Does anyone know anything about paintless dent removal?

[BMWfan69]

So, I had another post about the dumb F*** in a gravel truck that threw a rock at the side of my brand new 128i yesterday. Dealer body shop is telling it will cost $430 and require filling the dent and painting the ENTIRE quarter panel. Althought the $430 sucks. I could care less about the money. I care more about the body shop striping and painting my entire quater panel for a >1" dent/chip. They may be good an they do a lot of BMW's, but aftermarket paint is never as good. Plus the damn thing is only a couple of weeks old.

I have noticed all these tools for paintless dent removal and some shops that do a professional job at it. I would be fine just throwing some touch up paint on the chiped paint if someone, or I can pull the dent out. I would much rather do this than have them destroy and repaint my Q-panel.

Does anyone have any experience with these tools or can you recomend shops that can do it in the Buffalo, NY area?

Here's a picture of the damage:

[Red Bread]

It's hard to tell from your photo what sort of dent you're dealing with, but in general, the better PDR guys can fix some pretty amazing stuff. The best solution for a dent and scratch would be to find a PDR guy who can also air brush the scratch, that's been the best solution for dents with paint loss that I've seen.

[BMWfan69]

Originally Posted by Red Bread

It's hard to tell from your photo what sort of dent you're dealing with, but in general, the better PDR guys can fix some pretty amazing stuff. The best solution for a dent and scratch would be to find a PDR guy who can also air brush the scratch, that's been the best solution for dents with paint loss that I've seen.

Thanks for the info. The dent is small and circular, just under the scratch that you see in the picture. The dent and scratch is about a 1/2" to 5/8" in diameter. Yeah the more I think about this the more I am thinking that is the way to go. I never thought about a nice airbrush touch up. I'll have to look for a PDR shop in the buffalo area. Anyone have any recomendations?

[BMWfan69]

So I went to a PDR shop today and they said they can pull it out and paint it for $280. Not that much less than the full paint job at the dealer but at least I don't have to mess up the factory paint on the rest of the quarter panel. He says it will only be 60% to 80% repaired. This is disappointing, but I think he is setting low expectations though so as not to disappoint. I'll bet it's closer to 90% when done. I hope I am doing the right thing.

[jc_lbc]

I think you're doing the right thing. It may end up costing more in the long run but I think it's worth a shot to try and avoid painting the entire panel.

[fwmcb]

It's wonderful. I've had them take a massive dent out of the 335 and repair where my ex drove through the garage door with the SAAB... They both look perfect afterwards! Yours should turn out fine.

[Red Bread]

Originally Posted by fwmcb

my ex drove through the garage door with the SAAB...

Is this why she's the ex?

[BMWfan69]

Originally Posted by maxnix

Pulling means drilling and filling the hole, and I bet not with welded metal.

Avoid. This is not paintless dent repair and neither is your car's wound repairable by this method if it is creased as deeply as it appears to be.

No, they PDR'd it from behind and did a great job. I used the wrong term. They really pushed it out. There was no filling involved. The picture is a bit deceiving. There was no crease, just broken paint on top of the dent. The dent came out 100%. It's pretty amazing. Unfortunatley, the damage broke the paint so they did a very slight airbrush and put on some clear coat to level out the paint to the hight of the clearcoat layer. They didn't really put much paint on at all so there was no need for blending. This left a small blemish, but it's hard to find and much better than taking the factory paint off of the whole quarter panel in my opinion. I would say the fix is 90%. I recommend this PDR to anyone, especially if you don't have broken paint. It's really amazing what they can do.

[fwmcb]

Originally Posted by Red Bread

Is this why she's the ex?

nope, it was just the SAAB, now if it were a BMW... then she'd be gone!

[BlackjackMulligan]

Had a couple of dings taken out of the wife's MDX (not her fault) and you can't even tell they were there. They took two decently deep ones out of one panel for $179.....it was worth every penny.

[JimD]

Around here, car dealers sign monthly contracts with the paintless dent guys. My SUV was touched up by the dealer for nothing but admittedly that was at initial delivery. It might be worth asking your dealer if they could get a small dent done when the guy comes by if you have your car there that day. I doubt you would get any paint applied this way but you might get a small dent taken out.

Jim

[Uptempo80]

My dad developed a friendship with a PDR guy who has been signed to long term contracts @ a local Ford dealership and he calls up my dad on his cell and does work for our BMW CCA club members "on the side" but after he's done with his day @ the ford dealership.
He's removed door dings from my brother's E30 M3, My dad's E46 M3 cabrio, my mom's 128i, and my E30 325i. A great contact to have over the years..He's impressed since the day I met him.
Even a critically picky guy as myself can be impressed by some good PDR work.