Dent Pullers any Luck?

[Roamer]

I have a dent in the rear side door of my soobie as a result of NYC parking, the dent is not that deep no paint wear or scratches. I feel that I can pop it back out from the inside if I can some how figure out how to remove the inner door cover to expose the metal. But I was wondering how effect a suction cup dent puller would be. Has anyone had any luck with them here?

[idosubaru]

i had zero luck with one and i tried it on a few different dents. different sizes, big, small, easy, hard, creased. got no results with it. get access and push it out from the other side. i've heard you can put dry ice on some dents and that may pop the dent out. might be nice to do it when it's warm, creating a larger temperature difference.

[mnwolftrack]

Actually, I just pulled out about 4 dents out of my '98 OBW. I used a suction cup on a couple of them and it does a nice job, depending on the dent. If the dent is in a smooth area of the door, meaning no body lines, seams, or edges, then the cup can do a good job. The limitation is that if the dent is a "plink-plunk," meaning, you push it out and it makes the "plink" noise, then a few seconds later it goes "plunk" on it's own and re-dents itself, then you need to do something else because the metal is stretched.

 

But, based off where your dent is, you can probably get away with pulling the door panel and pushing out from behind.

 

I removed a dent from the front fender by peeling back the plastic inner liner and pushing it by hand. I removed a dent from the hood by removing the hood liner and hammering from underneath with a large socket on it's rounded edge (sharp edges cause more dents).

 

Short of going all the way and grinding, filling, sanding, and painting dents, this works reasonably well. Each dent I removed is about about a 1/4 as noticable as it used to be.

[OB99W]

If a suction cup doesn't work, sometimes a glue-type puller will. Paintless dent removal pros use these (but of better quality, of course):

http://www.amazon.com/SIMONIZ-Pops-A-Dent/dp/B00020FTJA/sr=8-1/qid=1171674484/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/102-5099270-7172104?ie=UTF8&s=hi

 

This type of tool usually works best on small dents. It does require some finesse and following directions.

[brus brother]

I used a company called Dent Wizard and watched them work. The techs use a series of flat pry bars that they slip down inside the door and finesse the dent out working from the edges inward. Obviously, if you can get at the dent from inside the door panel you should be able to massage it out if the paint hasn't been cracked. Go slow... the fastest orchestra isn't necessarily the best!

[brus brother]

I used a company called Dent Wizard and watched them work. The techs use a series of flat pry bars that they slip down inside the door and finesse the dent out working from the edges inward. Obviously, if you can get at the dent from inside the door panel you should be able to massage it out if the paint hasn't been cracked. Go slow... the fastest orchestra isn't alwys the best!

[OB99W]

[...]finesse the dent out working from the edges inward.[...]

That's the key to most dent removal; inexperienced people often make the mistake of applying pressure first to the center of the dent. The correct approach is usually to reverse the order of how the dent was formed. Since the center is where the initial impact occurred, it should typically be the last place to be worked.

 

It's also important to have proper lighting, especially if you're working "blindly" from the back of a panel. Even if you can't directly see the end of the tool being used, with good panel lighting and technique you can apply light pressure and determine where the tool is by observing a slight (but not permanent) change in the panels shape. That allows you to relocate the tool properly before applying the force needed to reform the metal.