Paintless dent removal

surfRenegade · **Posted:** Tue May 15, 2012 2:49 pm

As some of you know, i mangled my tail gate a while back and have been looking for options to repair. Decided since most of it will be covered by a big tire its not worth paying a minimum of $660 to get it fixed. Figured this is a good oportunity to learn to do something like this myself. I have done some body repair but nothing at this level. I really dont care how great it turns out. I am looking at a Painless Dent Removal kit to limit the amount of painting I will need to do. I was planning on bying a slide hammer, the plastic glue on tabs, the hammer adapter for the plastic tabs, and the glue. I have watched youtube videos on this and it seems to work well. Anyone have personal experience with it? If it doesnt really work i will have to do the old school method of drilling holes...which im not too exited about

infernicus · **Posted:** Tue May 15, 2012 3:06 pm

Depending on your damage. (I forget if you ever posted a pic or not), I would leave your tailgate as is.
You can attempt to fix it with the glue on tabs, but I'm not sure how well they will stay on.
The inside of the tailgate is very reinforced, and difficult to straighten.
Don't bother trying to fix it with the old school slide hammer yourself. It might be able to be fixed by a really good body guy.
I would just run a coat of paint if any paint is chipped to stop it from rusting.
Mine is still not straight, I used some washers behind the tire carrier to straighten it out.

I'll let some pictures tell my story.

The rust that started to form because I didn't do anything to it for a while.

The damage that occurred from backing up into a pole.

The attempt at fixing it with a slide hammer.

Bondo was used to make it unnoticeable. It is now cracking due to the vibrations from the tire.

Good luck on your endeavor!

Paintless dent removal

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