Door Ding

[HowAboutThis]

Due to a lot of remote work now, I don't drive as much. Went out today for some things and had a note on my window in apartment parking lot. Ends up a guy next to me helps his little daughter in and out of her car seat in his truck and she was going to be helpful and opened the door herself. Right into my car door. I can't really get mad. He left a note. Does anyone do that for door dings any more? So I emailed a few PDR places to see if they can fix. He said he'll pay whatever. If they can't PDR it, I'm not going to make him pay hundreds of dollars. I could, but I feel like honesty and doing the right thing are more important than a door ding so I'm willing to give him a break. But man it's so ugly

 

[KJSmith]

I had a similar one right on a body line.
Made the whole door look like it ****.

My local Pop a Ding guy got it out.

I think I paid about $80.00.
He did my truck and a ding in my wife's car at the same time.

 

[dishdude]

A letter for a door ding? That's a stand up guy. Definitely do your best to mitigate the cost.

 

[Amkeer]

Yikes! PDR will get that out.

 

[ecotourist]

I had 3 or 4 door dings in the same place on my Honda. The company truck was always parked in the next parking spot and the paint scrapes in the ding matched the truck so it seemed apparent who had done it.

My boss owned a car dealership and she told me who repaired their door dings. I called the guy on a Saturday morning and he said bring the car over this morning and I'll fix them for you.

The process looked awful (drilling a hole in the edge of the door, prying with long rods, tapping the painted surface with a hammer, and sanding with coarse sandpaper) but after applying a little polish the door was perfect again. It still is. Cost me $50.

 

[Trav]

No worries, a good PDR guy will get that done in no time so you cant tell.

 

[AZjeff]

The process looked awful (drilling a hole in the edge of the door, prying with long rods, tapping the painted surface with a hammer, and sanding with coarse sandpaper) but after applying a little polish the door was perfect again. It still is. Cost me $50.

That sounds pretty old-school. I've watched some videos of PDR using glue and little posts that required no drilling or sanding. It still goes back to the skill of the PDR guy.

 

[HowAboutThis]

A letter for a door ding? That's a stand up guy. Definitely do your best to mitigate the cost.

Yeah, I told him usually things like that you'd never know who did it so I'd give him a good deal. Figured if it's $80-100 I'd tell him $40-60. Like a 50/50 split. Had it been anyone else, I'd be paying all myself, so... wouldn't it be great if people were this honest and caring and everything in every way at every level in our country? How many people have hit my doors on cars WHEN I'M IN IT waiting for my wife and I say, "hey. You smacked my door and you're going to walk away? What's with that?" and they get grumpy AT ME! I had a guy at a red light BACK UP into my front bumper and SCREAM AT ME! I just sat there staring at him saying over and over "dude, this can be really easy or you can keep being a jerk". Finally his wife started yelling at him to shutup and hear what I had to say. Then he got all apologetic. I was like, "YOU hit ME. It's MY choice what happens. Let's get that straight. So now that you've closed your mouth, let me see if the damage is worth the annoyance." It wasn't. But before I could even look the guy got right up in my face and started pointing a finger and yelling at me. Thankfully, I'm used to this behavior from my occupation, or he'd probably be missing teeth.

 

[ecotourist]

I had a guy at a red light BACK UP into my front bumper and SCREAM AT ME!

I had a guy roll down hill while traffic was stopped at a red light and hit me. He started off saying I must have backed up hill and hit him. That wouldn't be very easy with a manual transmission.

So then he said, You'll soon have dents all over your nice new car so why worry about one little dent. The only good thing was that the small dent in my back bumper was perfectly centered and I thought repairing it might turn out worse than it already was, so I left it.

That back bumper was later wiped out entirely by another guy who rear-ended my daughter. [I was in the back seat at the time. My bet is he was texting, unless he's blind of course.] He was within 2 weeks of the end of his "New Driver" probation in BC and offered to pay out of pocket. We didn't go for that and I can only hope he made it through the next 2 years without hitting anyone else.

That car was my bright red Solara. In my limited experience, my (2) red cars have gotten dented a lot.

 

[jerseyguy123]

Love the PDR guy. I had a very big ding and like magic it was gone. Best $50 I ever spent

 

[Gimpy1]

I had 3 or 4 door dings in the same place on my Honda. The company truck was always parked in the next parking spot and the paint scrapes in the ding matched the truck so it seemed apparent who had done it.

My boss owned a car dealership and she told me who repaired their door dings. I called the guy on a Saturday morning and he said bring the car over this morning and I'll fix them for you.

The process looked awful (drilling a hole in the edge of the door, prying with long rods, tapping the painted surface with a hammer, and sanding with coarse sandpaper) but after applying a little polish the door was perfect again. It still is. Cost me $50.

A PDR tech should never ever drill holes in a panel. If you see them drilling run away. The whole idea of PDR is to not disturb the factory paint or damage the sheet metal. That guy wasanamateurora new tech. You never drill for access thats why they have so many different toolsandtechniques to get a dent out.

 

[JohnnyG]

A PDR tech should never ever drill holes in a panel. If you see them drilling run away. The whole idea of PDR is to not disturb the factory paint or damage the sheet metal. That guy wasanamateurora new tech. You never drill for access thats why they have so many different toolsandtechniques to get a dent out.

Not always. Sometimes door dings can be in a location that none of the tools can reach. The dent guy I had asked me first, and I gave him permission to drill into the door jamb in order to reach the dent. A small plastic plug was used to seal the small hole. It would be a miracle if anyone even noticed the plastic plug, looks just like factory.

 

[Gimpy1]

This is copied straight from the PDr Standards and Operations manual:
Drill / No Drill Policy

Drilling has been a common practice since the origin of PDR. The term drilling describes the process of actually using a drill and drill bit to create an access hole to slide a PDR tool in, boring out an existing hole to accommodate a larger diameter tool, or using a hammer punch to create a hole.

Most insurance companies, body shops, rental car fleets and others have banned this practice completely and rightfully so. With today’s technology little changes in structure could alter crumple zones, airbag timing or other variables that may endanger the safety of drivers or passengers. Drilling could also lead to corrosion issues. Unfortunately, many dealerships, auction houses and PDR Technicians have not embraced the no-drill policies."
So no drilling holes is not acceptable.