DIY dent removal
 

Anyone had the misfortune, sorry, patience to give it a go? I tried for the first time with a hot glue gun based kit. I knew it would be tricky, the body being aluminium and the dent (that’s been annoying me since I bought the car) being near the crease.

Anyway, 2 hours of my life kissed goodbye to and I’ve improved the dent, but it’s still there.

Does anyone have any tips? I haven’t used my pull hammer, having read it doesn’t work so well with aluminium.

Here’s some before, during and after shots.

One day I noticed slight imperfection on the book lid when in IKEA and imagined someone must have put something there while they opened their boot I was very angry. Then a year later, I changed the rear lights and saw the same place on the inside of the boot lid was extremely scratched in circles so that must have been someone removing a dent and I just never noticed the slight imperfection on the outside before.

I have only removed small dings by repeatedly going round and round in a spiral from the outside in and it just gets smaller and smaller. The tool was like a pointed wax crayon but made of hard nylon.

I had a go at removing one or two small dents myself once with a similar tool. I don't think it's possible with aluminium because, unlike steel, it tends to stretch. So you can't just 'pop it back'.

You need to find a dent removal specialist, in particular one who is skilled and confident in removing dents from aluminium. When I phoned around I found that most either wouldn't touch aluminium or would "have a go". Eventually I found one guy who specialised in aluminium dent removal. He worked behind the panels and managed to completely remove a couple small dents I had. I think he only charged something like £50-£100 per dent.

I agree with Mark's comments - Aluminium is harder to treat for dents than steel, and needs a specialist, so I wouldn't try DIY on my aluminium-bodied cars.

(PS to Mark - could you (re-) text me the number of your dents guy, i've lost his details!)

Thanks all. Pretty much what I thought. Was worth a go, may have a go with the kit on the wife’s Honda. That would likely keep me busy for life.

I was struggling to to remember his details to be honest ... been a few years. Fortunately I posted about it at the time:
http://forum.a8parts.co.uk/showthread.php?t=10361

He's called Brian. I must say though that, while he does do a brilliant job, he wasn't the most reliable (in my brief experience). Be prepared that he may turn up very late or not at all. After he removed the worst dents from my car, I did try to get him back to remove a few tiny dents but gave up in the end because he's so difficult to pin down. I might try again some time.