Access To Dent Through Bed.

Hey everyone, bad news. Got my first dent today. Was backing up and slid into a tree, went forward and didn't notice anything till the sun hit it.
There is a couple there, about 3. Noticeable to me a whole lot.


Talked to a dent removal guy, said about 200$. Anyone have any experience removing dents? What is the best way for me to get to the back of these?
Thanks!

 

Best way is to have the dent guy do it. You can try but....

 

Shoot, not sure if its bothering me enough for 200$, and it scraped off some of the paint on the fender. About a 1/4 inch by 8 inch strip on the bottom, showing black plastic underneath. I wonder if the dent guy will go cheaper if I get him access to behind the dents...

 

Go with a paintless dent removal guy or shop with a decent reputation. If you heat up and try to push the dent out yourself, you can make it much worse. I tried once a few years ago...

 

You could try this: Canned air and a hair dryer:

https://www.google.com/search?q=canned+air+to+remove+dent&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8

 

Think of it this way. Would you rather pay a small amount of money to have it done proper or risk messing it up doing it yourself? Body work is a tricky thing to jump into especially if you have little to no experience. Things can go from bad to worse real quick. Personally, it doesn't look that bad, maybe add some touch up paint to the fender? It's a truck, it's supposed to have blemishes IMO.

 

I tried removing dents before. Not as easy as it seems. Even if you push it out, its not going to be perfect. The metal has to be massaged. $200 is a bit much though. Should be $150 at the most as they are soft dents with no hard creases and all on the same panel.

 

.. technically I guess I wouldn't call any dent a soft dent. Every dent is a low spot, and every low spot is surrounded by high spots. Making it disappear is more than pushing out the dent, and massaging metal is something learned.

$200 does seem a little high, but experienced dent repair isn't something that will ever be inexpensive.

 

Yea good point. And I know, just don't want this blemish. Can I take that panel off without taking the bed off?

 

I don't have a clue, first hand. But there must be a way to remove the bedside from the bed. Whether that's feasible or not is a question I can't answer.

 

I am pretty sure the bedside can be removed without taking the entire bed off the truck.

 

$200 is a lot if you don't know who to talk to...but it's about the going rate if you just look through yelp or so on... check the BMW and other sports car forums and they will have a referral for your area. It would be great if the OP listed what area he or she lives... if it's SoCal...I have a great guy that charges the forum guys $75 a panel....not a dent. The metal is real soft and if you don't know what you are doing or have the right tools...you mess it up worse and perhaps damage the paint even from the inside. A pro will take about 10 to 20 minutes for the whole panel. My guy I paid about $225 for 3 panels...small dent here...small dent those careless people... that's why I park far...even with a Taco...I still park far because I hate seeing dents and it's drive for me to see my PDR guy.

A good PDR guy will make it look real easy...so be careful if you want to try it on yourself... the trick is and this is if you have the right tool and type of tip for that tool for that kind of dent is to eye the center of the dent and then slowly work the dent out...sometimes they go too far and use a little hammer to push back. For high end cars...I leave it for the pros. For your truck if you go 4 wheeling....maybe leave it alone.... if not.. $75 to $150 I let the PDR do it.

You can access the dent from the wheel well...just remove some of the screws from the wheel well and then stick a long rod that has a bent end on it and then you rotate the rod and push against the panel to push out the dent. You use a white shop light...doesn't have to be on...just use it to show you the reflection of the white bulb to remove the dents. The ones close to the tailgate you can remove the toolbox compartment.

From your picture seems like you got 3 dents - one by the wheel well and two above the T and D of the TRD.... really hard to see from the pictures you take...best is to use a white shop light bulb place next to the bed and let the reflection show the imperfections...you can send the PDR those pictures to give you a better estimate.

 

That's some great information right there

 

$200 is fair and a fraction of conventional body repair.

 

Around here $200 is good for PDR!

 

I had a baseball sized dent on the front side of that fender "hump"...driver's side as well. I took it to a PDR shop, they popped it for $80. The guy said he was able to gain access to the back of the bedside by taking off the black plastic bed rail cover on top.

I agree with others' comments though, I tried to fix some small scratches on my bedside and ended up f'ing it up even worse. Now I wish I had just left the scratches.

 

Alright guys, thanks a lot for the info. I'm going to talk to the PDR guy again today and see how much he will pop the dent for if I get him access to it. Going to go through the fender well and top bed cover. I'll let you guys know how it goes. He said since it was difficult to access he would have to charge more...

 

Who do you use? I've used Beach Cities PDR in HB a couple of times and they were great.

 

I'm in Nashville, TN. The PDR guy I am talking too I have never used before. I have never needed one before.