removing door dings with dry ice

Status
Not open for further replies.
Joined
Oct 22, 2008
Messages
1,048
Location
Sunny Calif
Has anyone used dry ice to remove minor dings? I've seen some videos where people use dry ice or an upside-down can of duster spray (for keyboards) to freeze the dent. The dent pops out due to the metal contracting. I'm thinking of trying this but not sure what it'll do to the paint. Plus it seems to work better on medium sized dents several inches across, however my car only has a 1" door ding.
 
metal has a memory when stamped out. also try boiling water on a frosty day. or those rubber sucker things wetted or with vaseline on them to pull it. dents with creases difficult. if just pushed in with no obvious sharp impact point pop out ok often.
 
Originally Posted By: hate2work

I think the method involves heating the door panel with a hair dryer after freezing it with the duster.


Nope, I had it backwards, you heat it first, then apply the cold air.
 
This heat/freeze technique is very hit-or-miss. Seems to work best for large, shallow dents, eg. where a soccer ball hit a flat body panel. Not very reliable for door dings, which almost always stretch and crease the sheet metal. Better to just pay a bit of money for a proper Paintless Dent Removal job, and be done with it. Believe me, I've wasted lots of time and effort on DYI "shortcuts" like this.
 
I have a small dent on my Pathfinder's hood that could be classified as a "door ding" I suppose - it's small and circular, no creases, just metal pushed in. Obviously I wouldn't waste any money to actually fix it, but I think I'll try this heating/cooling thing... just gotta get some dry ice and use a buddy's heat gun.
 
Originally Posted By: frankm
Better to just pay a bit of money for a proper Paintless Dent Removal job, and be done with it. Believe me, I've wasted lots of time and effort on DYI "shortcuts" like this.

+1

With paint and body work, I have just accepted that I am not a professional and it is best to leave this sort of work to a professional before you make the problem worse on your own. Call your local dealer and ask him for the name/number of the guy they send their used cars to for PDR work. Those guys usually do decent work for fairly low prices.
 
Originally Posted By: Towncivilian
I have a small dent on my Pathfinder's hood that could be classified as a "door ding" I suppose - it's small and circular, no creases, just metal pushed in. Obviously I wouldn't waste any money to actually fix it, but I think I'll try this heating/cooling thing... just gotta get some dry ice and use a buddy's heat gun.


Instead of the heat gun, leave the car parked in a hot garage or outside in the sun. This will cause more even heating of the metal and won't risk the heat cracking the paint.

But from looking at various videos, it seems this cold/heat technique isn't effective on very small dings which is why I was asking around before I try it. Let us know how it works for you!
 
My friends 06 F150 went thru a hail storm.It looked like a golf ball afterwards.The body shop he used took out 98% of the dings with dry ice.They only had to do minor body work on one small section.The truck looked like it had never been in a hail storm.
 
It'll work with medium sized dings...but yea, if there's a "crase" of any sort, you're out of luck....will take professional work to "fix" likely with Bondo or some other sort of "Resin" magic
wink.gif
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top