Paintless dent removal ???

[68383GTS]

Ok here is my question.I saw a video on the net were someone was taking out dents and dings with dry ice.Has anyone here tried it? If so what kind of results did you have? Where do you buy dry ice? Wal Mart? Kroger ?
My Road Runner has alot of dings on the rear quarters so I am wanting to try this.I will try it on my Neon first.
Thanks,Jim

 

[JayD]

I've heard about the dry ice method but I've never done it myself...yet. I was told that it is best to warm the metal up with a hair dryer, then hold the dry ice on it for a few. The dry ice is suppose to shrink the metal that stretched when it got dinged. Best bet for dry ice would be a dairy, and use tongs to handle it.

 

[RedFish]

I talked with a guy who goes from on car lot to the next removing door dings. He uses heat and rods of different diameters. When I asked could I do it myself his reply was, " Maybe but not everyone who owns a set of golf clubs has the skills to use them". When I asked about my 67 Plymouth he said, "Nope. That steel is far too heavy to manipulate this way."

 

[toolmanmike]

The heat and ice method is used to shrink the metal just like JayD said. It wont make hail dents look like new but will cut down on the bondo you need to fill one. The paintless dent repair guys can't do old cars because of the thickness of the metal. They can repair most dents on new thin sheet metal with no sign of repair. toolman

 

[MOBodyman]

I sublet my PDR work to a couple of guys who have been in the business for nearly 30 years. They fixed a '73 Dart Swinger in my shop that had some bad hail damage and it came out really nice. They constantly amaze me with their talent and experience.
I've always heard about people using dry ice but in my 36 years in the body business I've never seen it done or know anyone who has had it done. I sure would like to see it sometime, though.
Dallas

 

[lhearold]

Never used dry ice but I've used the hair drier and the canned air from the office supply store. Its CO2 and if you spray it with the can upside down it comes out as a liquid, damn cold. Heat the dent with the hair drier and then hit it with the canned air. May take 3-4 tries but it can remove most of a dent. Used it on my wifes Shadow Turbo ES that had hail damage and got it looking pretty decent. I would imagine the guys that do this for a living have fancier equipment though....

 

[BrianT]

I have been a PDR tech for the last 15 years, and yes you can take dents out of older cars. I repaired some small hail dents on my Demon last month, and took some elbow dents out of my buddy's Roadrunner also. Anything larger than a half dollar and deeper than a 1/4 inch or so, stretches the steel and makes it near impossible to manipulate back to flat. That is on older cars, with thicker steel. Bigger dents can be fixed on newer cars.

Back to the original posters question, I have never seen anyone use dry ice, but have watched a guy use a small torch and a wet rag to shrink metal. You can buy dry ice at the grocery store. Buy some and try it. Heat the metal in the summer sun and apply a small chunk of dry ice to the dent.

Let us know how that works out for you.

 

[toolmanmike]

The PDR techs in my area must not need work! LOL Of course we have had a lot of hail lately.

 

[68383GTS]

I have the next two weeks off so I will be tring it real soon.I will let everyone know what happens. jim

 

[2 Darts]

Have used a similar techique that is used to remove dents from aircraft wings. Heat surface with a heat lamp. Remove lamp when surface is very hot. Immediately quench with a wet towel that has been sitting in ice water. We used to put about a half bag of ice in the towel using it a lot like a large ice cap.

It worked well on my first 66 Dart that got caught in a hail storm. Pulled out all but two sheet metal dents and did not crack the original paint. Good luck.

 

[MoParking]

Ok here is my question.I saw a video on the net were someone was taking out dents and dings with dry ice.Has anyone here tried it? If so what kind of results did you have? Where do you buy dry ice? Wal Mart? Kroger ?
My Road Runner has alot of dings on the rear quarters so I am wanting to try this.I will try it on my Neon first.
Thanks,Jim

I tried it using a heat gun and dry ice...no dice, though I only tried it halfheartedly, didn't want to screw up the paint that was still there.

 

[RogerK]

I found a website with a "top 10 MacGyver" tricks. #1 was dent removal with compressed computer air and a hair dryer.

The video looks like it worked on a newer car with a larger dent, maybe not so much on an older car with thicker panels.

http://lifehacker.com/5342899/top-10-tricks-macgyver-would-be-proud-of