When you’ve spent a lot of money purchasing, insuring and maintaining a car, what you don’t want or need is a dent marring the look of that car. No matter what the cause--a careless driver, a shopping cart or hail--dents are frustrating and can be expensive to repair, not to mention that they reduce the car’s resale value. Fortunately, there are ways to repair that dent or ding yourself, but if that’s too overwhelming a task, there are also professional services available.
Purchase a dent repair kit from any local auto parts store. Most kits cost around $20 to $30 and have everything you need for the task, but for the easiest and least-invasive repair, look for kits that don’t require you to drill any holes. These kits work by hot-gluing a suction cup onto the dent and then pulling the dent out with a special tool, but you’ll need to be careful with the hot glue and avoid pulling the metal out too far or you could make the damage worse. If you decide to go with a kit that does require drilling, you’ll need to drill a hole into the center of the dent with a 1/2-inch drill bit, then use the dent-pulling tool in the kit to thread the hole and pull on the dent to flatten it out. Kits tend to work best on dents about 4 inches across, with dents less than an inch in diameter the hardest to repair.
If you’re comfortable and have experience working with cars, try repairing the dent without a kit. Place a block of wood across the dent on the outside of the car, then use a ball-peen hammer to carefully pound out the dent from the inside. You can also drill a small 1/8-inch hole in the center of the dent and screw a self-tapping screw into the hole, making sure you leave part of the screw out of the front of the dent. Next, grab the screw with a claw hammer or a pair of self-locking grips and gently pull the dent out. Once the dent is fixed, you’ll need to sand the dented area with a medium-grit sanding disk to remove paint from the dented area. Apply some filler to the small drill hole and allow it to harden, then take a rasp and a sanding block to reshape the surface. Once the filler is dry, it’s time to repaint, using an aerosol primer followed by automotive paint that matches the color of your finish.
If you don’t have the time or patience to fix the dent yourself, look in the yellow pages or ask your local mechanic, body shop or car dealer for paintless dent repair, sometimes franchised under names such as Dent Doctor (DentDoctorUSA.com) or DentPro (Dentpro.com). Their technicians have special tools to massage out small dents from the inside. The average cost for repair will range from approximately $50 to $150 per dent.
