What is Paintless Dent Repair (PDR)?

Over time, nearly every vehicle will suffer from Dents, Dings, Creases, and possibly Hail Damage. Not only do such blemishes diminish your vehicle’s appearance, but they can be extremely expensive to repair. Thus, most owners just suffer the nuisance. However, Paintless Dent Repair can often restore your vehicle to its original condition, and for significantly less than traditional body-shops.So, what exactly is PDR?

Well, the best way to understand Paintless Dent Repair, is to first understand what PDR is not.

Just a Little Dent

Let’s say your prized vehicle has become the victim of some minor body damage. Not from a “fender bender” or large collision, but the kind of dents and dings you pick up at the shopping mall, or maybe from soccer practice! Such blemishes can be really annoying to look at, and to the average person it seems that they should be pretty easy (read “inexpensive”) to fix, right? Well, not so fast!

Traditional Auto-Body Repair

When it comes to minor dents or dings, here is the approach that most traditional body-shops will take to repair dents and dings.

First, the auto-body specialist will often drill a hole in the center of each dent/ding, and then use a tool try and pull out the dent/ding as well as possible. See a problem here? That’s right! Your vehicle went into the body shop with a couple of minor dents or dings, and now it also has holes in it! Of course, the technician may skip drilling into your vehicle’s body and instead choose something less invasive like a hammer… With this approach, the technician will attempt to pound out the dents and dings. But in the end, either approach will damage your vehicle’s factory paint.

Getting nervous? Oh, don’t worry, it gets better!

Next, the technician will take a grinder to your vehicle’s finish, and grind down the area surrounding each dent and ding in order to prep it for body work. (Need we say that your vehicle’s finish is definitely no longer “factory”??) After this, the technician will use body fillers or compounds to fill in the imperfections caused by the “repair” just performed. After the body filler has dried, the technician will sand each area until it is smooth. (The good news is that at this point – to the “touch” – you shouldn’t be able to tell where the original dents, dings, or creases were located.)

Lastly, the technician will prime the area, and then apply one or more coats of paint and finish to your vehicle. Now, if you go to a reputable auto-body shop, most of the time your vehicle will look as good as new. However, while the dents, dings, and creases are no longer noticeable, you may have a new problem in that the paint doesn’t exactly match your factory paint job. You see, even the best body shops cannot guarantee that their paint touch-ups will match your vehicle’s factory paint job. And if your vehicle is more than a couple of year’s old, this is a common issue. Of course you could pay extra to have your entire vehicle painted, and to some degree this will fix this issue, but do you really want to have to pay for a new paint job when all you needed were some dents and dings removed?

In the end, just having some dents and dings removed can often cost over $1,000 if you go to a traditional auto-body shop.

In Defense of Auto-Body Shops

Before going on, we at Excel Dent would like to go on the record by stating that there are several great auto-body shops here in the Denver metro, and that in many cases a full-service auto-body shop is exactly what you need. For instance, if you have collision damage, punctures, deep creases or if your vehicle’s paint has been damaged, then we will refer you to a full-service auto-body shop.

However, if you have moderate hail damage or minor dents, dings or creases, then experience shows that Paintless Dent Repair can often offer the same or better results, and at a significantly lower cost.

A Different Approach to Dents

Paintless Dent Repair is different because it leaves your vehicle’s body and paint 100% intact. There is no drilling, no grinding, no sanding, no body-fillers, no primer, and no painting.

Unlike the approach described above, our Master Technicians use non-invasive PDR techniques that have been developed over the past 50 years, and were designed to leave your vehicle’s paint untouched.

This typically involves slowly “massaging” dents, dings and creases from the inside of each panel until the metal is in its original form. Doing so eliminates the need to drill into your vehicle’s body, and also leaves your vehicle’s paint untouched.

As long as the dent or ding hasn’t stretched the metal or damaged the paint, then in most cases PDR can restore your vehicle to its original condition. And because PDR eliminates altering your vehicle’s body, it not only preserves your vehicle’s factory body and finish, but it saves time and money.

In the end, Paintless Dent Repair is often a smarter choice when it comes to hail damage and minor dents, dings and creases!

Get a Free Estimate

Call Excel Dent today at 303-883-4863 to schedule an appointment and find out how Paintless Dent Repair (PDR) can restore your vehicle to its original condition while saving you time and money!!