Dents on the Hood.

Gageraid · **Posted:** Tue Oct 08, 2013 2:54 pm

When I got my used Liberty, it had a few small dents in the hood. Nothing too bad.
I gained a few more yesterday while parked at school with the huge acorns drilling the hood.
How do you fix the dents? The KK hood seems very fragile, even though it's heavy.
I tried one of those cheap dent pullers, but it didn't change anything.

dgeist · **Posted:** Tue Oct 08, 2013 3:20 pm

Your best bet is PDR (Paintless Dent Removal). Ask a local body shop you trust who they use for non-paint repairs. It's a specialty and even some large body shops don't keep one on staff, but rather engage them as needed on jobs. Alternatively, there are typically places in most cities that specialize in this kind of work.

Your results will vary. If you go to a discount place, you may get discount work...

Dan

LKWJeeper · **Posted:** Tue Oct 08, 2013 8:29 pm

PDR works but I'm not sure how expensive it is.

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Gageraid · **Posted:** Tue Oct 08, 2013 9:25 pm

There's nothing I can do myself so save some bucks?

12KK SFD · **Posted:** Wed Oct 09, 2013 9:01 am

PDR may be the way to go, despite the cost. They use special lights to see other dents that you can't so they can get them all out. I used to be an adjuster in the auto claims department of the insurance company I currently work for and, if I recall correctly, the PDR labor rate was usually that of the local body shop rate. But that was for an insurance claim so it may vary if you get it done on your own.

dgeist · **Posted:** Wed Oct 09, 2013 9:05 am

Gageraid wrote:

There's nothing I can do myself so save some bucks?

There are DIY PDR kits you can get. They look like varying sizes and shapes of spoons. You can try to massage the dents out yourself with those. If you have a really good hand and an artist's eye, you might be able to do a good job yourself. Truthfully, though, it's one of those things where experience counts. every time you press on the back side of the metal, you're essentially stretching it and the paint (just like the damage is now). Do it wrong and it's a lot MORE expensive to fix. Estimates are usually free and if you only want certain ones removed, that may save you some money. Again, you do get what you pay for, so it's all about how much a perfect panel is worth to you.

Dan

centralMO · **Joined:** Tue Jan 17, 2012 6:44 pm **Posts:** 15

I heard about a method several years ago when I was looking in to buying a hail storm special, Im not an auto body expert so it may not work, but it involves heat and ice. You let the hood get warm/hot, not with a torch, but either after it has been running for awhile on a hot sunny day or in a heated building. Then you take ice and cool the metal in the center of the dent and work outwards in a circular pattern. By having the hood warm/hot, the metal is slighting expanded due to thermal expansion. When you cool it off the metal starts to contract. By working from the inside to the outside, the center contracts and "pops" up. Again I have not tried this and I was told that the entire dent may not go away but its a good fix for small one. If you try it, let us know if it actually works, I would be interested to know.

Good luck.

tommudd · **Posted:** Wed Oct 09, 2013 9:59 am

Having seen almost all of the ways tried including the heat/ice etc, there is only one way that works and that's have a professional do it for you. Had a real bad ice storm go through the area years ago while I co-owned a body shop. They used our extra space for dent repairs, amazing how many they could do in a day.
I had tried a couple of small dents on mine with poor results. We had a guy come to one of our M&Gs who did it for a living. In no time he was able to massage/ pop out dents from various places and you couldn't even tell there had been one there.
Its like anything else, you get what you pay for.

Gageraid · **Posted:** Wed Oct 09, 2013 12:20 pm

You guys say all this "you get what you pay for" stuff... The dents are really small like penny shaped.
What would your price guesses be as to fix 4 of them?
I would take pictures, but they're impossible to see on camera with a shiny black hood.

dgeist · **Posted:** Wed Oct 09, 2013 2:34 pm

Gageraid wrote:

You guys say all this "you get what you pay for" stuff... The dents are really small like penny shaped.
What would your price guesses be as to fix 4 of them?
I would take pictures, but they're impossible to see on camera with a shiny black hood.

Appreciating you're trying to get a much information as possible, it's not likely that anyone here will be able to give you other than a SWAG on the price. What multiple people HAVE stated is that the professional method will give you the best results. Is there some reason you can't call a local reputable body shop and ask them for an estimate? It would likely be far more accurate than anyone here could guess (unless they happen to do PDR for a living). The cost varies on the location, depth, shape, type of panel, etc.

IF I WERE to GUESS, something on the order of a few hundred for a few sizable dents might be in the ballpark.

Gageraid · **Posted:** Wed Oct 09, 2013 2:57 pm

dgeist wrote:

Gageraid wrote:

You guys say all this "you get what you pay for" stuff... The dents are really small like penny shaped.
What would your price guesses be as to fix 4 of them?
I would take pictures, but they're impossible to see on camera with a shiny black hood.

Appreciating you're trying to get a much information as possible, it's not likely that anyone here will be able to give you other than a SWAG on the price. What multiple people HAVE stated is that the professional method will give you the best results. Is there some reason you can't call a local reputable body shop and ask them for an estimate? It would likely be far more accurate than anyone here could guess (unless they happen to do PDR for a living). The cost varies on the location, depth, shape, type of panel, etc.

I absolutely will call a body shop when I have a few moments. I'm trying to figure out the best option if I could save money or not. Don't have too much funds available to me right now, so I can to really watch what I spend lately. I appreciate all the advice so far and believe I am in the right direction with the input. Thank you.

Dents on the Hood.

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