Removing dents from your car body.

"Dental work."

One of the most annoying and frustrating things is returning to your car to find a dent. Sadly some drivers will just drive off and claim not to have noticed! Even if drivers leave their details there can be a lot of frustration dealing with body shops and insurers.

Removing dents from doors.

There are a number of mobile dent removal specialists who will use tools from the back of the panel to push out the dent. Alternatively you could use a dent puller which is a M shaped device with a screw handle. You glue the central stem to the dent using a specialist heat glue. When it is set you undo the screw and the dent will pop out. You then use a glue remover and just polish off the panel.

Paintless dent removal is much much cheaper than using a bodyshop and should be your first port of call if you have a minor panel dent.

Another method of dent removal involved the use of a hot air gun or hair drier. Heat up the panel as much as possible and then spray on CO2. This will freeze the panel and the sudden temperature change will often cause the panel to flex back into shape. This will not damage the paint and will either work well or not at all so you will not risk damaging the panel. A fire extinguisher, or an inverted camera air spray cleaner, can which contains CO2 can be used. DO NOT TOUCH THE liquid CO2 or Nozzle of the sprayer.

Wheel arch dents.

These are more challenging to fix as the curvature of the panel means that a seam is often created and paint is broken. Your first priority has to be to fix the paint. use a touch up pen to fix the paint and avoid rust from forming.

Next remove the inner wing lining and with the following tools move the dent. If you are lucky the panel with ping back into shape and require on minimal beating and shaping. A block of wood and a clamp or 2 will allow you to put pressure on a wide area. Careful placement of the clamp may mean that the dent pulls straight out. If you create another crease or dent it becomes almost impossible to get a perfect finish.

The handle of a hammer will be coated with a rubber and this will avoid scratching the back of the panel and causing rust. You can usually push out the dent if you have enough strength, try to let the panel flexing do the work rather that hitting it.

Do not use anything with a sharp edge as this could dent the metal or even worse cut through it. You may if you are lucky find a panel from a breakers yard in the correct colour. Fitting a wing is usually just a matter of removing the front bumper and unscrewing the old wing.

Finally if all else fails you will need the services of a body shop. New spray paint is very hard to match so you should get the surrounding panels feathered in to avoid a sudden change in paint colour.

A dent in the wing will usually mean that the wheel has been hit also, it is a good idea to get the bearings and wheel alignment checked or you could be paying out for new tires more frequently that you need to.

Scuff marks can be removed with a good quality Polish (not wax but cutting paste). In many cases the paint will come up as good as new requiring little more than a dab of a touch up pen.