My daughter plunked the side of my wife's SUV with a softball. I went to one place, he looked at it and told me about $300. I thanked him for his time and left. In my mind, I pay my auto repair shop a labor rate of about $100 per hour. And I do not think there is any way this dent is going to take 3 hours to fix.

So I went to my auto repair guys and asked them if they could recommend someone. They sent me to the body shop they use. The guy said he could fix it, but there really wasn't much sense in it since he is a full body shop and would be blending paint, etc. He said, "Use a dent guy." I told him I tried and was quoted $300. He said, "That's crazy, I use those guys on occasion and there is maybe 30-45 minutes of work there." He called one for me, sent him the pics and the guy said $250-$300.

So, is there WAY more involved here than 30-45 minutes of work? Is $300 the going rate for a single dent of this size?




(UPDATE) My relative has a complete set of tools for dent repair. When I asked him why, he said, "I hired a guy to repair some dents on my truck one time, and when I saw what he did, I figured I could do it too."

I was hesitant, but this relative is probably the most handy guy I know. And I figured since I could not find a dent repair guy below $300, I did not have much to lose.

He applied glue, applied the tabs and pulled. Over and over again. That took about 20 minutes. Then it took another 20 minutes to clean off the glue. So total time invested of about 40 minutes. The results are pictured below. Most of the dent repair guys said they would get the dent back to 95%. I would say this dent is maybe about 90%. And for a 5% difference on a 6 year old SUV and saving $300, I am perfectly fine with that.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: holdem,

I have used them several times, as long as the paint is not cracked it works great, lots of car dealerships use these people all the time. they take steel rods that have blunt ends on them and rub the dent out from the inside. pretty amazing I would do that over having a body shop repaint the door. when they are done you cant tell it was ever touched. 250 to 300 bucks vs leaving your car for a few days.

Got a new hood painted and a hundred+ hail dings on the rest of the vehicle done and the body shop bill was $8k. They sub’d the PDR work out.

They go by the size, location and if any creases are nearby. Some push out while others have to be glue pulled.

Personally, I’d prefer to have the factory applied paint left in place.

Call mobile dent repair places. They'll give estimates based on pictures from you. That dent is on a body line so is not as simple as you might think to fix.

I used one with good results. It was around $250 for 2 smaller dents. Is it 3 hours of work? Absolutely not. There is no alternative between them and a body shop.

Mobile dent repair is the way to go.

$300 seems a *little* steep, but I've never had to pay anyone to push a dent out that was that close to a body line.

Having no experience with doing it myself, it does look like an easy to reach spot. Maybe this presents an opportunity to learn a new party trick? You could watch some youtube videos and see how difficult it would be to push a dent like that out using rods and a heat gun.

A basic set of rods look pretty cheap on Amazon, especially if you don't need them very long.

https://www.amazon.com/Furuix-...d=1611594934&sr=8-14

Go to your preferred auto dealer, ask for the used car manager and ask him which paintless dent repair guy they use.

I'd pay $300 to have that fixed and not bat an eyelash. It's not an easy fix with the seem right next to it and on the edge of a panel.

A good PDR guy isn't cheap, but the results are usually outstanding without any concerns about paint matching. Just bite your lip and pay the $300. Oh, and learn to park farther away from the softball field.

I’ve gotten dents like that out with suction cups made for dent removal. It’s doesn’t work on all dents of course but it may be worth a try and if it doesn’t work you haven’t lost much.

the $300 isn't just for his time. it's also for the skill, experience and expertise required to do the job right.

Pay the money or maybe get another bid or two.
Lots of things look easy if you've never done them yourself and know nothing about what it takes to do them.
Have your daughter pay for some or all of it. Likely to never happen again.

Grew up with a Dad in autobody, and have assisted in painting 3 of my own vehicles. Dad loves PDR since you don't have to damage the factory coating or add any fillers. I had PDR done on my truck after getting stuck in a hail storm in construction zone (i.e. nowhere to pull off) and it was worth every penny.

quote:

Originally posted by holdem:
In my mind, I pay my auto repair shop a labor rate of about $100 per hour. And I do not think there is any way this dent is going to take 3 hours to fix.

Does your autobody repair shop drive to you or do you deliver your vehicle to them? Most of the time your PDR guy drives to you so that time needs to be factored in. He/she is doing a single dent not going to a body shop or dealership and knocking out a bunch of dents so 100% of drive time is going towards one dent. If the PDR has a shop, they might reduce the price if you deliver to them and read a book for an hour while they pop it out.

Also, as others have noted it's in a narrow strip of metal between a body line and panel edge so it's going to take skill and likely multiple techniques. If it were dead center in a flat panel, then I'd be willing to buy tools online and watch a few YouTube videos then attempt it myself.

You have two bids in the same ballpark: $300 and $250-$300. What was the body shop's estimate to fix it their way?

Sometimes, you just have to bite the bullet and pay the man.

quote:

Originally posted by cndrdk:
Go to your preferred auto dealer, ask for the used car manager and ask him which paintless dent repair guy they use.

this,


I asked the service guy at the Mini dealer when I elbowed the hood on my first Cooper,
slipped on ice in the drive and caught myself on the hood, (elbow made a dent about that big)

it's been maybe 5 yrs ago, but then it was only $100,
I met the guy at a used car dealer he serviced and he was done in 30 minutes,

quote:

Originally posted by nasig:
the $300 isn't just for his time. it's also for the skill, experience and expertise required to do the job right.

I get that. But when I paid my auto repair guy to replace my starter 2 weeks ago, that required a certain skill, experience and expertise. And I did not get charged $300 for an hour of their time.

quote:

Originally posted by 220-9er:
Have your daughter pay for some or all of it. Likely to never happen again.

Total accident when I was tossing with her. Not her fault. And she's 13.

quote:

Originally posted by tatortodd:
Does your autobody repair shop drive to you or do you deliver your vehicle to them?

The first quote, that was me driving to their place of business. Which is where I would have had the repair done. The second was me leaving it at the auto body repair place so it could be done there.

A giant ship engine failed. The ship’s owners tried one expert after another, but none of them could figure but how to fix the engine.

Then they brought in an old man who had been fixing ships since he was a young. He carried a large bag of tools with him, and when he arrived, he immediately went to work. He inspected the engine very carefully, top to bottom.

Two of the ship’s owners were there, watching this man, hoping he would know what to do. After looking things over, the old man reached into his bag and pulled out a small hammer. He gently tapped something. Instantly, the engine lurched into life. He carefully put his hammer away. The engine was fixed!

A week later, the owners received a bill from the old man for ten thousand dollars.

“What?!” the owners exclaimed. “He hardly did anything!”

So they wrote the old man a note saying, “Please send us an itemized bill.

The man sent a bill that read:

Tapping with a hammer………………….. $ 2.00

Knowing where to tap…………………….. $ 9,998.00

I went to school with a guy whose parents owned a body shop. He was working on cars at a very young age. Someone pulled into the high school lot with a shallow dent on their car. The body shop kid, Dan, looked at the dent, felt around it for a minute, then popped near the dent with the lower palm of his hand. The dent was gone.

My point is less than 5 minutes but thousands of hours getting the skill needed for those 5 minutes. IMHO worth the charge of $300.

That dent is all about location.

Last week my wife told me her new Subaru had a dent in the back door. When I saw the dent I thought someone really had to slam their door hard to get that deep a dent, and I mean DEEP. I called a local dent guy who asked I send a picture. His price was $125 if I came to him, $150 if he came out. He came out and used his wands to rub the dent out the best he could. I could still slightly see it since I knew where it was. It was in a hard to fix area. After he left I ordered a body trim from Subaru. Now you can't see anything.
Bottom line is I would gladly paid more for the dent to come completely flush but unless I took it to a body shop it would not look 100%.
I would use a dent repair again, I would just ask if they make it like new next time. If not I would find one that could.