I had an incident at a local parking lot when I was rushed and didnt cut the wheel enough when pulling into my space. Needless to say I made some contact with a pole at the edge of the spot. Because the dent is very uniform and there is no real creasing of the metal, I thought I could get an ambitious paintless dent removal tech to massage the dent out from behind and back to its original shape. Unfortunately, no one seems up to the task and they all declare it too large for PDR, despite having fixed much uglier damage albeit over a slightly smaller size dent on some of their before and after website pictures.
I was backed into last summer by an old lady on the opposite rear quarter and though insurance covered it, I know it gets very costly since its not easy to repair/replace.
What I am looking for is any insight on potential ways to fix the dent whether through a body shop or some other way that wouldnt completely break the bank. Sourcing a clean panel, cutting off the old, welding the new, and painting/matching everything through conventional body shop means is likely to cost several thousand and may total the car. Anyone been in a similar situation?
I am no bodyman but have done lots of research on body work for my DA also needed some major restore.
what you could do is buy a quality body hammer tool kit and access the dent from behind (will have to remove quarter interior panel). Then use a dolly to hammer the dent out working from the outside to the inside, or from indirect damage to direct damage, to perfection.
as for the passenger door, just get a used one. same color or dif. color it doesnt matter as the whole passenger side will have to painted.
had the exact same problem just not quite as bad. I replaced my passenger door, removed the rear trim and used a body hammer to push out the dent best i could and layered on the bondo and repainted the car
unfortunately thats what it is ganna take unless you simply “pop” the dents out and put new side panels on in which case you will still see dents
How did you remove the interior trim piece behind the quarter panel… the sort of backseat side “armrest”?
By getting popped do you mean by having a shop drill into it, fish a hook through the hole, pull it out and then cover up the hole?
Any idea as a rough $ estimate to do it the right way - body hammer, bondo, and paint? Pass door is no big deal as I can source one from a junkyard etc.
Plunger? Honestly, it works. You might laugh but it works.
I kicked the side door in on my 3/4 Dodge Work Van one day. Then flipped out cause I dented the company truck. I pulled off the interior panel behind the door and hit it with the palm as hard as I could, popped the dent out. You can’t even tell it was there.
I don’t know if either will work for you but imo, worth a try.
the interior trim piece can be pulled out from the door jam and it gives you some room to work with but not much theres also stuff in you way when you pull the trim off and you might not be able to get a hammer in there but you can use something to pry the dent out…the plunger may work somewhat but i do not think it will significantly fix the dent…and if i remember correctly the trim piece is all one piece going towards the rear of the hatch and i think you need to remove the speaker cover ect. maybe even the seat im not sure just start taking it off you should be able to figure it out
as for doing it correctly i have no idea what it would cost i did it all myself and had my buddy spray the whole car for the price of the paint but i would imagine doing the prep work bondo sanding ect. and having a shop paint it would be very much cheaper, doing bondo work isnt very hard its just very time consuming and there is no need to drill a hole in the side youll be able to hammer it out even with just a rubber mallet.
