Paintless dent repair after a repaint?

**tguil** · 12-21-2012, 10:14 PM

Got a small wavy depression in the hood of my Ram (aluminum hood) only noticeable under fluorescent lights and when I really am looking for it. Most folks would never see it. The hood was repainted about two weeks ago because it was damaged by an encounter with a deer. This small (really small) wavy depression was where there had been small dent from the accident and PDR was used for this part of the repair. No "bondo" is the area of the depression. The hood was repainted with waterborne base coat/ solvent clear coat. Think a good PDR tech could massage the depression out without messing up the new paint? This body shop does really good work including PDR. Not sure how they let this slip through, but "oh well".

Of course I`ll head back to the shop that did the repair, but they are closed for the Holidays and so is my usual "go to" PDR guy. I do not handle "ambiguity" well so any reassurance would be appreciated. :biggrin1:

**Ron Ketcham** · 12-21-2012, 11:20 PM

I would advise that you inform the PDR tech that the hood was refinished and the time that has passed.

Should not be a concern in that amount of time, if the repair was done correctly and the paint film build was within industry standards. (IE-not too much of primers, base or clear)

**David Fermani** · 12-22-2012, 05:15 AM

Your insurance company already paid the shop to complete this repair the 1st time. It`s the shops responsibilty to make this right or redo it. Bring it back!

Why did they do convetional and PDR repair on the same panel? Was this dent on or near an edge?

Also, make sure that this defect is an actual dent and not bad body work.

**tguil** · 12-22-2012, 08:41 AM

I`m sure the shop will take care of it. This particular shop is "state of the art". It`s owner is super conscientious and takes pride in the work that comes out of the shop. All of the techs have extensive training in all phases of the shop.

There were two small dents in the hood from the accident...one at the edge of the hood required a regular body repair. The other was very small small. Just a minor depression (no sharp edges) and only needed PDR. The PDR repair is were there is still the slight wavy depression. The other repair is perfect. There was a factory paint blemish on the other side of the hood so the whole hood was base coated and clear coated. I requested this as a part of the repair/repaint because I had previously leveled 23 dust nibs that were in the factory finish on the hood. (79 total on the whole truck.) I thought a little more paint might be a good idea. But this is a whole other story. Yep, I`m a bit anal.

As far as too much paint...the truck had had paint work done at the factory. However the shop owner told me that future PDR repairs (if necessary) should not be a problem because the factory paint is always mighty thin. His paint process is "high" solid but is only one 1 1/2 applications of base and clear. Not sure if that makes a difference.

If the tech decided to not just "push" this dent out and did a bit of traditional body work to this area, I`ll not have anything further done. This is one of those deals that I most certainly would not mess with a repaint. Sometimes it`s smart to know when "near perfect" is good enough. I`ve learned this the hard way. I had the repair done two weeks ago and only noticed the depression when my fluorescent lights hit the area "just right" as I looked through my bifocals. "Sometimes when you good looking for alligators, you find them. Then what". Yep, the anal thing.

For what it`s worth, I`m a big fan of PDR and have had many repairs done with the process, including two major hail repairs. Just wasn`t that sure about PDR and repaints.

Ron and David, thanks for the replies. I knew that you would have some suggestions.

**David Fermani** · 12-22-2012, 10:32 AM

Good that we could put a little closure to it. Have them make another attempt and I`m sure it`ll be fine. Alloy panels are pretty stiff, but it shouldn`t be a problem.

23 nibs on a factory finish!!! Ouch. That`s gotta be a record? How the heck did they miss all those at the factory?

**tguil** · 12-22-2012, 11:06 AM

Originally Posted by David Fermani

Good that we could put a little closure to it. Have them make another attempt and I`m sure it`ll be fine. Alloy panels are pretty stiff, but it shouldn`t be a problem.

23 nibs on a factory finish!!! Ouch. That`s gotta be a record? How the heck did they miss all those at the factory?

Thanks again. Actually there were 79 nibs that I leveled....every panel except the tailgate. When the body shop owner and I were checking out the truck, he found few more under his lights.

Early on I posted about this problem. I was reminded about how assembly lines work. Quality control sometimes is not all that great. The shop owner and I are pretty sure that the truck was run though the paint booth twice. Must have been a dusty day in Detroit.

I chose not to have the dealer work on the truck....especially after the dealer`s body shop foreman told me that all vehicles are like that and if they worked on it it might be worse. I ordered this truck and checked it out right after it came off the transport. I didn`t notice the nibs until the first detail. I like the Ram, but I don`t think that I`ll buy another one. We have had five Toyota Tacomas...all my wife`s...with never a paint issue. Guess she`s the smart one in the family.

**Nth Degree** · 12-22-2012, 11:16 AM

Sometimes PDR can`t make a dent perfect. A little "waviness" sometimes is left. Also some PDR guys are better than others. This might be that sort of situation or the lighting they had wasn`t able to expose it. The shop should be able to tell you whether it can be improved or not. Sounds pretty basic.

**tguil** · 12-22-2012, 12:02 PM

Thanks for the comment. Yep, I`m aware that some techs are better than others. The tech I usually go to has removed rather serious hail damage in both my wife`s truck and mine. I could not find any indication of the repair in either truck.

On this truck the dent that the shop repaired with PDR (Hope that`s what they did.) was just like a soft hail ding. When the owner and I talked about how they would do the repair. He indicated that he did not want to break the factory paint for the repair.

Just had the truck out in direct sunlight. Finding the waviness was almost impossible...even though I knew exactly where to look. I think maybe I should get rid of my good garage lighting. Problem resolved....sure. I`m still headed to the body shop in the next week or two and I`ll have the truck run inside to check it out.

Just how much perfection should I expect? This is a high quality shop. My truck had $5700 damage done in the deer "incident" and 99.9 % of the folks looking at it could never tell it was repaired.

Tom