To repair car dents, many methods require parking in the sun to allow the car's body to heat up.
Dents make your vehicle appear old and worn. If your car has hail damage, has been hit by a rogue shopping cart or has simply backed into something, you can sometimes repair the dents at home without paying a high price at a body shop. There are several do-it-yourself methods you can try to remove dents in your car's body.
Instructions
Dry Ice
1. Park your car in the sun. This will allow the sheet metal on your car to heat up. Make sure that the dents you wish to remove are receiving direct sunlight.
2. Put on a pair of cotton gloves. This is an important step to handling dry ice, as its extremely low temperature could easily cause frostbite. You can also use a thick towel or potholder to hold the ice.
3. Apply a small chunk of dry ice to the dents by placing the ice over them until they pop back into place. The quick cooling of the body of your car will pull the dents out, but it should not harm the paint. If the dents appear directly over a piece of the car's frame, this method may not work.
Dent Popping Tools
4. Purchase a dent-popping tool. These come in many different forms, from adhesive tools to suction-powered tools. Some can be found on television ads and many are sold in automotive supply stores.
5. Park your car in a strategic location to make sure that the body reaches a temperature of somewhere between 65 and 85 degrees Fahrenheit. This will ensure better suction from the dent pulling device.
6. Apply hot glue to the glue pads. Many dent pullers are sold with glue pad supplies which will not leave a sticky residue on your car.
7. Stick the adhesive glue pad to the indentation you wish to remove. Let the glue dry for 3-5 minutes, or until it is tacky to the touch and no longer wet.
8. Place the bridge tool over the adhesive pad tool and screw the handle until you hear a pop. The entire dent popper tool, including the adhesive disc, should pull away from your car, revealing a smooth, dentless surface.
Drilling and Filling
9. Sand the dent area using an electric drill to remove all of the body paint around the dent. If the dent is just too stubborn to remove by pushing with your hands, using dry ice or applying a dent popper, you may have to resort to removing the paint and filling the dent.
10. Apply body filler to the dent. Body filler is used in many body shops, and it may be a handy tool for smoothing out the surface of your car. Let the filler dry until it is hard and smooth it out using sand paper until you are satisfied with the smoothness.
11. Tape around the filled area with masking or painter's tape to prepare for repainting. This process is used to ensure that you do not accidentally get body paint on any unwanted parts, like door handles.
12. Spray or paint a layer of primer onto the affected area to allow the paint to stick. When you are finished, go back over with one or two more coats to ensure coverage. Let the primer dry before moving on.
13. Apply two to three coats of body paint to the filled and primed area. Let the paint dry between coats, and rub with sandpaper between coats to keep the car smooth.
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