The Bare Essentials to Start Learning PDR
There are a whole load of different tools you can pick up as you develop your PDR skills but in my opinion there are just a few that are essential to start learning. The rest you can pick up as you progress, develop and start turning it into a career.
First Tool, a 26" PDR Rod with Interchangeable Tip (approx. £60.00). To start removing dents this is the one that I use quite a lot and because it's a screw tip you'll generally pick it up a whole load of different tip options on there so obviously you need to get a tip to start removing dents. Not particularly expensive to get but a versatile tool because you can turn this one tool into four or five or six different tools with the different tips. This kind of shape got a slight bend in it which is good for leverage to take some of the pressure off your arms. The variety of interchangeable Tips is approx £30.00. You can put on there the dent craft with the little red cherry cap. This is brilliant for taking out kind of monomode and really starting to learn dent removal as are some of these bigger kinds of softer tips.
Second Tool, some kind of hanger, ‘S' Hook and a O-Ring (approx. £7.00). We can hook on the inside of the panel working on our basic skills course. We have a set-up on a bonnet panel on a stand. Bonnets have lots of little holes inside the braces and you can just put a little ‘S’ hook and a ring. What you're doing is that the last bar goes straight through tol give you your leverage point to start lifting the dents. You can find these in any PDR tool place and DIY hardware stores. To be a little bit smarter you can get this hanger (optional) which is approx. £20.00. Same principle you got a hook and you got a ring and then you are putting your PDR tool bar through there. Hooking that onto whatever kind of points you can work inside the panel.
Third and Fourth Tools, multi-head 4 in 1 hammer (approx. £14.00) and a Tap Down (approx. £8.00). These tools go in part and part together. Now this is the root beer sort of knock down and tap down. A brilliant tool but there's loads of different metal nylon plastic kind of different lock downs. At least start practicing and again as you develop you'll get to use or get the feel of different weight hammers and also just different purposes of the different knockdowns.
Fifth Tool, a line board and mount (approx. £95.00) This is some kind of reading device. This one's got quite narrow lines and it's just a real simple little suction cup to get you onto your panel and then being held to have the line board. We've got videos here on how to read the line board. How to find the tip of your tool and you can of course get fog boards there's a whole again as a preference really between what you understand better. Fog or lines and the type of work that you're looking to repair as a PDA technician. As I am a line board man, I use lines. It's just what I've learned and what I got used to and I really get on well but there's not a right or wrong between lines and fogs. It's just whichever is your preference . You can get LED boards sort of light boards for these as well which are brilliant working in kind of closed environments.So some kind of reading device you will need is a real simple line board with a little vacuum cup on there.Sixth Tool, some forms of training like watching free videos online. But sometimes you can't just quite get what it is you're doing wrong. Some advice can really help you excel and basically stop you making the mistakes that were made before. So always good to learn from somebody if you're interested in doing the online training that we have. For this you can visit learnpdronline.com
Wrapping up
Here is the summary of essential PDR tools mentioned:
26' PDR Rod with interchangeable tip Approx. £60.00
Interchangeable Tips (variety) Approx. £19.00
S-hook and O-ring Approx. £7.00
Tap Down Approx. £8.00
Multi Bead 4 in 1 hammer Approx. £14.00
Line board and mount Approx. £95.00
Learn PDR Online £297.00
Total Amount £500.00
To learn more about PDR skills we have a lot of different videos, advice and tutorials. Currently we have a monthly membership for just £35.00 a month. You can sign up to learnpdronline.com that gives you access to the basic skills course. The glue pulling course and a whole load of different pair videos. Most importantly you can access the online community where we have a forum to discuss different kinds of tips,tools and techniques.
So this is the basic rundown of the bare essentials you need to start learning Paintless Dent Removal!
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