Greetings everyone! This is my first post and hope one of you experts can help me out

I took my car through a drive through car wash, which isn't usually my style (I usually wash by hand), and low and behold, when I got home I noticed I had a dent on my hood. The dent is right above the drivers side headlight, and is smack dab on the corner edge of the hood (see attached pics). I don't know if a PDR Technician will be able to remove the dent since it is not very accessible from under the hood. Do you guys know if the dent can be repaired? Luckily the paint is fine, but it is definitely an eye sore:-( I'm trying to avoid having to have it sanded/filled/and repainted.

Thanks all for your help!

 

I'm no expert, but if I'd have to guess I'd say it should be able to be fixed. I was in a similar boat when a lifted truck door dinged my right rear quarter panel and I wasn't sure it they could get to it but somehow they did.

 

Some of these guys are miracle workers. Find a reputable one in your area and give him a try. I would say YES, it can be fixed.

 

It's right on a body line crease so it'll be a little tough, but as long as the paint isn't broken and they can access it from underneath, a good PDR tech should be able to do it.

 

Thanks all for the advice. Ok, so I took my car to the Dent Genie (In Livonia Michigan). At first they said it couldn't be repaired, but after some persuading, I convinced them they could do the job. They ended up drilling a small hole on the underside of the hood to get to the dent, and then worked their magic! I think they did a great job considering it was in such a tough spot. I've attached some more photos of the hood after the PDR Tech went to work on it. It's not perfect, but is darn close.

 

It looks a lot better than where you started out from.

 

May I ask what they charged you? I had a tough one once but they made it perfect. It was $200 and money well spent.

 

They charged me $150. It's not perfect, you can see some "freckles" in the paint from the tools they used to pop the dent out. But it's not that noticeable.

 

That's not bad at all considering they did really well pulling that dent out from such a difficult angle.


I'm really surprised though that you didn't hear that sort of bang while going through the wash. I know carwashes can be loud. But, with a dent like that, you surely would have heard and possibly felt some sort of jolt while going through. Too bad you didn't notice it at that point in time of when impact was made. could have given you a fighting chance to complain to where you got the wash done.

 

Ditto....looks good.

The basic concept behind body repairs is to disturb as little as possible what the factory has done. Sometimes that means replacing a welded body panel or structural member while preserving as much as possible the adjacent areas. In your case you chose the least invasive repair. You don't want to mess with primer and paint if there are other options.

 

Looks good, I will have to keep that place in mind. My son has a couple of spots where rocks hit his ST hood.

 

Just another reason to never take the car through an automatic wash. I can only imagine the swirls it put on a black car too. Don't do that ever again!!

 

You can eliminate those freckles by a very fine wet sand. That's what my pdr guy did. Trust me I was on pins and needles. However, once it was done and he used the compounds and wax, it looked amazing.

My dent man is an artist. Too bad you're not in Indiana.

 

You should PM me his info in case if I ever need it!

 

For sure!
Doing it now.

 

Thanks Getportfolio, yeah I'm happy with how it turned out. I'm sometimes in Indiana, so I may just have to get that guys info from you! I'll check some local shops here as well, and see what they can do to get rid of the freckles.

 

So what caused your dent? How does an automatic car wash cause that dent when all it's shooting at your car is pressured soap and water? Did something physical hit it? Did you hit something like the wash door coming in? I just don't see it being caused by the wash soap and water.

A fully automatic touchless wash should not cause any swirls. An automatic wash with those brushes and bristles will...just avoid those. I have no choice but to go through automatic touchless washes or manual touchless washes during winters here. They don't cause swirls.

 

They have auto car washes with brushes and all that.

 

yes they do. Now THOSE cause swirls. The ones with the spinning twirly big duster looking things. For sure.

I'm talking the ones that just shoot soap and water then air dry. Those are a god send in winters. Safe.

 

Yeah I meant automatic washes with brushes, not the touchless washes. I use a touchless wash near me that does a pretty good job, but I mostly only use it for the 70 second air dryers at the end so I don't have to towel dry the entire car. Still need to get me a cordless leaf blower
And to be safe, I use the manual bays first and spray the car down at an angle with light pressure at a distance and spot clean bugs and tar before going through the auto bay. That #ApartmentDweller life...no driveway, no outdoor faucet