I don’t know why I can’t control my passion for PDR? I should say, “no” to a lot of the beyond the “normal” dents. Fortunately though it seemed to pay off. People these days are on a tighter budget and looking to save as much money as possible.
Most people want to only fix their cars if they have to or it’s too obvious to live with. That’s why I believe our trade is raising the bar about paintless dent removal. PDR is now getting into the Paintless “Collision” Removal a.k.a. PCR.
I have a few reasons for doing big dents. Obviously the first reason is the money. But what really drives me to do bigger dents is the self satisfaction. Knowing I can do the big dents and finish… And it pays off.
Our Dent Time website has been in the remodel stages for awhile now. Finally after tons of hours and designing, we finally got it where we feel it will meet it’s potential. Although Dent Time will not be 100% complete when launched this Saturday, it will be quite an improvement from our current one. Why did we change our website? Well, we wanted it to be more user friendly, more organized, and well, just change things up a bit. We hope you visit us this Saturday on the web at http://www.denttime.com
Not Your Average Dent – Advanced Paintless Dent Repair
This video was created for demonstration purposes on just how big of a dent we can remove. Obviously PDR has come a long way. But we must keep in mind, cars that were made 15-20 years ago were like tanks! The gage of the sheet metal was thicker and dents these big were mainly caused from minor car accidents. Not just a slight bump or someone falling against the panel. These days, the sheet metal on a car are super thin and protected by basically a roll cage and impact beams from inside.
Now still, the thinner the sheet metal, that hard to work with. Picture holding a beer can and squishing it half way with your hand. Now see how easy or challenging it would be to un-wrinkle and smooth out the dent. It won’t be easy. Just like the video you see now is not easy.
PDR is an art. It takes time, patience and experience to consistently perform quality repairs at this level. You might even be surprised that even taking out a nickel to quarter size dings take incredible skill as well. Some are deep, some are in bad locations and some are on aluminum panels. For the worse, all of the above can happen. Finishing is the essence. In some cases, it can take 6 months to a year to consistently perform PDR at a professional level. Bigger dents can take longer.
Training is obviously important. The longer the better. Building muscle memory, eye-hand coordination and soaking up the techniques are what builds the learning curvature much quicker. I personally train my students 4 weeks in most cases. For some I break it up in two 2 week sessions. Mainly some can not afford to be away from a current job or can not afford the 4 weeks all together. For more info, please visit our training page
For those who are thinking about using PDR to remove your unwanted dings and dents, you must choose a company with experience. Price obviously can be an issue but in the end, the quality of the repair will matter most. So before you decide to go with a company who might save you $10, $20 or even $30, do your homework and see who’s good. Besides, you only have one factory finish. If you have any questions, give us a call 800.420.3368 or visit us at denttime.com
PDR Line Board – Paintless Dent Repair /Removal Training
PDR Line Board – Paintless Dent Repair /Removal Training
What is a PDR Line Board you ask? Well it is a type of reflection (Striped Lines) used to read the damaged panel. Although it may seem intimidating, it’s actually not once you are properly instructed about how it works.
Common Reflections
We must make a clear statement before we go any further. “There is no such thing as one reflection more superior than the other.” There are several common reflections used such as Fog, Shadow, Pole with stripe, and too many others to name. The truth about reflections is how well can you read your own reflection? How well from the start when you were trained or when you get trained will be the most important.
Straight Means Fixed
When we teach Lines, we explain the use of the board in outside conditions. Why? Because in the real world, you won’t have a nice comfy shop to work in. How many indoor dealerships do you know? But back to the topic. Lines dramatically show signs of curvature but there’s a slight catch 22! You have to develop a trained eye. You can’t just pop a Line board on a vehicle and think you can distinguish what to do.
Line patterns is what helps you as a guide. a line that is pinched, panel is indicating a high spot or going outward. A line that is fat or wide, indicates the panel has a low spot or indentation. Simple to say but hard to practice.
To learn more about PDR Line Board Training, please leave a comment or visit Denttime.com for more information
Advanced Paintless Dent Repair/Removal Training PDR
Although this diagram demonstrates a tactical way to remove a big dent with paintless dent repair, it is highly recommended to get professional one-on-one PDR training to gain the fullest benefits.
This PDR dent was attacked using a glue pulling method and finished off with lots of crown work and precision pushing with steel rods. We would like to stress, there were many steps between the photos to get this dent completely out. A big dent like this requires high experience and patience to get satisfactory results. We will in the future post a video of how much of a monster and challenging paintless dent repair this was.
Knowing how to remove big dents is all about knowing how to finish. If you can’t finish a small pitted ding, you won’t be able to finish a big dent. Big dents have many elements that are involved in a repair such as; crowns, trapped pressure, knocking down, tool selection, where to start and how to finish.
If you have questions about advanced paintless dent removal/repair pdr training, please either visit denttime.com or post a comment and we’ll be glad to give some feed back.
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I don’t know why I can’t control my passion for PDR? I should say, “no” to a lot of the beyond the “normal” dents. Fortunately though it seemed to pay off. People these days are on a tighter budget and looking to save as much money as possible.
