dent in door

[Burnt_RS]

My car came from the dealer with a small dent on the pass. side door, right on the crease that runs horizontally, 2/3rds of the way up. The dealer said they would take care of it, but Im a bit nervous about letting them touch it. They have a company that does all of their dents, come in and do it. From what I can see, they will have to remove the door panel and inner panel then bang it out. It's a very small dent so the paint should be fine. In fact the dent is so small that it took me a few days to see it the first time. What do you guys think? I have watched the videos on removing the outer door panel and it seems easy enough, but I still have a feeling that I will get my car back with a loose door panel or a rattle in it. I've had enough headaches with my dealer, I just want the damn car to be the way it should have been when I picked it up. (I have more issues with the car too).

[Makris]

i had a dent in my '06 charger and i attempted doing it myself...... i regretted it lol
my dad was a bodyman and i even had most of the tools, but its just a safer bet to get a pro to do it, i would let the dealer do it as long as they dont charge you

hope all goes well!

[CamaroDreams07]

I know this is kind of besides the point, but why did you buy a damaged car? I would've walked out the door and found somebody else who had one that wasn't dented.

At this point, let them do it. That way they are liable for whatever happens. It should be no problem if it's as small as you say. Speaking from experience, the door panels are very easy to remove/replace without any rattles. I had to take my passenger side one off four times one day while installing my projectors. No rattles noises of any kind. They snap on VERY snugly. Good luck.

[firstmate]

More than likely it will be paintless dent repair. I had one in almost the same spot you described (given to me by a fellow Camaro owner ), and had a place called Dent Wizard here in Houston come out to my work and they fixed it while it was in the parking lot. They had a tool that slid into the door panel between it and the window. It had a little "paddle" at the end of a curved rod. They rotated the bar and the paddle pushed the dent out from the inside of the panel. It is almost impossible to see where it was.

If I had to guess, they will probably be doing something like this, so your door panel probably won't even be removed. Just thought I would share my experience with the similar issue and how it worked out for me.

Thanks and good luck to you!!!

[JB @ C and L Machine]

Don't do yourself!!! You will make a mess of it!!!!! Have the right pro do it as they can do it in about 15 mins with taking anything apart. I had it done on my 06 charger and 08 Tow truck. I used the same guy both time and it was only $50 and $75 bucks. Well worth it and you cant even tell there was anything done.

Jay

[Coop 2010]

They will drill a small hole in the inside edge of the door (where the latch is) and run their tool into the hole. They put a plug in the hole when finished. I'ts a very small hole. They will have the dent out in aobut ten minutes. They don't make enough money to R&R your door panel. There is no "banging " to remove the dent, they just massage the area carefully and work the dent out.

[DetailAddict]

PDR guy don't usually remove door panels and they don't always have to drill holes. It makes it easier, but you can always tell them don't drill and they'll just have to spend extra minute or two if it's just a small dent...

[Dave2SSRS]

Tell the dealer you want the body shop to repair it. No paintless dent repair. The dealer owes you this!

[Burnt_RS]

Originally Posted by CamaroDreams07

I know this is kind of besides the point, but why did you buy a damaged car? I would've walked out the door and found somebody else who had one that wasn't dented.

At this point, let them do it. That way they are liable for whatever happens. It should be no problem if it's as small as you say. Speaking from experience, the door panels are very easy to remove/replace without any rattles. I had to take my passenger side one off four times one day while installing my projectors. No rattles noises of any kind. They snap on VERY snugly. Good luck.

The dent is VERY small and because of this I didn't notice it until after I had the car for a few days. I might have decided differently when I picked it up, if I had noticed the dent, but even if I did notice it. There was no other car instead. This car had to be delivered from a dealer on the other side of the province (and was one of two 1LT RS M6's in the province that had the options that I wanted: none . I wanted IOM, the other car was silver) and I didn't want to have to play the waiting game to see if another came in, as it was after the deadline for 2010 factory orders.

Yes, the dealer is going to cover it 100%. I made sure of this. At first they weren't too quick to offer assistance with it, but some voiced concern on my end got them in line. haha

Originally Posted by Makris

i had a dent in my '06 charger and i attempted doing it myself...... i regretted it lol
my dad was a bodyman and i even had most of the tools, but its just a safer bet to get a pro to do it, i would let the dealer do it as long as they dont charge you

hope all goes well!

I wasn't thinking of doing it myself, I was merely explaining that I see how simple it looks to remove the door panel - I was unsure of the ability of some people that might be touching my car. I guess I should give the professionals the benefit of the doubt, but this is my baby so I'm obviously going to be over protective.


thanks for the responses guys This forum rocks!

[Yellojacket]

I had a decent dime sized door ding in my passenger door right on the crease and I also used Dent Wizard paintless dent repair and within 10 minutes of working the tech had the dent completely removed. I've looked over the door from every angle in different lighting and I can't tell where the dent was AT ALL. Paid the guy $60 in cash and all done good as new.

[Batman0837]

Originally Posted by Dpsyphered

Tell the dealer you want the body shop to repair it. No paintless dent repair. The dealer owes you this!

Terrible advice!! PDR is the way to go, as long as the tech is adept at his craft you'll be fine. Why devalue the car by painting it unnecessarily just because the dealer "owes" him ? I would not recommend allowing the PDR guy to drill though, It is just as easy to go down the window and repair w/o drilling!! Drilling is ALWAYS a last resort and should not be done to speed the repair or make it easier for the tech...

[Burnt_RS]

My dealership uses a local dent removal guy for all of their cars. It's supposed to be paintless dent removal for this dent.

[myerardi]

I just bought a RJT and noticed a dent Exactly where you are describing. dealer had dent man from out of town who comes weekly to fix it. He did it from inside out. Now impossible to see the dent! So slick. If your dealer has this kind of pro on retainer, go for it.

[Burnt_RS]

Just talked to the guy. He said he puts a protector over the window, after putting it all the way down. Then he goes between the window and the outer panel and works the dent out. He said it would take maybe 15 mins. No panel removal required, said he does this all the time. Better yet is that he is coming to my house to do it, since he is based out of the town next to me, instead of both of us driving even further to the dealership.