Today I thought I’d try a different approach to discussing paintless dent repair. I was trying to come up with something catchy and clever to grab your attention. Then my dad called to tell me he was going to stop at a place to eat that was featured on Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives. (If you haven’t seen the show, check it out!) While I was listening to my dad go into great detail about this particular place, my mind was drifting off to dent land when suddenly, a thought jumped into my head, and right out through my fingertips to the laptop in front of me! So, in paying homage to Guy Fieri, one of the best chefs and funny guys on The Food Network, here is my version of DINGS! DENTS! AND DAMAGE!
Dings, dents, and damage are inevitable occurrences for car owners, and they can happen at any time. It’s not a matter of “IF” but rather “WHEN” It could be a minor fender bender, a hailstorm, or a stray shopping cart that leaves a dent on your car.
Whatever the cause may be, these unsightly marks can reduce the aesthetic value of your vehicle and even affect its resale value. In this article, we’ll explore the different kinds of dents, the most common causes of damage, the relationship between these factors and paintless dent repair, and how they influence the repair process.
First, let’s go over the 5 most common causes of dings, dents, and damage!
- Car Doors: Parking too close to someone, or having someone park to close to you, is always a recipe for a door ding. Even parking far away from other cars is sometimes not foolproof.
- Grocery Carts: A rogue grocery cart or a careless person have caused many a dings, dents, and damage to unsuspecting vehicles and their owners.
- Weather: Hail damage is the first thing that comes to mind when we hear weather damage, but wind can wreak havoc with tree limbs, garbage cans, and even an unsecured trampoline!
- Falling Objects: This is a big one! We’ve had customers who’ve dropped ladders, fire extinguishers, 2x4s, bikes, boats (yes….a boat) and a couple teenagers who thought dancing on the family car would be fun!
- Road Debris: This is another big one! Following any truck carrying anything is always a risk. Whatever they are hauling can escape and land a blow to your beloved mode of transportation. Sticks, stones, even garbage can become airborne and cause duck and weave maneuvers to become necessary.
Now that we’ve got you thinking about the how, let’s take a look at the aftermath. There are many types of dents you can have on your car, truck or SUV. Let’s take a look!
1. Round Dents: These are pretty common, and typically range in size from a golf ball to basketball.
2. Creased Dents: These dents can be more difficult to repair. They can run either horizontally or vertical. Many times, the line of the dent can be extremely deep, and often, this type of dent may have paint damage.
3. Shallow Dents: This one is pretty self-explanatory. This one may be difficult to see in pictures, and in measurement terms, the depth will be at 0.01-.25mm. These dents are also great candidates for paintless dent repair.
4. Sharp Dents: Sharp dents can be tricky to repair. Usually caused by a hard impact, these dents can stretch the metal of the panel, resulting in heat induction being used to shrink the metal during repair.
5. Extreme Dents: This is a much larger category of dent. These can be caused by anything from a high-speed deer impact, or teens (referenced above) thinking dancing on the top of a van is ok to do. Extreme damage might require more time, cost, and elbow grease to completely get your car back to where you want it to be.
6. Hail Dents This one is pretty self explanatory as well. These happen when a storm pops up, throwing angry hail pea sized or larger, and falls on your vehicle. They are usually round divots, and unless it’s an extreme case or storm, completely repairable with paintless dent repair. (We also have an in-depth series of articles concerning hail damage and repair. If you’d like to learn more, this link will take you to the first article in the series.) https://dentrepairnow.com/?p=3681&preview=true
Next, let’s put these types of dents into 3 categories, we’ll start with the smallest type first. We call those “DINGS” or door dings. A Door Ding is a dent that occurs when a car door strikes the side panel of another vehicle. This happens when two cars are parked closely side by side. It can happen when someone opens their door and doesn’t realize how close they are to the other car. Many times, the wind just grabs the door and throws it open, causing the impact to the other car. Dings are typically small in nature and are great candidates for paintless dent repair.
Now we’ll move on to the “DENTS” category. This probably covers the majority of our repairs. Generally speaking, they cover more surface area than a ding (which would roughly fall under 2”) Dents are the most common forms of cosmetic disturbances that paintless dent repair technicians deal with. These can occur when a foreign object (car door, buggy, or boot….) impacts the surface of the car, causing a visible indentation or depression.
We say cosmetic, because if the dent has impacted the structure of your vehicle and in any way becomes a structural issue, we will recommend a body shop for repair. (Some people don’t know that! Paintless dent repair is a cosmetic service, meaning when we repair your vehicle, it doesn’t show up on a carfax!) Dents can be caused by anything from pushing the hood too hard when closing it, to a baseball being thrown at the door. The size and severity of the dent will determine the complexity of the repair, as well as the cost.
Lastly, we have Damage!! This is the category of “What in the World?!?” I’ll start this category with a story. A few years ago, we got a call from a father whose daughter and her friend had thought it would be fun to dance on top of their minivan like people in the videos they’d seen. It did not end well. Thank goodness neither of them fell off and got hurt, but they sure dented the dickens out of the roof on that vehicle!! That was a large area of damage to be repaired. We also had a repeat customer who had a deer hit him and bounce down the entire passenger side of his truck! That was big crazy damage, but we were able to save the panels! You can watch the video of that repair here.
Keep an eye out for part 2 of DINGS! DENTS! AND DAMAGE!
You can learn more on our website or give us a call at 724-554-1756. If you want to learn more, you can check out our blog. It’s full of great information about paintless dent repair.
UPDATE!! CLICK HERE FOR PART 2
