The Right Tool Can Be a Blessing
Side-impact bars can often be a pain if they're in the way of the dent you're trying to work, but using them with the right PDR tool,they can also be a blessing. So let's zoom in so we can take a closer look at this impact bar. It runs across the width of the door and it's bonded and tucks right into the inner edge of the door frame. Moving across to the other side middle of the door and then across the other side, you can see where it tucks into that door frame.
Getting Against the Glue
If you've been trying to get your standard door bar inside one of these hockey stick bars you're coming across, get the tip of the tool down to where you need to go. So what we can do is switch to a glue cutting tool. You can see we're trying to press it into the glue and trying to cut into it enough to allow us to get a tool. An alternative glue cutting tool is this serrated edge one and with a similar principle getting behind. You can just use serrated edges to cut through the glue.
Switching to Another Tool
Now, we switch to a flag type tool and that may just give you better access than the traditional kind of hockey stick bars just to be able to get in there. And then using the impact bar for leverage you can also just flip around the tool to come in at a different angle. You can just get straight in there and then you're able to use that same left and right motion using the impact bar as you're at a leverage point. So side impact bars can be a bit of a pain depending on where they are and where the dent is but a lot of times you can use much to your advantage as well in terms of being able to gain some leverage.
Working on the Internal Door Panel
I have drawn an outline of an internal door panel with the cover off. You usually have a side-impact bar that runs through the middle. Quite often you'll have a bead of sealer that kind of runs through the middle consistently. It is a case of having to kind of get in and cut through the glue to be able to give you access to dents behind there.Other times you can see that the bars can just have a decent set area. It could just be a case that there's like four or five separate little blobs of adhesive that's holding that impact back to the skin. You may not be able to come down directly in there without cutting through the glue. Using a hook bar or flag tool you will be able to put attention to Eva coming off a hook underneath or a flag tool that's able to get you at a slight angle like that. It’s definitely worth it if you're commenting up against glue in an impact bar. Just switch around a couple of different tools and just double check if you can get access in kind of either side of the adhesive on the bottom. If not you can apply a bit of heat if it's a bit stubborn and you'll find it softens up enough. You can get your glue cutting tool in but also with those impact bars you will be able to create a certain amount of leverage when you can get in.
Let Us Look at an Example
The impact bar running through you will be able to get in at least enough to drop that corner of the tool down and be able to use the bar itself as leverage. So from that side it would look a bit like you're able just to kind of leave it off the bar and start working out your dents equally. Depending where your dents come in that angle you are able to get in there and then again just leave off that kind of edge of the bar.
Final Thought
In PDR work it is a blessing to have a leverage point right next to the dent. Not really a bad thing having the impact bars in the way of the damage. By identifying the impact bars, the adhesives behind and the techniques, it sure offers an advantage in terms of getting leverage.
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