very small dent removal...help?

S

Speedingpenguin

New member
Hello...I've got a 97 Cadillac Catera and it has two very small parking lot dings in it......i'm talking dime sized dings......
How would I go about fixing these? they are both on doors.
Doesnt have to be anything perfect, but would like them out for as little money as possible, so no bondo'ing and respraying. I ask because those things like the 'Ding King' sound good and all, but for something so small i dont think the little 'puller' thing would be small enough.Thanks
 
At my shop in NJ, my dent man charges me about 75 per panel. He did one on my car for free and i couldnt even tell where it was.Definitely worth the 75 or even double or triple. At a body shop your lookin at 300 easy.
 
Welcome to DC, Speedingpenguin.
DIY PDR is not that easy.
You might be able to negotiate a price for multiple dings at a PDR facility in your area. One of the shops in our area will and I would guess that others would as well.

Charles
 
ugh...lol
I'm not looking to keep this car very long.....probably till the end of the summer, maybe a little longer......but you can see the ding from a distance and it pretty much makes the car look crappy, so if i'm gonna sell it i'd like to get rid of it without spending much $, cause i've got no clue if its worth it or not......if the person buying the car just wants the car, doesnt care if there are a few dings, and is willing to pay 7k for it, i dont wanna put an unnecesary 200 bucks into it. On the other hand, if the person sees that there is a small dent and offers 5k for it, but would have offerd 8k for it had there not been a ding (yeah i know that 3k wouldnt be just cause a ding, but you get the point), then spending 200 bucks toget it fixed would be worth it...know what i'm sayin?
 
Spend the 19.95 and try the ding king. It either works and you pocket 55 or your ding removal goes up $20.
Heck you can proably sell the ding king on ebay for $5-10 when you finish.
 
Hmm.. I saw a few TV reports that concluded the ding king isn't very effective, sounds like if you are lucky it may just work
 
Before you sell the car it might be worth while to talk to a few car dealerships or salespeople and see just how much value having the dents removed will add to the car. the PDR people do not usually use things like the Ding King. I don't think the tips are small enough to remove parking lot dings. I have not heard very good reviews on things like Ding King. Also see if you can find an independant PDR person ... they might cut you a break.
Remember First Impressions Matter to a shopper and you only have one chance to make a first impression!
 
yeah thats why i dont wanna leave it the way it is and be like 'Well....will you pay 7k for it like this, or do i have to do some work to it to get you to pay that.'...
I'm gonna look for some other ways of fixing it.....its not that big, just when the light hits it you can really see it (as well as lots of swirl marks, lol)
 
Speedingpenguin said:
i dont wanna put an unnecesary 200 bucks into it.
Click to expand...
PDR in my area is usually around $75 or $80. My wife's previous car got dinged in a parking lot and after a month it was driving me crazy. When I looked at the car, all I saw was that ding. Then we got another dent, not sure how as it looked more like rock or something hit a 1/4 panel. Now I'm really bugged by this, so off to PDR I go. Price for removing the one on the 1/4 panel, the one in the left door, and one in the right door that I hadn't even noticed, $80. It was well worth it to me.

Now, since you are selling the car fairly soon, IMO you are taking the right approach. Will what you spend benefit you a like amount or hopefully more? Here again, IMO, based on your description, it probably will.
One thing I have always tried to do when selling one of my cars is make sure I don't have to make any apologies for anything about the vehicle. Everything that doesn't work 100%, I fix, every flaw I can repair with reasonable cost is taken care of. Quite often I have installed new OEM floor mats just to make the interior look like new. Heck, I even had an entire 1/4 panel repainted because of paint chip 1/2 the size of my little fingernail. Overboard, maybe, but other than miles, the vehicle looked like a new demonstrator, not a 5 year old car. My 14 year old Astro van with 168,000 miles sold to the second guy that looked at it 4 days after I put it up for sale. It needed nothing and he could see that. I also had 14 years of service records that he had no interest in at all. The appearance was what sold it.

One other thing for me. I have never been able to sell a vehicle through a newspaper ad. I just stick a for sale sign in the window and tell a few friends.
Enough soapbox.

Charles
 
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