Paintless Dent Repair

[AmericanRebelution]

Well, I did it. Finally scheduled paintless dent repair for 3 dents that have been bothering me. One door ding from a parking lot and 2 tailgate dents that were both my fault . Has anyone else had PDR done on your RAM and specifically the tailgate? The guy doing my repair says he is experienced with our aluminum tailgates and it requires some special techniques. Tailgates take a lot of abuse; I'm not sure I love the fact that ours are aluminum. I also realize there are probably more dents to come, but these ones are bothering me... they gotta go! I'll post some before and after pics next week.

 

[Craig777]

Well, I did it. Finally scheduled paintless dent repair for 3 dents that have been bothering me. One door ding from a parking lot and 2 tailgate dents that were both my fault . Has anyone else had PDR done on your RAM and specifically the tailgate? The guy doing my repair says he is experienced with our aluminum tailgates and it requires some special techniques. Tailgates take a lot of abuse; I'm not sure I love the fact that ours are aluminum. I also realize there are probably more dents to come, but these ones are bothering me... they gotta go! I'll post some before and after pics next week.

Had it done on 3 doors and the tailgate. The guy was amazing you can’t even tell they were there. My truck is black so ever little thing shows. I used to do bodywork on show cars so I am really fussy. Simply amazing!

 

[SD Rebel]

Not on my RAM yet, but other vehicles and I absolutely love PDR. If you go to an experienced person with lots of positive reviews, I think you will be happy.

Most PDR jobs will result in 100% removal of the ding, at least to the naked eye. I've even seen some creased dings be removed 90% or so, which is impressive.

It's less about the size of the ding and more about access to it, but they got a ton of techniques these days to get to dings.

 

[scottmoyer]

I do PDR and I can say that doing aluminum is trickier than regular sheet metal. If the tech is good, you should be fine. Aluminum doesn't have a memory like steel does. Steel wants to return to it's predamaged condition so it works better at restoring the finish. Aluminum doesn't have that same memory, so the dent is the new shape. To remove the dent, the tech is basically reshaping the panel.

I've seen some very good work on aluminum. Not every tech is skilled at fixing it. I'm more of a steel guy myself. I've spent my dent career fixing older show cars and working mostly on metal panels. I've done aluminum, but I am not nearly as good as some of the newer techs with the newer tools and training.

 

[Mountain Whiskey]

I do PDR and I can say that doing aluminum is trickier than regular sheet metal. If the tech is good, you should be fine. Aluminum doesn't have a memory like steel does. Steel wants to return to it's predamaged condition so it works better at restoring the finish. Aluminum doesn't have that same memory, so the dent is the new shape. To remove the dent, the tech is basically reshaping the panel.

I've seen some very good work on aluminum. Not every tech is skilled at fixing it. I'm more of a steel guy myself. I've spent my dent career fixing older show cars and working mostly on metal panels. I've done aluminum, but I am not nearly as good as some of the newer techs with the newer tools and training.

Hopefully the guy the OP finds will be as honest as you just were. It can be hard to find honest people who have the confidence enough in what they do to understand their limitations. Kudos to your successes.

 

[cervelo15]

Had PDR done on my previous Laramie to fix a dent right below the bed rail on the driver side. Agree with everyone, totally eliminated the dent and put it back to its original condition

 

[AmericanRebelution]

Hopefully the guy the OP finds will be as honest as you just were. It can be hard to find honest people who have the confidence enough in what they do to understand their limitations. Kudos to your successes.

I tried to do my due diligence in selecting the right person/company for the job. I've been communicating with the person for a few months now. When I told him I was going to call around for quotes he actually mentioned to be sure I ask others about their experience with aluminum and explained he is experienced with it. I'm hoping that's a good sign. Tomorrow is the day we'll find out.

 

[AmericanRebelution]

Repair is done! I'm pretty happy with the result. If I look really closely, I can tell where the original damage was. But that's because I'm very particular with stuff like this; it looks much much better. This repair was not cheap - $500. Overall, I'm happy and would do it again - hopefully I never have to! It's really difficult to take pictures to capture the details; I did my best with these. I'll post before pics in this post and the after pics in the next post to keep them separate.

 

[AmericanRebelution]

Here are the after pics: