Remove car dents quickly and cheaply.

Posted April 20, 2007 - 19:22 by Paul Michael

Filed Under: DIY, Cars and Transportation

Photo: Jemsweb

Dents suck. And so does the cost to repair them. My wife's car has a ding in the door that's really been bugging me, and as a frugal shopper I wondered if smarter folks than myself have ever figured out a cheap way to repair dents. Good news...they have.

After doing a lot of web browsing I found many ways. But I don't have the cash for my own electromagnet, or the skills to do paintless dent repair (look either of these up, they take time and money...and a lot of skill). No, I wanted a quick, cheap "10 minutes or less" solution. And I found two. Ladies and gentlemen...welcome to the two minute body-shop. And if you want to repair scratches, i have more tips for those here .

1 - Remove a dent with dry ice
You can find dry ice in many places these days, even your local grocery store. It's cheap too, around $2 or less for a pound (you can buy it in bulk online for even cheaper). All you do is touch the dry ice to the dent for a few seconds and repeat the process until the dent is gone. Wear DRY ICE gloves though. Here's the how-to video I found...

Remove Car Dents With Dry Ice - Celebrity bloopers here

2 - Remove a dent with a hairdryer and an air duster
I like this one even more, namely because an air duster and a hairdryer is readily accessible in most homes these days. A slightly different process, but still very quick, cheap and easy. Again, here's the how-to video...

Use either one of these and you'll have an almost invisible fix in no time. Plus, you won't have to be without your car while it's in the shop and best of all, you won't have to spend a ton of cash on a repair. A frugal fix indeed.

Remove Car Dent With Airduster - The most popular videos are a click away

NEW! 3 - Remove a dent with a lighter, aluminum foil and an air duster

Thanks to several WB readers for pointing this new addition out. It's very similar to method #2, and please take note of the use of aluminum foil. I wouldn't want any of you to burn your paintwork. As you can see, and hear, this one works a treat.

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Remove Car Dent With A Lighter... - The most amazing videos are a click away

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Okay this looks pretty good.....anybody try it?
Also where would you get the liquid carbon dioxide?
Would like to try it.

is simply an air duster turned upside down. You can get these from any store that sells computer hardware, including OfficeMax and Office Depot. They're less than $5 for a can, and are good to have around anyway to clean your keyboard and other components.

These are great, Paul. Next time I run into something, I'll check these out!

I tried the second method and it did not work for me. I tried it too separate times but big intervals between tries, but it didn't help.

...and the second one worked for me just fine.

But as I would always say with these kind of tips, the results will vary depending on the make and model of car, and the type of dent you're dealing with.

CO2 doesn't come in a liquid state. It's either solid (dry ice) or a gas. The transition from solid to gas is called sublimation: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sublimation_%28chemistry%29

unless it's at high enough pressure, as it is in a pressurised container

Check out the wikipedia page. It's a molecular property that Carbon Dioxide can't exist as a liquid. Straight from solid to gas - weird huh..

Any restaurant or snack bar has co2 tanks for soda machines. The liquid is available by upending the tank and opening the valve. The tanks will be 500 to 1000 psi,so safety is an issue here. The liquid can be captured in a chamois or a leather glove, which traps the crystals of "dry" ice and allows the gas to escape.
The ice will seriously burn you and sticks to flesh easily, so take precautions!
{this info not found in wikipedia yet}

Would this work with the smaller dents ?

My car seems to picked up a number of smaller dings (like people being careless on opening their door)

cheers Joe

At high enough pressures, carbon dioxide CAN exist in a liquid state. Everything can exist in a liquid state, it just takes the right combination of pressure and temperature. It's only at normal pressures (like sea level) where sublimation takes place.

Try reading a book sometime instead of taking wikipedia at face value.

"molecular property"

As awesome as wikipedia can be, we can't count on everything on there being entirely accurate.

Reminds me of a great Onion article.

And this Onion article hurts me deeply.

Sweet. So with the right combination of temperature and pressure, I could have liquid wood? I have something to meditate on tonight.

"Sublimation" - that is a very technical term! Lets try another - "phase diagram". Look it up with CO2. You will find that CO2 is a liquid at certain temperatures above 5.11 atm.

I always bow to others. Those people who excelled in Chemistry while I was off writing stories. Still...here are some links...

http://www.vmempire.com/liquidco2.htm

http://www.newton.dep.anl.gov/askasci/chem03/chem03269.htm

http://www.epa.gov/dfe/pubs/garment/lcds/micell.htm

You can't have liquid wood, wood is made of the element carbon.

This dry Ice temperature is -72 degree Celsius, Does any effect on car paint?

the stuff in the dusters isnt usually CO2 due to the danger of high pressure force. They use a substance like tetraflouroethane (sp?) that can be stored as a liquid at lower pressures and still provide high velocity gas. As a result in phase change from liquid to gas the temperature drops. Look up ideal gas laws, PV=MRT. This is how your fridge works.

The second method didn't work for me, either. (I have a late model Honda, fwiw.)

These methods wont work if the metal is creased.

The dry ice method is used in the paintless dent repair places after hailstorms.

An important thing to consider as well is what the temperature is outside. These tips both rely on the surrounding metal being significantly warmer than the center area. If you try it on a cold day, your results probably won't be as good. My grandpa used to do this trick all the time (thanks mainly to my grandmas driving). I recall there were always dents in the car until the first hot day in spring, when they suddenly all vanished. :)

Seems like some old methods just keep on truckin'

It might be a good idea, if this worked for you, to tell what brand of canned air you used. From the video it looks like the can says Memorex. Correct me if I am wrong. You can also say what didn't work for you so other people don't buy that brand.

Or connaisseur. But isn't all canned air the same?

I wouldn't call myself an expert, but I am a chemical engineer, and we deal with that sort of thing... I also worked in cryogenics for about a year. CO2 is very fickle, but it does stay liquid at a certain temperature and pressure. As someone stated, check out phase diagrams.

Just as a little bit of trivia, many compounds can exist as solid, liquid, and gas all at once, where the 3 regions meet on a phase diagram. This is called a 'triple point.' Any variation will cause one phase to disappear.

All canned air is not made the same; as stated before, the presence of tetrafluoroethane, etc. (CFCs) allow it to be propelled at a lower temperature & pressure.

As for liquid wood, that's cute. Liquid wood is not necessarily MADE of carbon, but it has carbon in it. It is a composite of many different compounds. Some of those compounds may go liquid at a certain temperature, but it may cause other components to ignite at that particular temperature and pressure, so it doesn't work.

Also, if you re-read the Wikipedia article, it is correct... it says that CO2 sublimes "at atmospheric pressure." This is correct, but if you change the pressure, you can have a liquid.

Sorry about the multiple posts.

A chemical engineer? I'd say you're probably the only one on this entire thread that can claim "expert" status. Don't be shy.

I checked out this page a few days ago... and today a friend dented her car... so I was rereading the comments to see if anybody would have any comments regarding using the hairdryer before using the can air for #2 (apparently not).

(and after reading the comments, i felt like i had to add the following)

Compressed gas in the can.. when you shake it you can obviously tell its liquid in there, so when your shooting it upside down, you'll be shooting out the liquid.

Since the liquid gas is higher pressure in there, the liquid will upon leaving the can, expand due to the lower pressure outside. From phase diagrams you can tell, dropping pressure in a liquid state would change the liquid to a gas (which btw is a process that absorbes energy. Hence the liquid turning into gas would now be at a lower temperature. And also the expanding gas absorbs more energy, which bring the gas to an even lower temperature. Upon hitting your nice dent in the car, the really cold gas helps to cool the metal. Hence the layer of ice on the car panel. As a side note the "stuff" you see shooting out of the can is condensed water from the air, due to the cold gas. Also note that liquid to gas phase change occurs relatively close to the valve inside the can. And final note, the expanding liquid also absorbs energy from the can, so the can gets colder and colder as you use it more and more. And also nozzle velocity is a function of the difference in temperature between the inside stuff and outside temp (along with pressure, etc.). Hence over continuous usage, the air that comes out.. comes out slower and slower, until you heat the can back up to room temp again (say with your hand) then it'll get back to its original performance.

p.s. Sorry for any bad grammar, grammatically correct sentences isn't exactly my specialty

so, some people have said that the #2 method did not work, but can anyone say that #1 works, i am a clinical pharmacologist, i do understand the scientific reasoning, but can anyone else validate this method, and whats the largest size of dent that this method(s) is viable.

Sure you can have liquid wood. It's called oil! Just add temperature and pressure and wait a few million years . . .

I tried the compressed can of air method to no avail. Possibly the ambient temperature is not high enough (65F), or the dent is to big, or possibly there is a crease that I do not see. I'll wait until the dog days of summer to try again maybe.

I found if the diameter of the dent is small but the depth of the dent is deep this method will not work as the metal has been too badly misshapen.

This method works fine on a simple depression dent or the types of dents you could normally push out by hand if you had access to the other side of the dented panel.

I've been told the dry ice method would work better than method #2 on the more stubborn or deeper and smaller diameter type dents, but even the dry ice has it's limits.

you are a retard. wood is not an element, it is made of several different elements and mostly carbon.

good example

method 2 work beautiful on my car .

If the metal is stretched much at all then this won't work.
When a panel is dented it very often is also stretched so that even when you push the metal back to where it should be it will be to full (have to much area) and wont be straight.

To actually fix a damage in the metal (metal finishing) the metal often is shrunk, which is usually done by heating with a gas torch and then hammering excess metal back in to a small area and then quickly cooling with water, also it can be done with electricity.

Anyway both methods require the paint to be removed.

So I think that these methods will only work on very shallow dents that were made with very little force.

Since the Dry Ice shops are limited and only open during my work hours, I went to my local grocery store to buy the dry ice. The grocery store only sells it in a 10lb bag so it costs me $12 for this experiment.

It did not work for me, tried it eight times. Even tried it on another car with a tiny ding from people's car door. Maybe the dent is too deep? Someone let the shopping cart roll and hit my car and caused the dent.

I swear if I ever see this happen to anyone else out there, I will take down the information and give it to the owner who has his/her car damaged.

In my previous car, someone had rapidly and forcefully opened the door of their SUV onto my car, causing a huge dent and paint to chip away. There was even a bunch of white paint left from their SUV. And they just drove away. Why are some people such A-holes? As for the dent, I'm not sure why the methods work for some folks and not for others. I'm sorry you wasted your money on the dry ice. I hate anyone wasting money, which is why I write for WB.

Does anyone know of an efficient way to remove these dents? The bigger dents are easier to remove than the smaller ones I think, especially shopping cart dents that are so small and deep. I call it a DING not a DENT and I think they are sometimes worse than dents because a dent can be pulled out. It really bothers me that the person who did this didn't even have respect enough to leave even a "Sorry" note, I could often care less if someone dings my car as long as they say they are sorry or at least leave me their number so I can call them and see if they care enough to apologize and accept responsibility for their actions. Why are people so lame?!

I see that you said the method worked good for you, I'm just wondering what model and make your car is?

Thanks.

Now I own a 2007 Honda Civic (the other one conked out on me 8 months ago). But as you can see, different people are having varying degrees of luck. I would always try this on an unseen part of the car first, just to make sure. Same goes for the scratch repair tips I posted.

Turn the air duster can up-side down...it will spray liquid.

Has anyone tried this on really small dings? I can see how it would work on large dings because of the large surface area, but small dings would take a lot more force to fix.

On larger dents a plunger will work as well.

I have a Vespa with a dent in the legshield. I also have a smaller dent in the door of my subaru. The gauge of sheet metal on the Vespa is much thicker than the subaru. I'll try dry ice on both and see what happens.

Hello,

My son't GF has a brand new PT cruiser and sat on the hood and it dented. He tried using a plunger but it would not remove the dents. Before I advise them to try one of the two or possibly both methods above, has anyone experienced any damage at all to the paint? The poor girl's parents are flipping out on her as is.

Thanks very much~

I guess your son owes her a new hood. I would flip out too if so if someone dented a brand new car I purchased.

did it work on your vespa legshield? my GF's scoot has the same problem.

yeah, my dad told me years ago about the dry ice soluton, my dad was a auto body mechanic for a long time. and we did it to my 92 storm and brought the big dents out, and about that pt cruiser, a plunger will work lol, just go to your local plumbing store and find a wide bass one. dip it in water before you you make contact with the dent so it will seal the lock. it will take a lttle force. but i promise that it will work. im going to school for auto body. if any body else has any questions. hit me up at.... volcom4life870@hotmail.com

and my name is jo...

" fibercast " s a fiberglass material that youll need to take out the smaller dents.....

yea it does all elements come in either gas, liquid or solid, sublimation is just when it goes straight from a solid to a gas, but doesn't mean it doesn't come in a liquid,

ha ha!

that's the best one I've heard this week!

heh heh heh -- good one, Bevis!

These types of repairs will only work on a very limited number of dents. Someone else said only on dents you could push out with your hand if you had access to the back of the panel and that is probably describes it well. Of all the dents you get in a car these methods might work on one percent of them. Most dents and dings will stretch the metal enough that it will not be possible for heating and cooling of a panel to bring the dent out. Even some dents that don't look stretched will have metal displaced out around the dent that will hold that dent in unless the pressure is released. I would be a bit cautious about trying to remove a dent because sometimes you can do enough damage to a dent that will make it impossible for a professional to take it out when it could have been fixed without painting before you mucked it up.

ARRRGGGHHHHH THE DRY ICE AAARRRGGGHHHHHH!!!!

06 GTI HOOD RUINED!!!!

DAMN MY EYES!!!!

Yes you can have liquid wood and when it dries you can have paper!

I did this on the back hatch of our SUV. It has a huge smooth indentation from where one of the juvenile delinquents in our neighborhood kicked the door of the truck.

Sunny hot afternoon plus hair dryer plus canned air. It pulled half of the dent out. I used the purple canned air sold at Target. I would suggest a different brand. This can didn't get as cold as some others do. It also had a bittering agent to prevent inhaling. The residue in the air from emptying the can landed enough of the bittering agent to taste it on my lips all day and it didn't just wash off.

I probably could have pulled the rest of the dent out if I had more than one can. So next really hot day I am going to be armed with three cans to see if I can get the dent all the way out.

Any kind of look removing dents from metal bumpers, like on my GMC Yukon... Nice dent in the left rear bumper..????????

Hi I have a fairly large dent on the front hood of my car and am wondering if either of the 2 methods above will cause paint damage to my vehicle? Apparently, a previous poster, has said that dry ice ruined their paint....anyone else?
Thanks
Amy

it is the propane propellant in the co2 can the causes the freeze.

Stores that cater to PROFESSIONAL electronic technicians should have "freeze spray" in pressurized cans that is used to thermally cycle electronic components (to find intermittent problems). Perhaps that might work better than the canned air found in "sell-all" stores... .

Thanks for the tip, compressed air in a can worked great to take out a shopping-cart dent in the quarter-panel. Took three or four tries on a hot (85deg) sunny day (no hairdryer used, although I was ready to buy one just for this if it would work!) I used a 3M Dust Remover can from Staples, and it didn't use up more than a fraction of the propellant in the can. And no paint damage, not sure how it could do that unless you try to wipe off the ice crystals before they melt, or your can of air has a different propellant in it. Thanks again!

Went out to my car the other day and of course my fucking first small ding....its barely noticable..but i can see it.....its there....its obvioulsy a door ding...id say half inch wide by quarter inch high....very small but very noticable to me.....i like the whole canned air upside down with blow dryer.....will this work for that litle of a dent...or ding i should say...and if my paint gets fucked up imma have to hurt the original poster..lol....let me know..Ryan

It's NOT carbon dioxide. It's other, cheaper, inert gases. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aerosol_spray

Hello,
I just wanted to give a professionals point of view. When you have a dent in whatever panel, whatever size the metal will be stretched to some degree. Another poster hit on this and was correct in many points. If the stretched part ( crown, ripple, these are covered below ) is not taken care of first, it's like a fist holding on to the edge of the dent and it wont release the metal. Imagine a rug on a hardwood floor, if it is slid or pushed a little it will have ripples in it like waves. If you don't pull the rug a little to release the first ripple then the others won't release ( make sense )? If a dent is by a bodyline it will not repair with the ideas we are reading on here. If there is to much depth to the dent it will not repair with these method or methods.
Another poster said they were able to remove part of a dent in their suv on a hot day. THIS will happen in some instances depending on depth and location. The part that didnt come out is more then likely positioned over a support ( impact ) brace and won't release any further if it over a brace. The most important thing to remember here is metal has memory and it could be a day or a year etc. the dent will pop back in due to the metal Having memory, and the memory was never addressed.
I own a Paintless Dent Repair Company and someone also said that paintless dent repair companies use dry ice when repairing hail damage. WRONG< WRONG< WRONG... The process of paintless dent repair is using rods ( metal ) from the backside of the dent, thus we have to gain access to that part of whatever panel the dent is, i.e. taking a tailight out to gain access to your rear quarter panel. Next we need to address the crown or ripple so the dent will release, we use plastic knock downs ( look like a large golf tee ) and we knock down the crown so the metal is level around the circumferance of the dent. Sometimes we have to knock down so much ( taking a dent the size of a golfball to a baseball ) to release the metal. Kind of like taking a wine glass and knocking down or spreading the damage out to resemble a martini glass. You try to push up on the bottom of a wine glass it won't release and it will wrinkle up and never repair. Theres nowhere for the metal to release , move or bounce. If you imagine a martini glass its wider and more plyable and thus will move more generously. ( make sense ) Final step we take the lowest part of the dent up to the next lowest part of the dent and so on. In this process, we are teaching the metal new memory to where the dent won't re-surface.
I guess, I'm all about trying new things and such, but you can make it worse then better and its always more expansive to have to repair something that has been tried before in the wrong way.
Paintless dent repair is a very good alternative repair process then what you are accustomed to from a body shop.. Most dents and or hail damage can be repaired in one day, smaller single dent jobs can be done in hours or less, and for way less then a body shop repair.
Those pesky door dings from other doors or shopping carts etc. can usually be repaired for as little as 50 to 75 bucks and on your lunch time or whenever.
Good luck everyone, but help yourselves out and investigate Paintless dent repair companies in your area. It's also known as PDR.... Since I typed all this I guess I'll include our website, look at the before and after pictures for reference.
www.autoworkspdr.com

I try it twice it didn't work with compressed air

i have similar situation. got a very small ding on front passenger door and it's on the most outward spot. have you try any method?

Method #2 works for me. I had a VERY noticeable ding (3 quarters a inch) on front driver door near the edge of the door. After few tries with hairdryer and 3-5 seconds Memorex AirDuster, the ding is now merely noticeable. I would say it is back to 98% of the original.

Hey Frank i havent tried it yet.....but i just wondered about the whole paint issue if it ruins my new paint ill freak....so i was waiting till i got a final response on that...lol why dont you try it with the air duster first...lol let me kown then...

**** YOU, YOU FUCKING, FUCKER

Method #2 works for me. I had a VERY noticeable ding (3 quarters a inch) on front driver door near the edge of the door. After few tries with hairdryer and 3-5 seconds **** YOU, YOU, FUCKING FUCKER has been tried before in the wrong way.
Paintless dent repair is a very good alternative repair process then what you are accustomed to from a body shop.. Most dents and or hail damage can be repaired in one day, smaller single dent jobs can be done in hours or less, and for way less then a body shop repair.
Those pesky door dings from other doors or shopping carts etc. can usually be repaired for as little as 50 to 75 bucks and on your lunch time or whenever.

If your having problems try it on a random car with a dent. There should be no paint issues with it if you let the crystals dry first. Do it exactly as it's done in the video and you should be fine. Don't believe me? I had several dents in my Mercedes, a hot air blow dryer, and a can of this stuff took most of them out. The car looks great, It even took out a hail damage type dent aht I got form something falling on i suppose. TRY THIS it works for most dents.

Wood makes liquids... therefore it must be skilled at being a liquid.

I was wondering if the process of hair dryer/co2 dent removal would work on large dent about the size of a basketball?
How long do you heat the dent with the blower before spraying the liquid co2?

I have access to R22 so I think I will try it. Its a liquid and gas.

I tried both methods on small hail dents. Neither removed the dents. It's hard to say if they were reduced in size, since they were already pretty small and I didn't measure before and after. I tried the dry ice on a larger dent and it noticeably reduced it in size but didn't remove it all they way.

I WAS WONDERING THAT TOO- I HAD AN "INCIDENT" WITH A TREE A FEW YEARS BACK (caps, sorry). I think I'm going to try the plunging and can of air method, but I doubt it will work for me since it is fairly deep. I figure, what the heck. My car is old and whenever I trade it in, it will probably be used for scrap anyway. Anyways, here's hoping.

I just received a very small dent in the driver side door of my car from some inconsiderate(and probably jealous) person who parked next to me. I have a new Bentley Flying Spur and I was considering method # 2 to attempt to remove the dent but I wanted some input from some of you out there before I attempt this. Would I be crazy to risk my paint on a car like this by attempting this???

i have a few small dents on the side of my car (people who don't know how to park, and also kids with bikes banging their handle bars on my car) i got a paintjob not to long ago and it cost me a lot of money so i don't want to try these methods and risk f*cking up my paint, it's a color changing metallic black to red, will this mess up my paint?

did anything happen to the paint?

The first method did not work for me, but probably because I was doing it in August.

the 2 trick work very good for me .The second tips was the best.i tried on my old dodge.3 dent dissapear like in this video . really amazing and useful

it work very well for me too.i saw another video http://www.metacafe.com/watch/963248/remove_car_dent_with_a_lighter/
i tried this method too.unbelievable the dent is gone.
but i do have to heat 1 minute instead of 30 seconds

i just tried the lighter method.Holy S**t what a good job.
Thanks a lot a lot a lot wisebread.

where is this video(the lighter method) ??????

Method two only worked slightly as only half of the dent came out so now it looks more like two dents.
I suppose this is because the dent is too big or maybe because its cold outside. I'll try again when it gets warmer I suppose.

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The ideal gas law is actually PV=nRT, where n= amount of gas (mol).

I'll settle this right now. I've been performing professional paintless dent removal for over 17 years. http://www.denttime.com If a dent was to come out with compressed air and a blow dryer, it would come out anyway without it in the first place.

Try taking that no good method and use it on your own dents. I guarantee that 99.9% of you won't be able to get real results. Notice I said "real."

Removing a dent takes way more physics than you think. It's actually called "physical" labor used with special steel rods and tools. Here's a link if anyone wants to see how dents are performed as a craft. http://www.denttime.wordpress.comThe only type of dent that "might" even come close to being removed with compressed air would be a flat and shallow dent that you could take your hand and pop out anyway.

I'm a pdr tech and I'm always looking for an easier way of getting dents out. Just thought I'd let you know that we don't use dry ice. You can search and see what our tool look like. It maybe true that dry ice may take out some dents. I have never seen it or actually talked with anyone in person that has had luck with this method

will method one or two work on a hood from the underside of the hood?

More importantly, "English."

Still. Great post.

Yes, I know I'm a jerk. But I'm also right.

duchebag lurn physics ;-)

I just wanted to post my experience with this method because it may have saved me some money.

The other day, I backed out of my garage and almost missed, but side swiped my in-laws car at a very slow speed causing a dent in the front right quarter-panel about the size of a desert plate. The initial part of the dent did have a slight crinkle effect in it, but the remainder of the dent was just that without any indication of metal damage. I tried to take the headlight out to get behind the dent, but couldn't remove it all the way and didn't want to do more damage to my in-laws car. I couldn't access the dent from inside the wheel wall because of all the plastic covering attached with non-reusable rivets. Basically, I figured I was in for a $100-$150 bill for someone to fix it.

I viewed the video, read the articles (many of whom argued about physics, elements, gases, liquids, solids, etc.), went to Office Depot and purchased the smallest can of liquid air or whatever you want to call it. Came home, got the hairdryer and started warming up the dent. As I was warming it up, I thought this will never work...I sprayed the liquid on it, and waited for the ice to melt away, and sure enough it DID NOT come out. So I had some liquid air left and figured I might as well try it again. This time I sprayed all around the area of the dent, and the next thing I did was, once I had the area sprayed, I massaged the area with my fingers around the dent, and pop, it came out. The finished product was 95% fixed, but that crinkle I talked about earlier did not come out, and as the gentleman said earlier, when metal is truly bent, not bowed, you have to use tools to make that perfectly smooth again.

My advise would be to try this if you have a dent that is shallow and looks like it could be removed with the tap of your fist from the back side, but don't expect miracles in metal repair using a hairdryer and a can of compressed air. My father in-law hasn't seen any of my repair work yet as it was my mother-in-law visiting, and I may still have to pay someone to remove that little BB sized dent, but at least it looks better than before. If it were my car, I would be very pleased.

Here is what I used on what. I used one 3.5 ounce can of Office Depot brand cleaning duster ($6.99) & my wife's hairdryer on a 2006 Buick LaSabre. Hope this helps out anyone who is considering using this method of dent removal.

this new metod with a lighter work perfect for me.:)
http://www.metacafe.com/watch/963248/remove_car_dent_with_a_lighter/

... is that if you know where to look for the dent, you will always see a little mark ... that's why these techniques are primarily used by caryards.

But, if you are selling the car - or don't look TOO close - or don't care ... then using these techniques (or even professional PDR shops that use funny-looking tools to 'massage the dents out') can save you a bundle!

Thanks for the great tips! AJC.

you can also use a large flood lamp if you have one... those things get pretty darn hot... i'll try it on my 2007 lexus to try to remove the door ding... wish me luck

Well some asshole smaked their car door into mine.....sob! I cant tell you how pissed I am.....anyway,a hairdryer you say.......did anybody even think about a heat gun???.....borrowin one tomorrow to try

Well some a-hole smaked their car door into mine.....sob! I cant tell you how pissed I am.....anyway,a hairdryer you say.......did anybody even think about a heat gun???.....borrowin one tomorrow to try

That is an outrageous comment. That is as outrageous as claiming "liquid car." When liquefied, it would no longer be considered to be wood.

A heat gun would likely burn the clearcoat or paint. Be careful.

"Sweet. So with the right combination of temperature and pressure, I could have liquid wood? I have something to meditate on tonight."

Yes wood is chemical compound. Read a book

"Sweet. So with the right combination of temperature and pressure, I could have liquid wood? I have something to meditate on tonight."

Yes wood is chemical compound. Read a book

Listen bro i dont use air dusters for my laptop nor did i ever use it, and every science class i passed it either with a C or D (mostly D) so i need to know does this CO2 thing need to be 'liquid" or "gas"?

aahhaha down here they ask me a 'math question' saying 1+3 to confirm im not a hacker or something hehehe funny stuff. thanks for ur help in advance.

We have a paintless dent removal business & have never used dry ice! There are a lot of special tools & training to fix things right. If dry ice works for you .... great!

Just get your car fixed by the professionals by people such as AJ above^. But if you do try it please video tape it and post up your results because there is nothing funnier than a dumbass that doesn't know what they are doing and is destroying their own car to save a buck. :P

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I had a 3" light dent on my rear quarter so on a hot day, over 80 degrees, I let my car sit in the direct sunlight till 3pm. I was about to heat it up with a hair dryer but before that I pushed on the metal from behind the dent. I have a hatchback and through the little panel I could reach in push from behind. Guess what? It actually popped out because the metal was so hot, being heated by the sun for 9 hours. Anyways, there was a little ding left that I tried the Hairdryer/C02 trick on and it didn't come out but overall I got a HUGE portion of the dent out and am very satisfied. Put your car in the sun and give it a try!

Dude everyone needs to chill out about the whole liquid wood thing. Im pretty sure the person was just joking and making fun of the person talking about the liquid co2. Can someone please post some informative RESULTs not just replies and questions like this one?

Yeah i just got a brand new corvette, and i was at the local Food-4-Less and i parked far away and to my surprise mother nature's wrath of wind had blown a cart clear into the path of my left rear quarter panel. I was angered by this. I need to know if you guys think i should try any of these methods. I am unsure and i don't want the pant to be ruined. Thank you Yoshimitsu Hajki

DAS WHACK i be shoppin up at dat food fo less. das be some good eatins yo dawg u shouldnt be trippin try dat method 2 that works miricalse ya digg

My wood makes liquid.(Different Thread)

I hit someone and left a tiny dent, no scratch. His insurance wants me to pay 14 hundred bucks. I want to try this first.

From Japan.

Thanks for the thread.

i looked specifically for some that had co2 and found it (also contains isohexane and ethanol) and sprayed a small sopt on my car a few minutes ago just to check the paint wont come off... however, it wasnt ice- like and now im wondering if i have the right kind... also i didnt turn the can upside down, but i really dont see how that could make a difference. any input?

you couldnt be more wrong buddy.

Actually, it can, just not at atmospheric pressure. So if it's pressurized in a can, it can be liquid.

SHUTUP!!!!! THERE IS NO SUCH THIS AS LIQUID WOOD YOU STUPID RETARD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YOU ARE AN IDIOT GO TO COLLEGE STUPID. The liquid state of a molecule or element has to do with its polarity. Like water is a liquid because of hydrogen bonds. the hydrogen is attracted to the oxygen atom of another H2O molecule. Not everthing can be a liquid. some go straight from a solid to a gas, like wood would do.

I cant believe how much time has been wated on this whole debate on wether CO2 can be liquid and if there is liquid wood. this whole thing is about dents! not chemistry!

Car Dent/Car Ding, with scratch, brother and sister fellow friend out there? do you think it possible to fix the ding?

you are just "super dumb" and I apologize if it sounds offensive, coz the phrase is used only to point towards the irrational arguments you are making and towards your even greater lack of absolute basic knowledge! Now coming to the point, wood CAN NOT be liquefied because liquefaction under pressure and below a certain temperature is only applicable to gases and like we all know wood is solid! Now why don't you stop commenting here and concentrate on learning a little bit of Chemistry! Also, as far as meditation is concerned, I am sure if someone put in enough effort they might be able to liquefy wood...as for your abilities even at meditation, I am still doubtful.

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Didn't work at all for me. There was a tiny barely visible crease and that may have prevented it. The pop-a-dent kit didn't work either on the small 2" dent, but it did work on the 5" dent. Popped it right out so you couldn't even tell. I'll try the flame method today on the small one. Maybe I'll get lucky cause it is around 93 degrees out now.

I was standing in line at a shoe store when all of a sudden a woman insisted that her 9-year-old niece get in line in front of me. It seemed pretty apparent that the adults in this poor kid's life had no interest in teaching her right from wrong, and when I wouldn't allow the girl to cut in front of me, the woman, WITH THE CHILD IN TOW, left the store and keyed the hood of my car with obscenities. Nice, huh? But all that is neither here nor there. Does anyone know if the lighter method will repair a key-scratch, or is that not enough of a dent?

a key scratch is paint removed so it is not really a dent, if you have a dent al or most material is still there, if you have a (key) scratch there is material gone.

wikepedia is not a reliable sourc!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

i just spent the most enjoyable 1/2 hour reading all these comments...I had a crease like dent removed by a dent place...a little ripple left in the paint..but you have to know where to look...i have alittle one in the door. If i could just get my spatula in there....but the plunger...love the liquid wood discussion....thank you all for a good time.. cheaper than Atlantic City.....

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