PDR - has anyone attempted such a repair on their own?

[Cobra Jet]

I don’t have any dings or dents... so this is more out of curiousity and maybe could end up being a future DIY thread for some.

A few years ago, I had a Pro PDR guy come to our house to remove a dent out of the passenger side door of our vehicle and watched him as he did the repair (could never tell afterward there was ever a blemish either). The cost for a Pro repair was $150 for a single dent that was approx. the size of a US Quarter.

There are multiple kits readily available on eBay for reasonable costs. So I was wondering, a lot of us rely on DIY tech on this very site AND many of us have had the unfortunate circumstance of being the receiver of dings/dents...

Sooooo... Has anyone attempted an at home PDR on their S550 (or other vehicle)? If so, what technique or kit did you use? How were your results?

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[oesman]

It's one of those things that looks easy, but takes some practice to do. It's like tinting, vinyl, etc... not really expensive to start out in, looks easy, but takes practice, attention to detail, patience and a steady hand to do a truly good job. So in tinting you might start with flat windows (like storefront) because it's easier. With this you might try it on a friend's clunker first, what they got to lose?

If you wanna learn I'm sure you could. I see ads for "start your own PDR business with monthly training for under $1,000!" all the time. I personally have never attempted PDR, because it's cheap enough for me to not bother and I'm very careful and particular about how I park so I don't need it often. I also think unless you have lots of cars to work on you just wont get good at it. I imagine most guys starting one of those kitchen counter PDR businesses do a ton of craigslist hack jobs, especially with snaking through cars interior trim and electrics, before the Audi dealership starts using them for their customers ;). Surprisingly most body shops/dealers do NOT have their own PDR guy, they do have a person or company they bring in. It's just not a traditional body shop skill yet.

 

[Dr. Norts]

supposedly the learning curve with PDR is very high and takes quite a lot of practice to get good results.

It's one of those things that looks much easier than it is.

IIRC a full set of professional PDR tools is $1000+

I had about 20-25 dents removed from my 2008 FX35. 8 years of dents, dings and the odd acorn dent all removed in under a few hours for 400$. The biggest one was a 4" crease on the hood from who knows what. All gone 100%

It's best to leave this to the pros unless your serious about getting into the trade.

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