Popping out a dent

I am asking this on behalf of my business partner who just picked up a 2004 Passat GLS Wagon. One of the only blemishes on the car is a grapefruit size dent on the tailgate. He read online about a trick to hear up the area with a hair dryer, then spray it down with CO2 freeze spray and supposedly the dent will pop out. They had a video of it, but I am not convinced its a good idea. What say you?

 

Well if you are only using a hair dryer to heat it I don't see what it could hurt to try. Let us know if it works.
Doubt it would work on an older car but the newer ones have pretty thin sheet metal so who knows.

 

I tried that on my 96 z28, It worked ok, the dent was definitely smaller afterwards. Just dont expect huge results.

 

If it is a dent, and not creased or gouged, try working it out. Start at the very edged of the dent and apply pressure all the way around. This is the way that paintless dent repair is done. Late model sheetmetal is pretty thin, and usually has very good memory. Work the edges of the dent slowly, and it should come out. The last car I did was the tailgate of a Geo, about grapefruit size as well, which I popped out using a gardening shovel :TU: Good luck!

 

One of my good friends is a master at paintless dent removal. Yes he does all mine free. I recommend if you can find a good one in your area let him do it, you will not be able to see it when he is finished. But it is not something a novice should try if he expects the dent to disappear, it is something that requires a lot of practice to be good. Anyone can bowl or golf but to get good requires doing it a lot, and having good equipment, right? Paintless dent removal is like that, to the max. If not done peoperly you will always see it and regret it. Call your insurance agent, or sometimes a body shop will tell you a techs name, but a lot of body shops don't like it, they loose business,LOL.
Just my opinion,
Mike

 

One of the dent wizards around here will heat the area with a hair drier as you mentioned, then drag a block of dry ice across the dent. It works, but I don't know if I would try it myself. Best left to the pros.

 

Dry ice is not damaging to paint? Wow:laugh:

 

Well, he went and tried it. We had a nice hot day, so no hair dryer required. Took a can of air, blew upside down for a minute, iced all up. Waited, ice melted, dent still there. Then later in the day, he tried again, and pop it went, almost the whole dent came out, just a small golf ball size impression is all that is left and some very minor paint cracking that is barely visible unless you look all the way up close to it.

 

If I were you, I'd take that posi I sold you out of that stinkin' box and put it in that 225. Take a picture of a two tire burnout and put it in as your avatar. Then, I'd....wait a minute. What was the question again?:laugh:

Nick

 

New cars dent way too easily, but its easier to pop out a dent on a newer car. I had to beat a dent out with a hammer on my car, and it was smaller than a penny.