In today's video we're looking at this nasty dent damage on the rear door of the Volkswagen Golf. As you can see it's quite a dent and there's a lot going on with this one. There's a whole lot of tension, we've got crowns, we've got shoulders, we've got a secondary dent, a third dent lower down. Most importantly that kink across the body line you can see it's pinched. So we've got damage above and below the body line so I've definitely got my work cut out for me today.
Let Us Start Taking Out the Damage
So I've started off by marking up the panel. You can see I've got this semi-circle above the dent. That's indicating the primary crown but I've also circled a second and a third. I'm not sure if these were all caused at the same time. However, I'm going to work across the whole panel and just make sure we take out all of the dent damage.
With my line board set up here you can just see how much tension there is. We've got shoulders surrounding that crease dim leading up towards the top of the panel. We've got that nasty crown at the top. So this is where I really need to start releasing some of the tension before I can even think about pushing the lows.
Releasing the Tensions
To start releasing the tension I'm going to use this crow carb tap down. As you can see it's got a little leather tip on it. Just a few gentle taps with a hammer to just start getting some movement in the metal you can probably just pick out the reflection of the panel. Just above the area that I'm working and seeing as it flexes with the impact.
As I start to release the tension, the panel starts to flex more showing me that it's starting to soften up. I'm starting to get some metal movement. Constantly realigning my board so I can see all the high points, the crowns, and the shoulders surrounding this dent clearly.
At this early stage of the repair I'm not looking to remove all of that tension or tap it down perfectly, I just want to soften it up to make it a little bit easier when I get a tool behind to start pushing. I don't want the repair to lock up so it's really important to keep an eye on that tension throughout the repair.
Using the Double Bend Bar
To help me move some of this metal I want to use my double bend bar. It's a lot stronger, a lot more pushing power than some of my door bars. But to do this I've had to remove the rubber weather strip that sits across the top of the door skin. Just opened up the gap wide enough to be able to get my tool in there.
And now that I've softened up some of that metal I can just start doing some gentle pushes and just see what the panel gives me. It's quite a bright day today so I'm just using my standard reflector board as opposed to the Elimadent lens. This really helps highlight some of the highs and lows so at this stage I've now moved my line board to kind of run parallel with the lines.
Tapping Around
So whilst I'm above looking down at my reflection it really helps me see that I'm hitting those center points. A repair like this definitely takes patience and can often look a little bit worse before it looks better. So I'm working relatively quickly at this stage just trying to get the general shape back into the panel. Put the strength back where it is needed.
There will be a whole load of tapping around and some fine tuning as we go through the process. And when you're carrying out repairs like this it's easy to get into a zone but I think it's very important to jump up, take away the line board all together and just have a look at that natural light.
So right now I'm looking at the natural reflection against the trees and we can see the repair is looking a little bit messy. So I'm going to spend a little bit of time clearing up my work and just tapping down some of those high spots I've created during the pushing process. This will carry on for a little while, so I'll just speed it up.
Cleaning Up Process
You can see my movement and how often I'm moving that line board around during that clean up process and then we'll have a look at it again. This time with the line board you can see it's just a little bit cleaner, a little bit clearer to read. And I'm just trying to indicate here where that primary crown was. As you can see, I've removed most of it, but I'm now going to restore the shape of the panel.
You can perhaps just pick up a very slight indication that there is still a bit of tension in that crown area. So as I said at the beginning it's important to keep an eye on the tension throughout the repair. Just make sure that as that metal starts to move. We can release tension when we really know where it is held. This will allow us to push the low spots or the depth of the dent forward.
Repeating the Process
Using my strong double bend bar I'm really able to get a good amount of leverage and really start to push some metal with this repair. It's fairly tough and stretched across that body line so it does take a fair bit of effort still. So repeating that process of pushing and tapping down my high spots I can then have another look at it again with the line board reflector. Just make sure that I'm keeping the repair in the right kind of direction that I want it to be going.
This is all about getting the rough shape out and then getting the panel back to about 80-90 percent. So I can really start to focus on those low spots and the tension around that body line. Now that I've got the majority of the shape back, I can really focus on pushing that line out myself.
Keep Cross-Checking
It's so important when you've got a defined line like these ones, to really get that line to read nice and crisp. Any kind of distortion there and it's really going to let down the repair once the customer comes out to check your work. So I like to kind of work the damage towards that body line but making sure that I can really keep that body line nice and crisp once it comes to the end of the repair process.
And now with my line board back at this position, running parallel or horizontal with the door panel, we can just pick up some of that original primary crown. So as I say it's so important throughout the repair process to keep an eye and keep cross-checking your work.
As you start moving the metal around you can see here as the whole skin starts to move. Even though I'm working, that lower dent, by the time I come back up to the top section of the skin, some of the tension may have moved around. This is why it's so important to keep cross-checking your work throughout the repair process. Then once I've taken out this dent below the primary damage I'm just going to take out this tiny little dent above the body line.
I’m probably about halfway through my main kind of repair across the body line, but I always think it's nice to jump up, reset your eyes, reset your body position. And also if you're just starting off this is a great way to build your confidence during a complex repair. If you can just take out a tiny little ding, take it out nice, clean and quick. It really builds up your confidence and your momentum.
Pushing to Perfection
So you can come back to the main repair refocused to really start pushing for perfection and then stop to assess the overall panel. So far we've got that customer view without the line board, any kind of reflector or lens. Just having a look at the overall shape and design of that panel you can see we've still got a fair amount of distortion both above and below that body line.
I'm switching to a slightly sharper tip now on the end of my double bend bar. It's by no means sharp but it's a plastic bullet tip. This allows me to get a little bit more accuracy when picking up some of the lows. I'm currently working about an inch or two above the body line and I'm connecting those low spots. It’s like joining the dots if you like.
But I'm going to speed up this next part of the process and you can see the overall movement. Primarily I am working down towards that body line, picking out those lows kind of joining up the dots. I'm focusing on that center point, that main crease line running vertically down. As I get down towards the body line I really kind of try to tighten up the skin around that body line itself.
And then bring them back to a normal speed we can see with the line board set up like this. I'm really starting to get all of those lines to reach through again. So I'm just working on that kind of micro distortion that remains throughout the panel. This is where the real kind of finesse work comes in the real patience.
In any kind of repair it's all about the finishing so you can move a lot of metal relatively quickly but what really takes the time and the skill is to be able to finish repair to a high standard. I've edited this video down to be able to release it here on YouTube.
The Takeaway!
The full repair tutorial is available for our members within our Learn PDR Online community. So including this video we now have 125 free videos for you here on our YouTube channel. I really hope you're able to learn some of the fundamental skills in how to remove dents like this with Paintless Dent Removal tools and techniques.
If you are looking to take it up a level and actually learn how to create, run and grow your very own paintless dent removal business do come over and check us out at learnpdronline.com as we do have hundreds of videos that have never been released on YouTube.
We also have the PDR Path, a step-by-step approach into the order. We start from the very basic skills, the fundamentals and then gradually move through step by step to start taking on medium and more complex repairs. We talk about tools and the kind of progression. How to start and set up your very own PDR business.
At Learn PDR Online forum we have members from over 20 countries now. We really help our members to grow and learn at a different pace. We also got different kinds of aspects and aspirations as to what it is we're trying to achieve.
So if you're interested in taking it up to the next level, learn a little bit more about how to get into the industry, the tools and techniques that you really need and how to build your very own business!