If side-swiping a telephone pole left a large dent in the side panel of your car or accidentally backing up into your friend's truck made a large indention in your trunk, you're probably wondering what you're going to do to fix it and if you could possible do your own car dent repair fix. If you don't have the money to spend for a car body shop to redo the cars entire damaged panel, you can fix a minor car dent on your own. It takes a lot of patience and attention to detail, but it leaves the dents out of your wallet. All you have to have is the right tools, and you can save yourself a lot of money and time worrying about how to fix it.
To fix a car dent, you must have the right materials and tools, which includes a ball-pein hammer and one with a claw, as well as a block of wood, HSS drill bits, an electric drill, self-taping screws, self-locking grips, a wire brush or sanding disc, body filler kit, sanding paper, clean rags, cellulose body stopper, and a hair-dryer.
When it comes to doing it yourself on dents, first thing to do is try to push out the dent with your hands. If this doesn't make the dent budge, use the wooden block and a ball-pein hammer to knock the dent out from the inside. You want it to be just below the other parts of the panel. If pushing out the dent is not an option, you can mark the center of it and drill a small hole with an HSS bit, followed by screwing in a long self-taping screw until about half an inch is sticking out. Then use your hammer's claw or self-locking grips to grab the end of the screw. Another tool to do this would be a car dent repair pooper tool that you screw into the dent the rest of the tool to the screw and move the weighted handle back with some force pulling out the dent slowly with repeated turns.
Next, sand the area with an electric drill that has a sanding disc or wire brush, and remove all the paint from the dented area. Use a plastic spatula to apply filler to the dent and then let it harden. After the filler is solid, reshape the surface using a rasp, moving to sandpaper first with a coarse grain then use fine grained sandpaper. Before going any further, you'll want to use your fingertips to inspect the area for any imperfections; fill the bumps with cellulose stopper and give it a final rubdown with fine sandpaper.
When you are ready to paint the area, cover all of the surrounding areas with masking tape and newspapers or brown paper bags. First spray an aerosol primer onto the area, standing about eight inches away and moving the can back and forth. Start with a thin coat and then apply two more coats, rubbing it over with fine sandpaper when it's dried completely. The top coat comes next. Spray from the top to bottom in horizontal lines, two coats, and use the same steps you did with the primer. Apply two more additional coats, letting the area dry completely and then use fine sandpaper to rub down the area. Finally, apply the final coat about an hour later.
