows, for a tiny little fingernail dent it might take around 20 pushes but all have to be in the right place, you have to be able to read the dent... Its not really sofisticated just patience practice and above all you need a certain amount of drive.. I mean you have to really want to be good at it.. The most important tool we use is a light... We use this to cast a reflection on the dent and this gives us the ability to look inside the dent at the tiniest little details.. We are looking at things smaller then the orange peal in your paint..

[clipper]

OK. Cheers. I'll be giving it a go in the next few weeks probably, so I'll do some 'before and after' pics, so everyone can laugh at the mess I make of it....

[clipper]

OK, as promissed here's my bodged "repair":

Here's the dent as it was:



Firstly things got complicated when I looked for the interior of the dent only to find that it was an area which had already been repaired... the small hole with a filler worm entering the inner wing gave it away...

Despite this I thought that I could still try pushing the dent out a bit to make it less noticeable. So investigating how to go about it I saw that by removing the headlights I would be able to push against the chassis uprights behing the grill. So out came an old car jack and a suitable length hammer:



By repositioning the hammer handle inside the dent and gently winding the jack I gradually pushed the metal to a shape closer to it's original.

The problem was knowing when to stop, having filler in the area already, and using such a crude method it was always going to be rough but in the end I left it like this. Far from perfect but at least the paint is intact:



I'm sure that with more patience and by spending more time I could have got it better, but considering that from a few meters away it's now much less noticeable than before I'm fairly happy to live with it as it is until respray time when the car reaches 25 years old next year.

[clipper]

Extra question:

Does anyone know if the coach stripes on my car would be original ?