It is often said that Paintless Dent Repair does damage to the underside of the panel, causing corrosion and therefore should not be used. This experiment shows the folly of this belief. There are three dents on this hood, the one on the left is repaired with conventional methods while the other two are repaired with Paintless Dent Repair (one with a "soft-tip tool" or rubber tipped tool, and the other with a metal tipped tool.) The conventional repair is performed with what is considered newer technology in the body business. Instead of drilling holes directly into the dented panel (which is still done by many shops,) copper pins are welded to the outer side of the dent. Pulling on this pin will lift the dent, then the pin is grinded off and bondo is applied and sanded for a smooth surface. The panel would then be flush and need to be prepped before going to paint. As you can see in the photos, the conventional repair has left a severe burn (hot spot) to the underside of the panel. The body shops are supposed to apply undercoating to the damage. How often is the undercoating applied? who can say. We consulted an old school body man before writing this article and he said that even if they try to undercoat, they don't always know if they are hitting the right spot because they cannot always see the damage (rocker panels, roof rails, quarter panels, etc.) Notice the underside of the two paintless dent repairs, the paint is still intact and the dents are perfectly repaired.
This demonstration was performed by my friend Ricky Baynes
