Covering up a dent in my car

[2Cent]

Turned into a pilar the other day. It left a big dent and some scratches on the side of my car. A full repair would be $1500, which is too much. I think if I can do some covering up it may be acceptable. Any ideas?

[Frankies Girl]

You might see if you could pop the dent out yourself. I have no experience with that so you'll have to hope some of the car peeps show up for ideas. I've heard of using a plunger and dry ice but again, no idea how that stuff works.

As far as the scratches, if they are just little ones, I'd go get some touchup paint from the dealership (if you can't find it any place else). I think they're under $10 and look sort of like long nail polish bottles with a small brush in the cap and contain the color matched paint. You'll still see the scratches if they're deep, but only at certain angles.

If it isn't really bad tho, I'd probably just ignore it. I have tons of little scratches all over my car due to assholes that don't care about swinging out their doors. As long as it's just cosmetic and not so bad that it makes me look like I'm driving a beater, I don't care any more.

[Spork]

You might see if you could pop the dent out yourself. I have no experience with that so you'll have to hope some of the car peeps show up for ideas. I've heard of using a plunger and dry ice but again, no idea how that stuff works.

This can work if there are no creases.  Instead of a plunger, you can use a good suction cup.  If you know someone in IT that deals with removable floor tiles, they might let you borrow one.

There are also "companies"** around here that are VERY GOOD at using specialized tools to get behind dents and push them out.  I've seen them go over a badly hail damaged car and make it look like new again.  Again, these are dents with no creases in them.  I think if you get a good crease, you're dealing with a body shop and/or panel replacement.


**I use the word companies... probably incorrectly.  There are several individuals that work out of the back of their trucks that set up in parking lots around town.  Around my area, they move from one car dealership to another repairing door dings and such for the dealerships.

[lthenderson]

Turned into a pilar the other day. It left a big dent and some scratches on the side of my car. A full repair would be $1500, which is too much. I think if I can do some covering up it may be acceptable. Any ideas?

Was only one panel damaged? I was hit head on last year by someone running a stop light and they had to replace the bumper, hood, one quarter panel and some assorted parts and then paint and it cost only $1800. I think I would get another estimate.

On my beater, and this depends on what exactly was damaged, I've gone to the junkyard and bought another door to replace one on my car. I even found it in the same color though in the right light you can see it is faded a bit more than the rest of my car.

The other option is to just live with it. One perk is nobody parks really close to you in a parking lot. Also, somebody in the future may get it replaced for you. The above damaged vehicle had been damaged by my wife turning into a concrete barrier. The person who ran the stoplight hit us in the same corner and paid for all the damage to be fixed.

[sokoloff]

If the scratches aren't too deep, call a few paintless dent repair places (that or "PDR" is the search term). Most will give a free estimate and tell you what the likelihood that it will look awful, medium, good, or quite good post-repair.

[Jon Bon]

A picture would really help.

I have used a dent puller before.

https://www.amazon.com/Yoohe-PDR-Tools-Bridge-Puller/dp/B01LY4S7ZU/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1494607817&sr=8-1&keywords=dent+popper

16 bucks from amazon and it works pretty well so it might be worth it.

[stclurker]

www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00P1ZQOCC/ref=pd_aw_sim_sbs_21_1?ie=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=FRMKEXXM977J42G35QQB&dpPl=1&dpID=51g8OH4kyRL

Sorry, couldn't resist