The end of my pressure washer blew off and hit the car smack in the drivers door rail and left a couple of nasty little dents, tricky to see but under any strong light were clearly visible and my OCD meant it had to be fixed.
This morning I went to the Dick Lovett bodyshop at Cribbs Causeway in Bristol and met up with Ricky from Dings and Dents who tackles their small paintless dents. Because of the location of the problem, I knew that there was no access from below for the usual bent spoons and other ingenious pieces of metalwork used for bashing inside panels. Instead he used a technique that I had come across online, but had not seen in operation before. A small plastic plug is attached to the offending area with a hot glue which then sets so that a puller can be attached. The dent is then carefully lifted a little above the surrounding area and the plug removed. A plastic punch that looks like a 6" white candle is then used to tap the panel back to alignment. The process is repeated for each dent and I understand different sizes of plugs can be used depending on size and location.
In my case there was an added problem in that the car was treated with GTechniq ceramic coating from new and the glue wouldn't stick! The bodyshop guys came to the rescue and removed it locally and also came back at the end and gave the area a final machine polish and replaced the coating for me. All in all an excellent result and I genuinely cannot see where the dents were.
You can see under my garage lights the two dents
Setting up a board to help track the line of the panel
Heatgun used to put the adhesive on the plug
Attached to offending area
After pulling the dent it is knocked back to finish the job
Finished job in the bodyshop
And a final one back in the garage at home with the same light source as the first picture
Paul Blewitt, the BodyShop Manager also gave me a guided tour of their impressive facility, mainly BMW and Mini work, but also Astons and Porsches dotted around. With something over 60 staff it is a sizeable operation and clearly have all the latest kit.
This morning I went to the Dick Lovett bodyshop at Cribbs Causeway in Bristol and met up with Ricky from Dings and Dents who tackles their small paintless dents. Because of the location of the problem, I knew that there was no access from below for the usual bent spoons and other ingenious pieces of metalwork used for bashing inside panels. Instead he used a technique that I had come across online, but had not seen in operation before. A small plastic plug is attached to the offending area with a hot glue which then sets so that a puller can be attached. The dent is then carefully lifted a little above the surrounding area and the plug removed. A plastic punch that looks like a 6" white candle is then used to tap the panel back to alignment. The process is repeated for each dent and I understand different sizes of plugs can be used depending on size and location.
In my case there was an added problem in that the car was treated with GTechniq ceramic coating from new and the glue wouldn't stick! The bodyshop guys came to the rescue and removed it locally and also came back at the end and gave the area a final machine polish and replaced the coating for me. All in all an excellent result and I genuinely cannot see where the dents were.
You can see under my garage lights the two dents
Setting up a board to help track the line of the panel
Heatgun used to put the adhesive on the plug
Attached to offending area
After pulling the dent it is knocked back to finish the job
Finished job in the bodyshop
And a final one back in the garage at home with the same light source as the first picture
Paul Blewitt, the BodyShop Manager also gave me a guided tour of their impressive facility, mainly BMW and Mini work, but also Astons and Porsches dotted around. With something over 60 staff it is a sizeable operation and clearly have all the latest kit.