When Is Paintless Dent Repair Appropriate?
Posted on: 26 June 2020
Paintless dent repair has been beneficial for many car owners who needed to get dents fixed. The process is a lot faster and more affordable than traditional dent repair, where the dented area is completely reworked and repainted. Paintless dent repair isn't always appropriate, however, so if you have dents, you can't assume that the repair can be done using the paintless technique unless you're absolutely sure it meets some requirements. The good news is that the repair techs who would be working on your car will have a better sense of where the line can really be drawn.
Paint Damage
Obviously, if your car's paint has been scraped off, you're not going to be able to get paintless dent repair done. You might be able to have the dent popped out instead of replacing the panel on the car, but you'd have to either forgo painting or still put the car through a paint process, which would render "paintless" repairs basically pointless.
What you may not realize is that sometimes, when the paint looks OK to the untrained eye, it's really not OK. A trained repair tech can tell if the paint has minor damage, like hairline cracks, that would make it difficult to use a paintless dent repair technique.
Dent Location
The location of the dent matters, too, as part of the technique involves accessing the back of the dent. In other words, if you have a dent on the car hood, the repair techs need to look at the underside of the hood panel, too. If they can't easily access that other side, then paintless dent repair can't really happen. Luckily, the techs are better able to get to those sides than you can, so what might look like an impossible spot to you could be very easy for them to work with.
Dent Angle
Shallower and rounder dents are going to be better candidates for paintless dent repair than sharply angled dents (where there's a more defined, sharper indentation in the metal), even if those angled dents don't have paint damage. The process used in paintless dent repair is better suited to popping out these smoother dents, and it wouldn't really make a sharper dent disappear fully.
If the dent in your car is right at that point where you don't know if it would qualify for paintless removal, take it to a shop for evaluation. The techs there can give you an estimate and let you know what they can do.
For more information, reach out to a local collision repair service.
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