Any Hints for Pounding Out Door Dent??

[UMT]

Hey folks!

 

Well, I play in a Classic Rock band and was parked in a completely full parking lot last Friday nite and someone swiped the lower door panels (passenger side) and left some nice dents in them.

 

There are no 'creases' and I'm thinking about removing the door panels and trying to pound out those dents a bit with a rubber mallet. (???????)

 

Will I be able to get in there with a rubber mallet after I remove the door panels? If not, any ideas, hints, suggestions?

 

The car is a 99 Outback Sport with 184k on it. Not worth having a body shop replace the door skins, repaint, etc.. Used to work in a body shop when I was a teenager, so I know a little bit about body repair.

 

Any and all suggestions welcome!

 

Thanks!

UMT

[Rooster2]

I can't remember where I heard or read about this. I just remember a fix for this was described, as inserting a deflated rubber or plastic bladder inside the door panel. The bladder is then inflated with an air pump, so as the bladder expands to press against the dent, it push the dented area back to normal or near normal shape.

 

I have no idea where such a devise is found, or how well it works, but maybe someone here on the forum can give added advise on the bladder devise.

 

Pulling a door panel and trying to pound the dent back out with a hammer never worked well for me. I tried that once, but found too many obstacles (window cables, window winder mechanism) in the way to make it impossible to swing a hammer towards the dent.

[UMT]

I've been doing some reading this morning and it looks like I'ld be better off using a 'suction' cup puller. There are a couple out there that look interesting.

 

Also, found a UTube video where a guy shows how to remove a dent using a hair dryer to heat the metal and 'massage' the dent out.

 

Here's a link if anybody is interested:

 

I'm going to experiment with these options and I'll let everyone know how it turns out.

 

In the meantime, any other suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

 

Thanks,

UMT

[idosubaru]

the suction cup pullers are lame. i've used them and have one. maybe they work for really tiny and lame dents, but for real dents they don't do anything. i've never seen one work.

 

easiest solution is to find a matching door. i replaced a dented 2000 Forester door last year for like $75. just found one the same color and swapped it out. they're really easy to swap. 4 bolts and a pin and you're done.

[tkaste]

+1 on the suction cup dent puller, . Used one on my passenger door after someone sideswiped me, it took some of the impressions out but not a lot. Ended up using a fair amount of bondo to smooth it out. Looks better than it did.

[davebugs]

I've used a block of wood on similar ghetto repairs in the past. That way your hammer is out where you can actually swing it. Also the endo of the 2x4 (especially if you round the corners) doesn't leave as many dimples in the metal.

 

But yea - just buy used doors that match way cheaper and pretty easy to swap.

[heartless]

yeah - if you are fussy about appearances, then swapping out the door is easiest.

 

if you arent real fussy, just want to get rid of the "huge" dents, but are ok with smaller imperfections - well...lots of options

 

you will not be able to use a rubber mallet directly on the dents...inner door frame will not allow that, but as already noted, a piece of wood or other tool can be used going thru the small holes in the inner door frame (window up!)

or you can try the suction cup thing, or the heat thing, or the inner tube type of thing...

 

good luck.

[brus brother]

Don't know how particular you are or how much time/$ you'd spend on a door panel painting and getting everything back together but if you find one of those "paintless dent remover" guys on an off day you might get some pretty good results at a decent price. I used a guy I found working in a local Subaru lot and the results were absolutely acceptable. Mine were a bunch of parking lot dings but the video link below shows larger dents.