Body Damage - more dents!
Fig 13. These four dents may be impossible to remove, one has creased the paintwork which is difficult in itself, but the sheer amount of damage means that the metal panel has stretched, and it is not possible to shrink it back.
Advice
It is often possible to remove very large dents. Today's cars often have large curved panels which can almost be turned inside-out. An example of this would be the roof or bonnet . If you find that vandals have been running over the tops of the cars in your street, and your roof has been damaged in this way, please don't be tempted to try and push the dent out yourself, although it may appear that it will probably pop back out again, they seldom do and you may make the damage worse. Our dent repair technician will often need to remove the headlining and heat areas to soften the metal while easing the dent out bit-by-bit, working from the outside to the centre of the dent.
Fig 14. This is a particularly difficult dent after dent removal. We reduced the size but because it was creased and the panel streached, it couldn't be removed completely, but as it is under 10mm in diameter it now falls under the acceptable size limit - see your Fair Wear and Tear Guide.
About
Sometimes, dents will cause the metal panel they are on to severely stretch (Figure 14), this can happen on both large and small dents. When this happens, it is not always possible to remove them completely as to do so would require shrinking the metalwork back into place which is not possible. However, it is sometimes possible to make enough of an improvement to avoid a refurbishment re-charge.
Fig 15. We do get asked if we can remove dents such as this with paintless dent removal. As you can see the paintwork is broken, but even if it were not, this car still needs the attention of a bodyshop.
Severe damage, especially where paintwork is broken will require a bodyshop repair. However, with some damage, Paintless dent removal can be used to improve the panel so that replacement of the panel is not required. On occasions dent removal can be used in conjunction with Smart Repair techniques to avoid the replacing and repainting of whole panels, but this will depend very much on the size, location and type of damage.
If you have damage similar to that shown on this page and you are wondering if and how it can be repaired, and how much it will cost, upload a photo to Ask the Experts and we'll advise you - no obligation.
