[plplplpl]

While I was fast asleep last night, a long-since retired toddler's bouncy horse spring-mounted on a metal frame freed itself from its hitch (storage hooks up on the inside wall of the garage near where my new-to-me Pilot was parked) and dinged the passenger's side rear quadrant.

It's not a huge dent or gash, but neither is it a little ding of the low-impact shopping cart variety.

Any suggestions as to how best to buff this out? Sorry about the crappy tablet pics.


Bad horsey. :headshak:

 

[DMG]

Make the horse pay for it!

1- Since the scratch goes so deep, it will have to go to the body shop.
2- Find a "dent wizard" or mobile paintless repair shop.
3- Get in on the other side of the car so you don't see it every time you get in it.

 

[larryziegler]

This is a Comprehensive claim under the auto policy, should you choose to turn it in (falling object). Where I live, the damage would have a cost with 4 digits in it to repair properly by a body shop professional.

 

[MavePilot]

I would start with a little rubbing compound to get the scuffs off the paint. They don't look like scratches to me. Also, contact any dealership and get their PDR (Paintless Dent Repair) company contact info. They should be able to get that out for very little money.

 

[Rocky]

That's to deep and down to the primer. Sorry but respray of the panel is needed.

 

[noware]

Aw that's gonna hurt. PDR would be the best option in repairing that damage.

 

[Brolan]

BTW, shoot the horse

 

[plplplpl]

I don't want to beat a dead horse

, but here's an update. After contemplating with a sinking heart the four-digit cost of body work and the drudgery of an insurance claim, I decided to take the advice of those who suggested looking into Paintless Dent Repair (PDR), a concept I had hitherto been only vaguely familiar with. Thanks to all who chimed in.

The place I ended up going to yesterday is Carrossier Express. For anyone in the greater Montreal area who might be interested, they're in Laval on Des Laurentides Blvd., just south of St-Martin.

The guys there are veritable artistes. They have banners and pennants hanging from the rafters showing the years they've won the International Dent Olympics in places like Clearwater, FL and Corpus Christi, TX. I didn't even know that was a thing. Short story short, 40 minutes and 100 Canadian pesos later, I was out of there with a job so beautifully executed, to paraphrase Michelangelo, they saw an undented fender beneath the ding and they carved until they set it free.

Ding, dong,
the ding is gone!

 

[mudbog]

Wow -that looks real good.

 

[sblvro]

Looks good!


Sent from AutoGuide.com Free App

 

[cofetym]

WoW!!!

 

[plplplpl]

Thanks. Meanwhile, the horsey's been sequestered to an isolated corner of the stable.


He knows what he's done.

 

[MavePilot]

Success!! Those PDR folks are too legit to quit.

 

[StephenPT]

So what was the verdict on the paint damage? From the looks of your first pictures it was down to the primer but was it actually? How did they get the paint back to a flawless condition?

 

[plplplpl]

Except for the uppermost right dent (the biggest one), the other parts didn't seem like they were quite down to the primer, and the guy was able to heat them gently and massage surrounding paint into the scratches and then buff everything even, and for that biggest section, after he worked the metal from the inside and the outside for a good twenty minutes and once again heat-massaged and buffed the surrounding paint, all that remained was a pinprick hole of missing paint, which with a fine-haired paintbrush he meticulously dabbed into oblivion with a dot of touch-up paint, employing a technique Seurat himself would be proud of.

If you zoom in as much as you can on the last "after" picture I posted above, the ding was where the blue sky reflects just above the left half of the building. You'd be hard pressed to find any remnants of the original damage.

 

[Iamhere]

That's amazing work.

 

[Go Steelers]

My wife's Highlander got atacked by shopping carts during a recent wind storm. She had two sizable dents in the door, but the paint wasn't gouged. $125 and 45 minutes later, and there is absolutely NO trace of the dings. Body shop wanted $700 to repair and paint the door. If anyone in the Columbus Ohio area needs PDR work, let me know and I can give you the guys name.....excellent work. Just wish I would have taken a "before" picture to show what a great job he did.