Paintless dent repair drivers side rear panel question

kenchan

i took a training course, then worked on used cars as an intern.
then from there been fixing dings on my own to fix my own cars when i do encounter it.

ive fixed home appliance dings, dings in some decorative container cans, decorative trash cans, anything metal or plastic that needs finess. my wife even gave me a pizza pan to fix when UPS bent it out of shape. lol

it's handy to know how to read bends.

darli328

Here's some pics.

Also, what do you guys think about wheel repair where they don't take off the rim and just mask the area around it? I'm a little concerned about that, and would prefer that take the wheel off incase of over spray...

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KcL@AOI

I myself am a dent guy. During Hail seasons I travel around the world (Australia and Europe) and chase hail storms and do jobs mostly through insurance agencies and do local dealerships when its not in hail season. kenchan is right those tools aren't cheap! You can mostly get anywhere on a car except for rails or dog legs. Darli328 that isn't to bad of a ding. If it was me working on that dent the best thing to do is to take out the tail light and stick a long rod down there, and if its too tight of a space the I would probably use a special tool called a Whale Tail to get in that tight place.

darli328

Went to my dent guy today. He tried his best to pull it out with hot glue but most of the dent is still there. He also thinks taking off the tail light might be too far from the dent and he's not sure if there's even a way to get to the area behind the dent from the tail light. What do you guys think about that? Can you access the back of the panel from the tail light?
He also said I have another option. He could take tire/wheel off and wheel liner and try to access the area behind the dent that way. Does anyone know if there's a way to access that area without drilling? My dent guy said worse case he could take the wheel and wheel liner off and drill a hole behind the plastic liner to gain access to the area behind the dent. I really don't want to drill but that sounds like my only option, and at least the hole would be behind the wheel liner. Any thoughts?

darli328

Do you have any experience with removing the tail light? Can you access the area in question from there? Seems kind of far, maybe 2 or more feet away.

KcL@AOI

Yea when there is a crease that sharp on the body line its pointless to glue pull, cause your gonna risk pinching the dent shut and thats gonna make it even harder to get out. On quarter panels theres no access unless its a bmw or mercedes cause they have secret plugs in the quarter well. Im about 99% sure that if you take out the tail light and stick a ultra thin whale tail you could easily get it out. Theres no access under trim or bumper. I would take the tailight out like i said before and stick a long ultra thin whale tail. if that doesnt work last resort is to beat the dent out. what i mean by this is to beat to the sides of the crease. of course its gonna make the dent bigger, but its also gonna make the dent less sharp. your basicly gonna make the dent more shallow and soft do you can stick a glue tab on it and pull it up. theres no way to just stick a glue tab on that sharp of a dent.

this is the company i work for, its just me and my boss.
heres the link if you want to take a look at some of our work.

Welcome to Dentmagix

heres a pic of a ultra thin whale tail.
uk/d21.html

its long so you can stick it right through the tail light hole with nothing in your way. make sure he tries with the tail light out. sometimes i get lazy myself and try and do it with the tail light in, takes twice as long and doesn't come out perfect.

Sorry for the response!

darli328

Thanks so much for the response, I'll talk with my tech tomorrow and see what he says.

darli328

I did some searching on tail light removal. Got a lot of info off this thread.

DIY: of complete FOG LAMP install

Does it look like there is a big enough access hole behind the tail light to get to my dent? I see a few small potential access holes, just not sure if that's good enough for my situation.

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darli328

Incase anyone's curious. Went to a body shop today. They managed to get the dent out without drilling by removing the interior truck pieces. The results aren't perfect. I'd say 90-95% of the dent is gone, not too bad all things considered. But, it is possible to gain access to the metal behind the rear quarter panel through the trunk. Thanks again for everyone's help.

kenchan

i would just use the rear tire as a pivot point and push it out from the rear arch.

i think it can be repaired to about 98-99%. difficult to do over decorative lines.

kenchan

lol@ glue pull. find yourself another PDR tech.

i wouldn't even consider glue puller for that part of the car cause it wont do shitt. you need to access it from the wheel well. if there is no direct access, the tech will drill a hole on the inner panel of the well, push out the metal, and just plug it with a plastic plug. at least it's not on the passenger side where he'd have to worry about the gas filler piping.

access from taillamp will require drilling too since there's really no access hole that i remember when i did the rear camera /fog lamp install that the tool can fit.

darli328

What about taking the rear bumper off? Is that an option? Or, what about taking off the interior trunk trim pieces. Any hope of accessing it that way? I really don't want to drill, and am considering leaving the dent if drilling is the only option.
What's wrong with the glue pull? Is there a better way of pulling the dent out?
Lastly the tech said he could try to make the dent bigger and my get lucky with being able to pull it out completely. He did say that is very risky and could crack the paint.

kenchan

glue pull will never get the amount of force needed to bend that part of decorative lines in the metal. if it did, the paint would crack off (seriously).

glue pull is good for non-aluminum hoods, roofs, trunk lids, some side panels where there is no access from behind. i use glue pullers as last resort as it is very time consuming unless i have to do hail damage.

removing the rear bumper will not gain access to that area. you might be able to access if you took the trunk liner out, but the tech probably can't monitor the metal while he's pushing it out so it would only work to see where a tool can be fed behind the metal while the tech access it from the wheelwell.

this is why im saying he needs to drill the wheel well to gain access if there is no direct access from inside the wheel arch.

definitely dont make the dent bigger. that's a single impact dent, right? making it bigger will just make it that much harder to bend it back especially on decorative lines.

also check your area (or your dealer) for mobile touchup places. the good ones can match your paint very well. spot bondo, sand, and paint. these folks fix used cars that can't be repaired efficiently by PDR.

darli328

Call me crazy but I don't want to drill, and that's the only reason why the tech tried a glue pull. He said we could try it but it probably won't work. I'd much rather take the interior trim pieces off or anything else over drilling and/or painting. I guess what I'm asking is, is there any way to gain access to that part of the car without drilling? Even if I can't get the dent completely out I'd rather have it somewhat fixed without drilling. I get what you're saying about how the tech needs to be able to see what he's doing with regards to working the metal. I still think I'd rather try my luck with any option that doesn't require drilling/painting first.

kenchan

see service manual BRM page 32 rear fender hemming process.

then you'll see wat im talking about. you need to drill a small hole inside the wheel well to gain access. even if you remove the tail lamp you wont gain access, and even if you drilled the metal behind the tail lamp, you still wont gain access.