Paintless Dent repair pros and cons

[ws23rt]

There are many ways to repair body damage. Brushes, rattle cans, etc are used alot. In the right hands they can be very nice. Getting the color to blend is right up there with the toughest. If all you have seen is second rate results it is understandable you are not impressed. I believe your opinion is based on what you have seen. You are a show me kind of guy. I suspect that if you were shown a good PDR repair that you did not witness you would say no way. Perhaps you are not making statements so much as asking questions.
Asking questions will provide answers that make sense much better than rejecting possibilities. I have no horse in this race I am just sharing my experience.

[Silver R/T]

I'm painter/bodyman myself and I just hate seeing people using "quickie" methods instead of doing it the right way.
I hear too often "oh it will cost too much so I'll just touch it up" I had a guy bring me a car once where he "blended" his entire quarter panel with a rattle can and was asking me why it doesn't look as good as the rest of the car.
Actually if I can learn some PDR and make money doing it then it would be great, live and learn right? I would just hate buying a PDR kit and not being able to return my money with it.
In most cases that I've worked on PDR would not have worked anyways

[ws23rt]

I'm painter/bodyman myself and I just hate seeing people using "quickie" methods instead of doing it the right way.
I hear too often "oh it will cost too much so I'll just touch it up" I had a guy bring me a car once where he "blended" his entire quarter panel with a rattle can and was asking me why it doesn't look as good as the rest of the car.
Actually if I can learn some PDR and make money doing it then it would be great, live and learn right? I would just hate buying a PDR kit and not being able to return my money with it.
In most cases that I've worked on PDR would not have worked anyways

I am glad you came back with that. If you invested in a PDR kit that would not answer your need. You need someone that has experience with it to make it work. The kit is just a box of tools. The dealer that has a contact with a good PDR man would be foolish to pass on this option. The bottom line is always cost and $200 vs $2000 is a no brainer.

[bill440rt]

Wow, a timely question.

You ain't kiddin!
I just had PDR performed on my '11 Ram, today this afternoon! I was trailering my car to the Greenwich Concours this past Saturday, when something flew over the divider from the opposite side of the highway hitting my hood & then bouncing off my windshield.     It was white, looked like a golf ball but was softer like rubber. Windshield was OK, but had a nice tennis ball-sized dent in my hood with a slight crease. NOT HAPPY.     And, making matters worse, the hood is aluminum which is MUCH harder to work with than steel.
I've seen this guy's work before, he is awesome. Came right to my house. He was here for about 1-hr & a half. Hood looks PERFECT.    NO holes drilled to the underside, either.

A PDR guy who is GOOD and knows what he is doing can really do a good job. First job I saw him do was a white Volvo plastered with hail dents on the roof and deck lid, there had to be at least 100-150 of them. The car looked damn perfect when he was done, there were NO signs of dents.

I had some PDR done on two other vehicles. The first job came out perfect. NO signs of previous damage. The second time on another vehicle was on a quarter panel, in a tough area so that guy couldn't really get it all out. Didn't matter 'cause that truck went back.

All depends on the tech. Some guys are REALLY good that know what they are doing. When it can be done, I'd prefer over conventional repairs. No filler and you don't have to worry about color match.

How much did he charge you?

It sounds to me like you either have had bad experiences with PDR, or just the wrong impression of it.

The PDR guy wanted to charge me,,,   wait for it........      ZERO! 
I INSISTED on paying him. He came to my house last minute, had the time & offered to repair it on the spot. He performed a service for me, so I paid him. I gave him $60 bucks, which I had to FORCE him to take, normally a dent the size it was could have been $125-$150 easy.     I am THRILLED the way it came out.

I've had 4 personal experiences with PDR:
1) On the hood of my '98 Ram due to a windshield replacement (yes, a WINDSHIELD!). Effing moron glass guy put about 8 dents in my hood from his ELBOW! The truck was very dark, amethyst pearl (purple). Hood came out PERFECT with PDR.
2) '07 Ram bedside, the dent was caused by a wind driven shopping cart although I try to prevent such damage by parking far away. The tech told me beforehand it might not be 100%, because it was in a difficult area. Let's just say the results were 50%, but I didn't give a crap because the truck went back a week later due to the lemon law. POS truck.
3) '09 T&C. Upon picking up our new van a small ding was seen on the passenger side fender. PDR, came out perfect.
4) My '11 Ram as mentioned above.

3 out of 4 ain't bad, especially when I was told beforehand it might not work in the one case.

[vancamp]

PDR might work in some scenarios. Personally I consider it as a "touch up", dealer lot repair where dealer doesn't want to pay hundreds to fix a dent and wants car sold asap. I see people touch up their car with rattle cans and brushes, rock chips, scratches. It might look good from 5 ft but up close looks like crap, same goes with PDR. Of course that's my opinion. Whatever pays the bills right?

i stand by my previous statement either you have been burned by a hack that called himself a pdr tech or you are uneducated in metal repair, either way you should do some research before making the comments you have. Paintless dent repair has been around almost as long as cars and is used by the manufacturers off the assembly line and holding facilities before reaching consumers, it's used by body shops and restoration facilities, how do I know this because I have worked for all of the above from repairing brand new cars in the factories to million dollar restorations that have to be flawless not better but perfect. If you want to continue to insult what I and others have done all these years for a living I would be glad to off the message boards.

[Kern Dog]

There is a Paintless Dent Repair place here in my area. The " i " was burned out. At night it looks like Pantless dent repair. I had this image of guys wearing underwear pounding out dents.
NOT good.

[twodko]

Skip, TuffCat and Fred work there.......or so I've heard.

[Fred]

Skip, TuffCat and Fred work there.......or so I've heard.

Hey twodko,  I've taken to keeping my pants on. I learnt my lesson the hard way!  

[1970Moparmann]

I know a guy in Chi-town that is a master at this.  He has helped me out on new and old cars.   

This guy is so good, he get's paid A LOT of money to do it.

As thick as our old metal is on our cars, he still works it so well that you can't tell when he's done (if it's not on a body line).

I bought a 68 Dart GT Rag top years ago and it had about 50 dings on it.  My man was able to make it very presentable after the fact.  It had original paint, and a few were on the body line.   It turned out so good, I kept the car a survivor.

Newer cars, in most cases, GONE. 

[GPULLER]

https://www.facebook.com/pages/VanCamp-Dent-Systems/327735687443#

Excellent work!
I'm an estimator at a body shop, we don't have an in house PDR tech but sub it out to a company who does excellent work also.  Have seen many hack jobs that we've had to repair conventionally.  Those guys give PDR a bad image.
If you have a good tech there is no problem with PDR.

[vancamp]

heres a couple pics of a Nissan Altima roof I worked on today

[beedees]

Looks like dang nice work. Can you tell anything from looking at pics?

[twodko]

A sage and wise man Mrs. Fred married.  Macaroons were mighty tasty.

[Fred]

A sage and wise man Mrs. Fred married.  Macaroons were mighty tasty.

So happy to hear it Tom.    Her black forest torte is to die for.