How difficult is it to learn this? I want to fix an old car of mine that was damaged, but don't want to pay a lot for it. Some of the PDR shops are getting quite expensive. Where do you get the tools and training without going to a class? Are my expectations reasonable or not?
The tools used by Professional paintless dent removial Techs are a bit expensive. Some of them go thru a good pit of training as well.
I looked at getting in to PDR a few years back, when Iwas looking at starting my own road side service company (lock outs, fuel, tire changes, vehical winch out). The over all costs, and time needed to learn how to do it properly were more then I could afford to do.
Eastwood does sell some good products. Not all are up to professional stanards. Eastwood is aimed more at the hobbiest.
The tools I was looking at were going to cost me around $6,500 for Paintless Dent Repair. Charles I once paided $175 for a good "shrinking" hammer, only to have some IDIOT use it to pound some nails!!
You didn't send that bozo my way did you? I had a real nice split head shrinking hammer. Good sharp teeth on it. I went out about a week later and some moron had ground down the teeth, "it made marks in the sheet metal, Boss"..... DUHHHH. Then I caught someone using one of my best leading paddles to slap out a dent, slapped him up side the head a few times. I am real glad I sold that shop.
It's a hammer that has a flat to mildly concave fade:
with a bunch of diamond shaped bumps on it, so when you strike the metal on a quarter panel, fender or door panel, with a dolly behind it. (A dolly is a piece of steel, many different shaped ones)
The diamond shaped bumps let the metal squeeze in between the recesses, so that the metal that was hit, and made a bit longer. No longer acts like an oil can when you are trying to apply filler and sand.
And trying to find a person who knows when and where to use one is another story... The local BOCES doesn't even try anymore. Their routine now is swap the panel and paint it.
RK have you ever tried the twister style of shrinking hammer?
It looks like a great idea, but I haven't bought one yet, I'll have to buy one from Eastwood because theirs is made by Fairmount. So it's a name brand and I like name brand hammers. No dents when you hit the dolly behind the panel.
I try my best to be a metal man and not a plastic surgeon!
But I would say it looks better than hitting metal with teeth, even better than a slapper file.
Same here. I was reading an add the other day about a 1st Gen. Camaro, looked pretty good till I read the description, "less than a GALLON of plastic filler was used on this car" .... The last frame off I did used about a quart total. That was on a '59 Chevy.
Most of my dollies are Martins and I have Sykes-Pickavant and Snap-On hammers and spoons.
The guy I worked for when I did autobody was a true Metal Man. Anal retentive type who would redo it with new metal if he had to. He always had the correct gauges of sheet in ample supply.
I was taught it is better to section in some new metal then it is to try to fill.
The worst of the worst is idiots who use plastic body filler as a rust patch. As in perminate repair. Ill admit I slapped a bit in the floor of my
84 C-10, only because Im going to replace the floor pan, rockers, and cab corners next year. I just did it to keep the heat in the cab. Where I had to fill the hood the filler is less then 1/16 deep, and about as large as a
50 cent peice.
When I buy filler, it I only buy a quart, then Im lucky if the stuff is any good by the time im half done with the can. Charles
You have no choice anymore, but on up to about 85. You can still pull out a quarter, hammer and dolly it, shrink it . Primer it and paint it.
But with the new tin can uni-body shit, just tacking on to it, where you want to make a pull is lethal to the panel, That's why there is the straighten to a 1/16" of plastic. Otherwise shit can the panel.
I hear by move to call newer style cars Thin-Tin. I do know what your talking about, japeneese cars are the worst.
I have a Honda Civic fender in my swap meet parts. New OEM Honda Replacement, which for some reaon was jammed in, yet never installed. It got knocked on the ground a few times by careless lookie-lous, and now is about scrap metal. Charles
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