A Short Video
In the video above, I’ll be showing an access point to get to the top section of the door panel. I'm currently working on a Nissan Note for one of our trade accounts. There's a tiny little dent right in the upper section of the door skin. Sometimes you can go down through the skin and bring a tool back up again. This can be a hook bar to get between the inner brace. For the outer skin on this model, it's not possible.
Find the Access Point
So I found an access point on the inside that reaches this dent perfectly. There you can see that small dent on the reflection of my line board. It is quite tricky to gain access to a high spot which is as far as I can get the bar underneath the internal brace. It doesn't come up high enough to reach the dent.
Remove the Weatherstrip
Now I'm going to remove this weatherstrip. You do have to be very careful when you remove these. Quite often there can be a screw around here on the inside door frame. If you are going to remove a weatherstrip do have a good look around. Make sure that there's no screws or clips that need to be removed first. You can see it tucks underneath the door mirror as well. So I'm just going to start by gently prying off the weatherstrip.
Slow & Gentle
Despite being a rubber on the outside it has a metal frame. I think it’s aluminum so you do have to be very careful. If you start trying to lift it from one side or use a bit too much force they are very easy to kink. And despite being a dent man some metal is almost impossible to get back straight again. I gently slide that out from underneath the door mirror. I didn't need to remove the mirror or any other fixings.
It's a case of going slowly and gently pulling out the weatherstrip.Once I put it back it will slide back underneath that door mirror. And then I can clip it back into its place. As we take a look at the inside that strip has been removed. We've got quite a wide gap between the outer skin and the inner door card. Hopefully you can pick it up.
Get That Small Hook Bar In
We've got some overall size holes on the inner brace of the door skin. These holes are perfect for getting a small hook bar in to get behind the damages. This is the hook bar that I'm using today and it is absolutely perfect to get behind this dent. I can slide it down the gap, tilt it and get the tip through the hole and to the back of the dent.So I've got my right hand on the handle being right-handed. That's given me the kind of leverage and pressure to start working out the dents. My left hand is just giving me a bit of accuracy making sure I can fine-tune and move the tip. I need to start removing this dent.
Clean Access
This will show you access points if ever you come across dents on the upper section of door panels. As you can see it's quite clean access to get behind. Really made it easy to remove this dent.
You can learn more about dent removals, the techniques and tools to use.
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