hail damage or micro dent repair

[grumpyvette]

http://www.ehow.com/how_4793357_dry-ice ... amage.html

Instructions
things you'll need:

Dry ice Towel Hair dryer Gloves 0000-grit steel wool

1

Check your local yellow pages for a dry ice dealer in your area. Take a Styrofoam chest to carry the dry ice in. Do not touch dry ice with your bare hands.
2

Put on gloves. Place a chuck of dry ice on one or more of the hail dings and use a towel to help hold the dry ice in place. Make sure the dry ice is in direct contact with the metal of the car. You want the dry ice to freeze the metal. Leave the dry ice in contact with the metal of the car for a full two minutes.
3

Remove the dry ice (return it to your Styrofoam container) and immediately blow hot air from a hairdryer onto the frozen metal with the hail ding. The sudden change in temperature should cause the metal to expand and "pop" out, making the damaged area look as good as new.
4

Rub the area gently with 0000-grit steel wool if there are any tiny cracks in the paint around the dinged area. Wipe the area with a damp cloth and allow it to dry.





Tips

Apply heat from the hairdryer the moment the dry ice is removed from the metal. The greater the contrast in temperature of the metal the more likely the metal is to "pop" back to normal.




http://www.wisebread.com/remove-car-den ... nd-cheaply

related info, on body panel repairs

viewtopic.php?f=61&t=8350

viewtopic.php?f=60&t=4604

viewtopic.php?f=60&t=4232

 

[LEJ ZO6]

When I lived in Illinois our SCCA club was invited to a local body shop for a demonstration of how to remove hail damage. The owner said he loved it when it hailed because it beat up a lot of cars and brought him a lot of work. He had a hood and the top cut off of a hail damaged car. He fired up the torch, started heating circles around the dent, and slowly worked his way from the outside toward the center making smaller and smaller circles as he went. He removed all the damage from the hood in about 15 or 20 minutes.

He let several guys try his technique on the top but nobody had much luck removing the dents. The body guy said it took a lot of practice to develop the right technique but once you had it down it was easy.

It was pretty impressive to watch an experienced body man apply his magic.