Some tips for automotive hail repair tasks
A few recommendations for automotive hail repair needs? Dents near edges – If a dent of any size is situated near the very edge of a body panel or near a seam, PDR repair may be impossible. The reason for this is that in order to repair a dent using these techniques, you need to access the back side of the dent. The dent has a crease – If there is a sharp crease (like a folded page) in the dent, PDR likely will not work. Older vehicles – If your vehicle is older than 1990 or is a classic car, the odds are good that attempting paintless repair techniques on a dent will damage the paint. This is because the paint quality on older body panels can’t withstand the strain of the repair techniques.
In the first place let’s start with some car paint care tricks: In order to protect new car paint, you have to invest some time and effort to clean the vehicle on a regular basis. There are several car waxes and polishes available on the market. Although some car product manufacturers claim their products produce long lasting results, you will have to re-apply any product every few months, so the exteriors look appealing. If you’ve purchased a new vehicle that has a shiny coat of factory paint, avoid using too many detailing products as they rob the car of its original luster and also damage the paint.
A good paintless dent repair might look perfect, or close to it,but the metal underneath that shiny paint is still damaged. It’s thinned out and its structure has been weakened. But as long as the paint is still there and it’s not immediately obvious, that’s probably good enough. After all, it’s not a safety concern or anything. Just remember: Sometimes it really pays to hire a pro. To DIY or not to DIY? I’ve never tried to use an at-home paintless dent removal kit to bang one out myself; however, I have owned a car that I had completely repainted because paintless dent removal wasn’t an option. And it’s a pain in the butt. And it’s expensive. And I’ve also made some bad calls in terms of judging what I can handle myself … and what I’d just make worse. That said, I’ve never bought a product from an infomercial to attempt a car repair.
For dents that are fairly small and not deep, a dent repair kit may be an inexpensive and simple solution. These kits are available at any auto parts store and tend to be very user friendly — instructions are always included. The best part is that they usually cost under $40. Most include several stems for various sized dents, a glue gun and a knockdown tool. You may be surprised at how well the kit works and how professional the result looks. We don’t recommend this kit for large, deep dents — you might cause even more damage trying to fix those with a kit.
Applying dry ice to the dent is an effective way for fixing hail damage. The huge change in temperature can force the dents to pop out. Everything for you to do is just moving the dry ice around the damaged area to cool the area rapidly. But be careful as dry ice will damage your skin if you don’t wear gloves when handling it. Fixing hail damage by dry ice can be a cool solution, but sometimes it can not remove all of the dents. So in this case, you will need to do additional repairs.
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.
We recommend going to a professional repair service to avoid a lot of extra costs. Meet EvidentPDR in Colorado. We deliver the best workmanship and craftsmanship while relentlessly focusing on customer service, all while exceeding customer expectations. Our team is well known, highly-skilled technicians, and business-savvy professionals. Our culture and results-driven ethos is what defines our Print and Automotive shop. We make sure every customer is proud to do business with Evident PDR! Find extra info on Automotive hail repair Colorado Springs.
Instead, save yourself some of that hard-earned money and do it yourself. There are plenty of ways to get a small dent or ding out of a vehicle at home without ruining your paint, and you don’t need to be a gearhead to do it. However, not all of these tricks will work on your particular automobile; your mileage may vary depending on where the dent is and what your body panel, hood, or bumper is made of (aluminum, carbon fiber, plastic, fiberglass, steel, etc.). For instance, aluminum has little memory properties, so paintless dent removal is much more difficult.