Hey,

Somehow, some way, I got a small dent in my Mini. It's really about the size of a quarter, but from my eyes it looks to be about the size of a baseball.

I was wondering if there were any Mini lovers out there who may have tried this... http://www.pops-a-dent.net/instructions.html

...and if so, what were your results.

Thanks for any info!

 

I wouldn't do it. It may pull your dent but it can't be good for your paint. Take your car to a paintless dent repair shop. I had a small dent and they massaged it out from the inside for $75.

 

I don't remember all the story, but a friend of mine bought one of these to use on his Lincoln. He wasn't too impressed with the results, but I don't remember the specific things that he didn't like. I'll try to get in touch with him and find out the particulars.

 

Or, hold off on the repair, and after a few weeks, realize that the dent won't bother you as much anymore. This is just my opinion but I used to be so bent at making sure that my car is dentless only to realize that all this worry adds to the anxiety. Don't get me wrong, I still avoid dents as much as I could...i.e. park far, at the rightmost spot, in safe areas. But you'll be surprised how after awhile that dent you are so bothered about won't be as sore after a few weeks of living with it . Dents are a fact of life and I think there are more important things out there to worry about....just my humble opinion...of course all this is relative.

 

Utter garbage. Don't even waste your time with that type of products. Have a professionally trained PDR (Painteless Dent Repair) technician take a look at it and see if the dent can be "massaged" back out with proper tools and techniques.

Here is a start for you:

www.dentwizard.com

They'll come out to your home or office and fix any dents in your car in 30 minutes or less.

The problem with most of these Do-it-yourself dent repair products is that if you EVER manage to pull the dent out, you run the risk of over stretching the sheetmetal increasing the damage area or creating what is called a "high spot", both of which can RUIN the look and value of the car.

Don't be cheap with your car. If you care about it, repair those dents the right way. Call a PDR technician and let them deal with it.

 

I had a dent and didn't even know it was there until someone else, standing at an angle to the car said they saw a dent. I just about jumped out of my sneakers to get a look at it. Sure enough, it was there, but only visible if seen from a side angle. Looked like some inconsiderate SOB slammed me with their car door. ...that's why I try to park a little further away from the mob in a lot. It didn't bother me all that much though because to really see it straight on, you had to squint your eyes and hold your tongue at a funny angle. Yeah, and when people see you doing that, they don't pay any attention to the dent in the car . Mick

 

By the way, what is the exact location of the dent?

 

A few years ago I bought a Pops-A-Dent kit at Wal-Mart. Tried it, it didn't work and I returned it to Wal-Mart for a refund.

 

PDR technicians spend months/years perfecting the art of getting dents out of car's sheetmetal. Why in the world would anyone think that fixing a dent is as easy as sticking a rubber plunger and sucking it out?

It simply ain't that way. If you have had the chance to see a PDR tech doing his work, the most difficult part of massaging out a dent is to maintain and restore the original symmetry of the affected area in respect to the surrounding sheetmetal. This is why "plungers" will never work, and ditto for Dry Ice, another wives tale repair technique that goes around in internet car forums.

Let folks with rusted out 1981 Chevy Citations do the "plunger" thingy on their rust buckets. For the rest of us, PDR is the way to go.

 

When I had my MINI in the USA within the 1st week of ownership I got a door ding on my front fender below the side marker. I used Dent Doctor.

 

Paintless dent removal is actually a very old technique. It was first developed in Germany (1950's) in Mercedes Benz plants as a quicker and more cost effective solution to quickly repair the damaged sheetmetal of new cars while at the assembly line, final quality control inspections or during shipment.

PDR sort of "lost" popularity in the 1960's and 1970's because most cars of the era had very thick gauge and heavy sheetmetal parts, thus making PDR a very difficult dent repair method. As the sheetmetal in cars in the 1980's, 1990's and today became thinner, lightweight and "softer", PDR once again became a popular dent repair method, made basically available to anyone outside of car assembly plants.

 

It's high on the drivers side right behind the door where the body starts to curve back in.
I have a feeling that it was done when I took it back in to the dealer to have the top adjusted for leaking above the window (there was a recall that I didn't know about) but I have no proof and I didn't see it when I left the dealership.

I'm EXTREMELY careful with JIMI (kinda **** about it) with regards to where I park which is always in the back of the lot about 1/4 mile away and have no dings yet(knock on wood).

I've also noticed, since the dealer washed it, several new scratches that I KNOW were not there before and were not caused by me. These are not scratches that would have been caused in a parking lot (ie. around the S emblem on the side)I know they are always in a hurry there and are not going to be as careful as I would. What are ya gonna do?

 

When I take either of my MINIs to service, I always ask my service advisor to put down a note in the service ticket not to wash the car.

As for the location of the dent, as long as it is not at the edge of the door, any well trained PDR technician should be able to take it out to perfection. Like I said, call the nearest PDR company and have them take a look at the dent. In less than 25 minutes, it should be good as new.

 

Thanks for all the responses.

I guess I'll take advice and not get this thing. I'll talk to Dent Wizard and get a couple other quotes.

And thanks for the "in depth" explanations, C4!

 

Anytime!

 

Ok, I'll speak from the other side here. A couple of years ago a friend of mine bought one of those kits at Linens and Things on their clearance table for about $10.00. Her husband had a fit (he is a major car guy, has a Jag, a yellow Corvette, a Land Rover, and an Ininity SUV and is currently in the process of buying a Bentley) and told her they would NEVER need it. So she stuck it on a shelf in the garage.
Anyway at one of our regular get togethers at their house, another friend (also a car guy) noticed that I had a baseball sized dent on the passenger side of my PT Cruiser. Now this dent had been there for a few months, and my solution was to not look at it, since I did it by backing into the hitch of the bushhog (now that was a huge fight, I was not pleased with DH's choice of parking locations on that particular day!!!) It was decided that this was a good test for the clearance kit (yes, I'd had a few beers and probably wouldn't have offered up my car otherwise) So the kit was found and 5 or 6 of us proceeded to assemble the needed parts while a few others read the directions, in Spanish no less, since the English directions had disappeared. At the time, this was all very amusing
Anyway, all was assembled, the glue applied and everyone stood around while Lino (the bravest in the crowd) started to twist the contraption. About this time I started to question my decision making ability and was about to put a stop to the torture when a slight sound was heard. Then one more twist and POP out came the dent
Needless to say I was very relieved and pleased to skip the $400 body shop cost, which was I'd been quoted to fix it. The teenagers in the crowd were begging for the kit, deciding they could get rich fixing dents at the local mall. The adults in the group decided that this was not a good business venture and the kit was retired back to the shelf, after a round of toasts of course.
I doubt I'd ever try it again, but it did work.
I put a couple of coats of Zaino on the next day and no one is the wiser!
Annette

 

even if you did pop the dent beyond the panel, you still need a knock down
tool to push it back flat. i don't think that kit comes with the knock down
tool and hammer.

the pop a dent idea itself is used by professionals when typical PDR tools
would not fit behind the panel (like on some roofs for instance)...but you
still need the other critical tools and lots of practice to make it perfectly
flat again.

consult your PDR tech. (or me, if you're local hehehe).

 

very weak imho.

if you're **** about dings like me, you will go to school and get training for yourself ..and be able to fix dings on your own.