Have you ever been in the situation where you are driving your parents’ car and accidentally bumped into another car? Sending the car to a workshop and foot the bill of a few hundred dollars is definitely out of the story just for a small dent. Your only resource is to do it yourself and fix the car dent. By knowing how to fix a car dent yourself, you get to keep more money in the pocket and it makes the car looks perfect again.
Small dents that do not contain much damage to the steel or paint can be repaired through a Paintless Dent Restoration service. There are also a few methods of fixing a dent yourself. For small ones, you can actually recover the dent by using a plunger. Place the plunger across the car dent, push it in to create suction and then gently pull it out, just like the way you unclog a toilet bowl. It works for dents that is impossible for us to reach the behind the dent. The plunging method usually works for small ones, but does not help with the paint.
If the plunging method does not work, you can try to bang the dent out from the inside. Firstly, remove all the items surrounding the dent, for instance, tires or tail lights so that you will not damage these parts. The tapping method can be done by covering the dent area with a piece of cloth, and then bang the dent inside out by using either a rubber mallet or a hammer. Be careful not to bang too hard because it might cause the dent to fracture.
You can also fix a car dent by heating up the dented area with a hair dryer for several minutes, until it is hot and can be easily pushed out. Try to bang the dent out gently from the inside using a rubber mallet. Once the dent is recovered, place a cloth that is soaked in ice water to help it cool down the surface.
Some of the dents contain scratches and the paint needs to be recovered. If there is damage on the paint, you can use conventional car sprayers that are available on the market, depending of the color of your car. Spray two coats of primer paint on the damaged area and leave it for about half an hour. After that, spray several coats of paint on the dent, with a half an hour gap between each spray. You can always do it yourself if you know how to fix a car dent. D.I.Y methods are usually more economical than to send the car to the professionals, but when they fail don’t be shy to ask an expert for a paintless dent repair.