Paintless dent repair drivers side rear panel question

kenchan

i took a training course, then worked on used cars as an intern.
then from there been fixing dings on my own to fix my own cars when i do encounter it.

ive fixed home appliance dings, dings in some decorative container cans, decorative trash cans, anything metal or plastic that needs finess. my wife even gave me a pizza pan to fix when UPS bent it out of shape. lol

it's handy to know how to read bends.

darli328

Here's some pics.

Also, what do you guys think about wheel repair where they don't take off the rim and just mask the area around it? I'm a little concerned about that, and would prefer that take the wheel off incase of over spray...

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KcL@AOI

I myself am a dent guy. During Hail seasons I travel around the world (Australia and Europe) and chase hail storms and do jobs mostly through insurance agencies and do local dealerships when its not in hail season. kenchan is right those tools aren't cheap! You can mostly get anywhere on a car except for rails or dog legs. Darli328 that isn't to bad of a ding. If it was me working on that dent the best thing to do is to take out the tail light and stick a long rod down there, and if its too tight of a space the I would probably use a special tool called a Whale Tail to get in that tight place.

kenchan

i would just use the rear tire as a pivot point and push it out from the rear arch.

i think it can be repaired to about 98-99%. difficult to do over decorative lines.

darli328

Went to my dent guy today. He tried his best to pull it out with hot glue but most of the dent is still there. He also thinks taking off the tail light might be too far from the dent and he's not sure if there's even a way to get to the area behind the dent from the tail light. What do you guys think about that? Can you access the back of the panel from the tail light?
He also said I have another option. He could take tire/wheel off and wheel liner and try to access the area behind the dent that way. Does anyone know if there's a way to access that area without drilling? My dent guy said worse case he could take the wheel and wheel liner off and drill a hole behind the plastic liner to gain access to the area behind the dent. I really don't want to drill but that sounds like my only option, and at least the hole would be behind the wheel liner. Any thoughts?

kenchan

lol@ glue pull. find yourself another PDR tech.

i wouldn't even consider glue puller for that part of the car cause it wont do shitt. you need to access it from the wheel well. if there is no direct access, the tech will drill a hole on the inner panel of the well, push out the metal, and just plug it with a plastic plug. at least it's not on the passenger side where he'd have to worry about the gas filler piping.

access from taillamp will require drilling too since there's really no access hole that i remember when i did the rear camera /fog lamp install that the tool can fit.

darli328

What about taking the rear bumper off? Is that an option? Or, what about taking off the interior trunk trim pieces. Any hope of accessing it that way? I really don't want to drill, and am considering leaving the dent if drilling is the only option.
What's wrong with the glue pull? Is there a better way of pulling the dent out?
Lastly the tech said he could try to make the dent bigger and my get lucky with being able to pull it out completely. He did say that is very risky and could crack the paint.

kenchan

glue pull will never get the amount of force needed to bend that part of decorative lines in the metal. if it did, the paint would crack off (seriously).

glue pull is good for non-aluminum hoods, roofs, trunk lids, some side panels where there is no access from behind. i use glue pullers as last resort as it is very time consuming unless i have to do hail damage.

removing the rear bumper will not gain access to that area. you might be able to access if you took the trunk liner out, but the tech probably can't monitor the metal while he's pushing it out so it would only work to see where a tool can be fed behind the metal while the tech access it from the wheelwell.

this is why im saying he needs to drill the wheel well to gain access if there is no direct access from inside the wheel arch.

definitely dont make the dent bigger. that's a single impact dent, right? making it bigger will just make it that much harder to bend it back especially on decorative lines.

also check your area (or your dealer) for mobile touchup places. the good ones can match your paint very well. spot bondo, sand, and paint. these folks fix used cars that can't be repaired efficiently by PDR.

darli328

Call me crazy but I don't want to drill, and that's the only reason why the tech tried a glue pull. He said we could try it but it probably won't work. I'd much rather take the interior trim pieces off or anything else over drilling and/or painting. I guess what I'm asking is, is there any way to gain access to that part of the car without drilling? Even if I can't get the dent completely out I'd rather have it somewhat fixed without drilling. I get what you're saying about how the tech needs to be able to see what he's doing with regards to working the metal. I still think I'd rather try my luck with any option that doesn't require drilling/painting first.

darli328

Do you have any experience with removing the tail light? Can you access the area in question from there? Seems kind of far, maybe 2 or more feet away.

kenchan

see service manual BRM page 32 rear fender hemming process.

then you'll see wat im talking about. you need to drill a small hole inside the wheel well to gain access. even if you remove the tail lamp you wont gain access, and even if you drilled the metal behind the tail lamp, you still wont gain access.

kenchan

btw, drilling an access hole is common practice in PDR.

since you told your tech not to drill, then yah, there is no way he can fix that ding. i wont be able to fix it either without drilling.

if you can overcome that fear, he can probably fix it to about 98-99% if he's willing to take the time.
he would then either use silicon glue or plug. it's no big deal really. get a cup of coffee if you can't stand watching.

darli328

Seriously, thanks for all your help/advise. I know I sound like the customer from hell. I've had some bad experiences in the past with drilling and I really hate those plugs... I'm not sure what I'm going to do but in all honesty I'd rather leave the dent than drill in the fender well. I'll admit I may consider drilling behind the tail light, but as you said that's not really an option so I guess I'll live with the dent. Thanks for the info with the manual, I'll take a look at it and show to the tech and see if we can come up with any ideas. Please let me know if you can think of any other ideas.

kenchan

^^ np, GL!

darli328

Btw, what's a Whale Tail?