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Old Mar 29, 2000 | 07:06 AM
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Old Mar 29, 2000 | 07:42 AM
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Default Re: Will anyone vouch for any paintless dent removal places in Houston, TX

Hi, HCSteve. I used to work in Texas as an insurance adjuster. PDR was all the rage when I left about 5 months ago.It gets a mixed reaction from everyone you might talk to about it. Regular, conventional body shops detest it. Insurace companies love it. Either way, while I can't say I know of any places in Houston specifically, I can offer you some guides that may help:
1. Pick a place that is established and in a permanent location. AVOID and all costs the fly-by-night types. These people set up shop in vacant gas stations of one-off sheds. There today, gone tomorrow. And they work only for volume... do as many as possible and leave. Especially as Texas is in hail season now, you will see more of them around. These folks are bad because they don't care about quality, just quantity.
2. Make sure the shop can close its doors, get very black inside, and has UV lamps. If the shop can get the work area to be pitch black, and uses UV lamps, any dents or dings you have will show up like big huge holes in your car. The lamps accentuate curves and shadows on the panels, and let you see everything far better than just by eyesight.
3. Look for his tool tray. The more hooks, spoons, levers he has, the better off you will be. You wont get a good job done if the guy only uses a few tools. PDR really depends on having lots of tools. This is because each tool can 1) access the dent better and 2) find the dent's sweet spot better. The guy will work to slowly and gently move and tap on the dent from the inside to try and find the panel's "memory". Every metal panel on a car has a memory of its shape after being pressed by the manufacturer. This memory is small (obviously big dents from other car collisions wont "pop" back into shape) but it is there. By working this dent from behind, he can find the sweet spot of the dent, and it will come right back up into shape. Kinda like squeezing a Coke can, then popping the can back into shape. But the key here is more tools means more chances to get the sweet spot better.
4. Keep in mind to get to the dent, the guy will have to remove and interior panels to access it. For a hood, no problem... just open it and you're there. For a door, the interior trim panel must come off. For rear quater panels, he's gotta get to it from the trunk and remove the inner trim liner. Be sure to ask if he will need to drill a small hole into an interior panel to get to the ding. Decide if this is what you want or not.
Lastly (whew!) the only reason PDR is such a hot topic now is the issue of the paint. Conventional body shops argue that popping the ding back straight will "elasticize" the paint and cause it to bubble and peel in a few years. Especially, they argue, in the hot Texas summers that expand and contract metal panels like "ballons". In other words, if the paint got stretched, however small, from a ding or dent, then returning the panel straight will cause this paint to unstretch and bind on itself. On the other hand, many PDR places offer guarantees on their work, insurance companies will often promise the quality of PDR work (done by a qualified shop), and argue paint is not as fragile as shops might argue. Plus, PDR avoids repainting (blending new paint to old paint, yuck!) of filler or bondo on a panel. Its all a money thing. One 1/2" ding costs about $15-25 to fix by PDR. That same ding at a regular body shop could cost $150 or more (for sanding the paint, filler, repaint, labor time). So, see how PDR draws battlelines? But I think PDR would be fine for you... if the dents are smallish and on a panel easy to access (not on a structure piece like an A or B pillar), then go for it! Just be aware that the quality of the shop really matters on PDR, so some of the hints I listed above may help make sure you find a good one.
Good luck!
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Old Mar 29, 2000 | 08:09 AM
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Generically, can recommend "Dent Wizard" shops (nt)
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