Hood dent question...

[TheRide]

I have a dent/pressed in right where the kidney grill is located. It seems as if the hood at that location is double layered. My question is, would the hood needs to be replaced or can that area be resolve by doing paint-less dent removal?

[SW530]

I have a dent/pressed in right where the kidney grill is located. It seems as if the hood at that location is double layered. My question is, would the hood needs to be replaced or can that area be resolve by doing paint-less dent removal?

I don't have enough experience to know for sure, but I recently bought a PDR kit for exactly that reason.

[JimLev]

PDR needs to push on the sheet metal that is dented.
How bad is the dent?
Post a pic.

[CPHES]

You need to find a good PDR guy. If you don’t have PDR experience, don’t learn here. Look on Instagram for guys that do it. Some results are amazing.

[SW530]

The kit I got has plastic bits you hot glue to the contour of the dent, then connect them to a geared puller, and then gently pull the dent out. Once the dent is pulled you use a solution to release the pieces you glued. It's also got the traditional PDR tools I hope to learn to use on some hail damage. This is all for that terrible kid who kicked his moms van door open on the wife's car.

[TheRide]

I wasn't going to do it myself as I would like it be done perfect and I do not have that experience. But' I was looking at how the hood is designed in that area and its weird compared to my other cars.

.....side question. Why is it so easy for that area...right around the grill... to be dented so easily. I have TWO 530I and both has a dent in that location.

[JimLev]

SW, got a link for that hot glue dent puller? Our Highlander has a few that I’d like to remove.

[KeysCoupe]

I wasn't going to do it myself as I would like it be done perfect and I do not have that experience. But' I was looking at how the hood is designed in that area and its weird compared to my other cars.

.....side question. Why is it so easy for that area...right around the grill... to be dented so easily. I have TWO 530I and both has a dent in that location.

The BMW E39s are not unique to this same damage around the kidney grills. The Z3 seems to be even more vunerable to the push-in damage, and yes, they are the same double-wall construction that makes them difficult to pull back out.
-Donny

[SW530]

SW, got a link for that hot glue dent puller? Our Highlander has a few that I’d like to remove.

This is the one I ordered and received. There are a bunch of different kits and I ended up with this one, and being Amazon if I don't like it for whatever reason I'll just return it. I plan on giving it a try next week.

[JimLev]

Thanks for the link, let me know how is works for you.

[SW530]

Thanks for the link, let me know how is works for you.

Will do. I already has the more traditional PDR tools so this completes the newer tech stuff. I hope. I played this afternoon on the old crumpled Suby fender and it was pulling the defects out. Not where I'd want to use it, but enough where I can see how it works and can see it being useful for what I need.

[JimLev]

Some of the reviews said the glue didn’t hold. You can’t always believe what some of the brain dead reviewers say.
How did the glue hold for you?

[SW530]

Some of the reviews said the glue didn’t hold. You can’t always believe what some of the brain dead reviewers say.
How did the glue hold for you?

You have to clean the paint and the more towards the soft spot of the dent works fine. If you're getting near the hard edge it requires much more force and will detach.. bottom line is it's appropriate for some dents and not others. This kit imo is for moderate size dents and I like the smaller bits that should work for hail damage. If you have bigger dents something like this might work better as you can get more surface area glued.. I can see adding different tools/kits to the collection as you encounter different size and type dents. I look at it that if you can repair any dent for a $100 kit that's money well spent. So if you need to buy a separate kit for each type of dent you're still making out over paying someone to do it. Eventually you'll get 2-3-5 kits with different type tools and you'll have 95% covered. Not sure if that makes sense. But I get the feeling some of the people buying these kits expect them to do everything on all types of dents and imo that's not realistic. The kit I originally linked is for for smaller work and the selection of bits allows you to be more selective.

[sienayr]

I am by far no expert but here's what I know from my experience, which is amounts to several hours/a few dents. Pulling the dents with the hot glue gun and tabs is the "easy" part. It's the follow-up tap-down that is much more difficult and is where the real art of the process comes in. Many times when you pull the dent it will end up slight elevated (the pros purposely pull out above level many times), then you have to use tap-down tools (and ideally a special lined light) to tap down the high spot that gets pulled up from the glue gun until there is no longer any distortion in the light reflection.

As far as glue not sticking, timing and temperature are crucial. If the glue isn't sticking it may be because it's been left on too long before pulling (too short and it will still be gooey), or the temperature of the metal is too hot or cold for the glue curing time being used. There are all types of glues and some are better than others, which is why I went with an Eastwood kit rather than an Amazon kit as I felt it would have higher quality tools and glue. The shape of the tab that you choose for the particular dent also impacts grip. Ambient temperature and by extension metal temperature always being a variable, it always takes a little trial and error to figure out how long to leave the tabs glued before starting to pull, even if you're using the same glue as last time. You wouldn't want to try to start pulling dents out of your hood right after you pull the car in the garage.

I ordered this kit from Eastwood and have had modest success. Mostly I can make a dent less bad, it's very hard to pull one out perfectly level, and even harder to tap down the high spots when the metal is pulled above level:
https://www.eastwood.com/eastwood-paintless-dent-removal-kit.html



If you want to go down the rabbit hole, this guy has very good videos:
https://www.youtube.com/@LearnPDROnline

[SW530]

Good information, thank you. I considered the Eastwood kit for the same reason thinking they would be a better class of tools. I was talkign to one of their sales reps and when I asked him directly he told me it was hard to tell the difference of the tools themselves. You can buy their glue separate.. so I went with Amazon because it had a lot more bit choices.. time will tell about that choice.

Thanks again.. there's a lot to learn about this subject for sure.

[CarbonCleaner]

Still have my dent adjecent to the roundel on the hood. Used the hot glue and various pull tips to work it out. Got some of the dent pulled out but far from finished. One would need to to get access by removing the spring that's mounted under the hood and insert a PDR rod to work the metal. The good rods and tips aren't cheap but if your determined to get it done Amazon has some cheaper Chinese versions that might get it done. Once other work is done that's priority then I'll pay the local PDR guy to come out and tighten it up.

[SW530]

Still have my dent adjecent to the roundel on the hood. Used the hot glue and various pull tips to work it out. Got some of the dent pulled out but far from finished. One would need to to get access by removing the spring that's mounted under the hood and insert a PDR rod to work the metal. The good rods and tips aren't cheap but if your determined to get it done Amazon has some cheaper Chinese versions that might get it done. Once other work is done that's priority then I'll pay the local PDR guy to come out and tighten it up.

Any chance you have any before/after pics you can share?