tj90

All:

I recently purchased a product called dentout paintless dent repair. You may have seen it or another product called ding king on an infomercial, eastwood or somewhere else the last couple of years. These kits work basically the same way. Wipe paint with alcohol, hot glue a specialty "glue" to end of plunger and pull. Use their adhesive remover (alcohol) to remove glue that is usually left on paint when too much force in pulling breaks the glue adhesion. The kit also comes with a rounded plastic punch in case you over pull the metal and you need to pound it back in. The more advanced kits have a cantilevered bar that allows you to screw the glued plunger out. I opted for the cheaper kit since I have heard that the cantilever can potentially cause more dents and added complexity.

I have 3 vehicles - p-car, 03 SUV and 97 F-150 pickup. Natuarlly, I chose the pickup as the first vehicle. The car has at least 4 dings, one dent. Follow directions and begin pulling. Not bad! I would say that larger dents (2-3") are the easiest to pull out, small dings are more of a challenge but learn by adjusting the amount of glue seems to help.

I then move on to the SUV and take care of 2 dings and a small dent in the fender. I would say that it gets the paint to within 90% original. The bottom line is that it takes 5-6 pulls to get each dent pulled close to perfection. Since it takes a few minutes to cure glue between plunger and paint before pulling - removing dents if you are a perfectionist takes some time. The other challenge is removing the glue from the car finish that usually stays in place when you pull and glue adhesion is broken. Using the alcohol helps but can be a pain and time consuming.

Overall, I absolutely love the results on the 2 vehicles that I care less about. Like I said before, it gets the paint to within 90% of original. I was never planning on spending the money for a dent guy to massage the paint from behind ($50-100 per ding) so this was a great DIY project. Im a perfectionist and my eyes were always drawn to the small dings which are virtually gone now. Close inspection of surface at a very acute angle to paint and you will see waviness. However, now my eyes cant see them like it could before (believe me Im ****!)

However, if I had a ding on my 993, I probably would go to a professional. They get the ding from behind so you dont muck with the paint. I understand that the pros can get the ding to 98-100% perfection. 90% with the DIY kit is not good enough for the p-car. I have a ding under one of my fender stone guards and plan on using the DIY kit but thats only because its under a stone guard and it would be hard to see the waviness. I repaired approximately 8 dings on 3 vehicles for $25 total. Not bad.

TJ

amfp

TJ,

Thanks very much for your excellent review. I may try this on one of my non-P cars.

I am a little concerned with the "glue". When you are rubbing the glue off, and if you don't have clear coat, does it also rub off some of the paint while removing the glue ? Also, is it possible when you extract the ding, it could extract too much and become an inverted ding.
Thanks again for sharing your experience.

tj90

Mo - I never had a problem with inverted dings. The bonding glue is not that strong. However, they give you the rounded punch in case you end up with that. I did not use this tool.

As far as clear coats - I dont think you will damage the paint if you dont have clear coats. The kit says that its not recommended for non-OEM (body shop) paint I assume b/c the paint does not bond as high. However, I used it on my pickup where a body shop sprayed and it was not a problem.

Removing the glue from the paint can be tough. I used my fingernail to peel off the glue and used the alcohol from the kit to loosen it up. The key is to take your time with the whole process.

Edward

Hi TJ,

Sounds pretty cool to me as I have, umm, a "battle scar" on my trackmeister, so concourse shape is far from the intended mission here but would like to take out that damn dent. Thanks for the report. Could you post where you got it and the cost, if you don't mind? Thanks!

Edward

tj90

Edward - I see you are in socal. Try harborfreight for $25. I also forgot to mention in my original post that I tried this on white vehicles - dont know the results on dark colors. I believe white tends to hide imperfections better....

c993k

I have seen some of the work done by the pros and it's like seeing a miracle!
Chris

Edward

Hey TJ,

Harbor Freight, eh? Well that's kinda local, and the price is certainly right. Cool, thanks a bunch!!!

Edward

mkc4s

I used this product few years ago on a BMW. Few observations: (1) Wax was easily removed, with no damage to paint. (2) It was definitely possible to over pull and invert the dent out. (3) Most of the dent was pulled out quickly, but perfect finish was impossible. At the end the dent area was little uneven, noticeable only by careful inspection.

Overall it is a useful product, but don't expect perfect finish.

briefescape

+1 Same here been using it for some years and some dings will come out 95% but most be ready to expect a 80% to 85% result

Mark in Baltimore

Great write-up, tj! Thanks!!