Hello hive! 
Has anyone here used one of those glue gun slide hammer dent removal kits? Are they E36 M3?
We bought a summer toy we've affectionately named Dimples and I'd like to make it significantly less dimply if it's not too much trouble. Any other techniques I can try that usually work?
Thanks yet again 
They don't work.
They don't address the actual problem, which is that the metal has been stretched. To eliminate the dent you have to shrink the metal back. You'd be better off buying a couple of PDR tools and teaching yourself how to do it properly. It's all technique, so can be learned, though there is a definite curve. Biggest problem most of the time is gaining access to the backside of the dent.
This seems to work reasonably well. I've also heard of using dry ice to shrink the metal.
I came here to keep this alive. Hoping someone has tried diy pdr.
I am also interested to see what actually works ,
do you need to heat up the paint so it does not crack ?
it would be nice to see some YouTube videos with a real time clock , because they make it look so quick and easy and we know it's not that easy !
I've had an amazing (and expensive) paintless dent guy work on a couple of my cars. He did most of the work with glue tabs but, as ddavidv pointed out, you don't just pull it out. It's pulling, then tapping to shrink it back down. He has a ton of traditional tools too but they only go so far.
One of my good friends does hail repair full time, lots of the guys are hacks. The glue tabs work, its a lot slower than working from behind pushing the dent out. Most of the time they will push the dent out and tap it back into position. If the dent is large they will heat up the area before trying to fix it. Sometimes it is too deep to fix and will crack the paint or with glue pulling just rip the paint right off. It takes some good lighting and lots of practice to do a great job. If you buy a kit find a practice panel and hit it with a golf ball in a sock to replicate the damage to practice.
Andy Neuman said:If you buy a kit find a practice panel and hit it with a golf ball in a sock to replicate the damage to practice.
I have a practice panel. It's a 2006 Mazda RX8. Looks like it lived next door to a driving range. I don't believe I can make it any worse. It's an ideal practice dummy for all sorts of DIY debauchery. There won't be a build thread because I've never been good at documenting and keeping such things up to date. I'll learn things though. :)
I was looking at the Eastwood kit and wondering the same thing. I've got dents on all four of my vehicles that could use some help so instead of spending hundreds at the PDR place, why not spend hundreds on tools and dozens of hours I don't have to accomplish the same thing?? I'd love to hear your experience.
This would be a crappy version of the tools.
Use the rods to poke the dents back up then tap them down. A nice swivel LED light also goes a long way.
I spent some time watching a master do it on motorcycle gas tanks, it's a lot more "bumping" than brute force pushing. Think a hundred and one little bumps, never a pry.
From that I got inspired to buy my own glue set, and bump rod set. I've been able to reduce a number of dents, but rarely completely eliminated any.
The glue type doesn't work well in the heat of summer because the glue stays soft. So it pulls off the painted surface before it moves the metal. It stuck fine in the winter. I used both the screw type bridge and the handle type. Because of the bumping, I prefer the handle type. There's a lot of subtlety to the different feet you glue down.
The rod types tools are an interesting struggle with getting in there, pushing the right spot, and not creating new damage where I'm levering the rods. There were many areas I could not get into with any rod I had.
Anyhow, I did greatly reduce some dents in the truck bed, including one pretty good crease. Almost no dent was completely removed. Some of this is because I wasn't using the fancy striped light, just eyeballing it.
It's perhaps worthwhile if you're not too demanding of the results, and you like playing with stuff like this.
There was a huge hailstorm in Oconomowoc WI a couple of weeks ago. A local dent repair place thinks it will repair "several thousand cars".
You'll need to log in to post.
