Using A Different PDR Technique
In the video above we've got a small dent on the rear wing panel of a mini Cooper. I want to show you a slightly different technique. I'm going to use a hook bar to remove this dent from the inside. I’m using a pulling technique opposed to the usual twisting. A little bit of twisting will be on the finishing stages which I call a ‘Swipe Technique’.
As we take a look on the line board you can see the size of the dent. It’s relatively small. A little bit deep but it's not stretching the metal. Usually I would set up my glue gun, assuming that I will pull this dent. But there is actually access on the inside as you'll see here. So it's always worth pulling back the wheel arch liners on the inside on the front and rear arches.
Check on The Access
Just checking what access we have. You can probably make out this rubber bung in here. I'm just going to pop that out of the way. You see they're just little rubber caps that go into the hole. This one is actually just in the perfect place to reach this dent. I can get my finger just inside the hole and touch the outer panel.
You can see me just moving the lines with my finger on the inside. Because we're working indoors the light has kicked in on the camera. I don't know if that helps or makes it worse from a video point of view. It's certainly blinding me but the dent we can see is just here. You can see from the inside I was able to get the wheel outline out of the way. Remove that small rubber grommet or that bung in there. I'm able to get right behind it and I can touch the back of the panel and also the back of the dents
Glue Pulling Technique
I have my glue gun set up ready for a glue pull. I was going to use the smallest tabs I have from either Blackplague PDR or the Black Ice ones, the small little blue ones. I’ll also use the robo lifter. It's always worth getting behind and checking on rear wheel arch panels as they're not accessible from the inside. As it happens there's a hole in the right place for the dents.
Now it's just about tool selection, which tool is going to give me the reach versus which tool will give me the right leverage. My go-to choice first was my standard door bar. A little hockey stick bar from BLE. I can get it in and through the hole but it gets me at this angle. A little bit hard to see possibly. But I'm almost just above the dents so what I'm looking to do is switch to my hook bar. The difference obviously is it's more of a hook. But by using this bar I'm able to still get up into that hole but then I can push that tip down a little bit. Really get right into the edge of this wheel arch panel.
Let’s get The Center of the Dent
I'm going to warm up the panel, get this tool behind and get the center of the dent. Although it's a different panel it's a similar dent to the one that was on the earlier video. So I'm hoping to get behind it with a tool and just gently start working out the center of the dent. It's quite not stretched but it's quite a sharp dent or it's deep. Warming up, protecting the paints makes it a bit easier to move. Gently getting the tool and starting to ease out a little bit.
I'm gonna get my tool and hook it there and use a bit of a pulling motion so that I can pull the bar back on itself. No doubt there will be a bit of twisting but due to my access I'm trying to get in there, pull the bar backwards a little bit. Still effectively pushing the dents out from the inside but just getting the reach and best leverage.
Using The Right Tooltip
Right now I've got the tool tip here and my dent is here. My tool tip is here, using my left hand I can get behind the hook section of the bar. Just a bit more stability and more leverage and force to put some pressure on it but still be stable with the bar. My right hand is on the handle and I'm effectively pulling that back towards me as opposed to twisting.
Because of that hook bar that we're using, you can see the range of motion the tool tip is touching the panel on the inside right now. I'm really able to move the bar around a lot, left and right, up and down. Kind of get it into the right position to give me the best kind of reach and best access there.
The Takeaway
So warm up the panel, move the camera around and we'll take out this thing. What I really wanted to illustrate in this video was the use of a hook bar for getting to those wheel arch dents. There happened to be a hole in the perfect place to give me access. Understanding what tool to use will give me the reach and leverage.
The full tutorial for this particular repair is available via our monthly membership at learnpdronline.com. Take the step-by-step online course in Paintless Dent Removal from basic to the advanced levels. Learn to remove small dings and dents using the latest techniques and tools.