Dent - need some DIY advice

I've got a dent just in front of the rear wheelwell of my 6th gen coupe, and a smaller dent(s) just above the wheelwell. I tried using a glue puller dent repair kit, but that got nowhere as this is not the kind of dent those pullers are designed for.











I checked with a few autobody shops and got quotes of $400, $500 and $700. The $400 quote came from a shop that seemed like they would do a real hack job. And I didn't check with the high end places because I know they'll be asking over $1000 (had similar work on the other rear quarter panel done by a high end place that was covered by the other drivers insurance). So I'm looking at $500 for a hopefully decent job of dent repair + paint and blend of rear quarter panel. That's just too much for me to sink into this car for a minor dent that doesn't affect function.

So I'm looking into DIY options.

The dent(s) above the wheelwell are really only noticeable because of the scratches. I don't think this stuff went through to the metal, so there is some hope of polishing it out.

The dent forward of the wheelwell:
-Considering getting a stud welder, but this seems like it's going to be a huge amount of work as I'll need to sand down the area to bare metal to weld studs on. And after I'm done pulling, I'll still need to use a hammer and dolly to smooth out all the puckering left from pulling studs. Then cut off the studs and grind down the stud heads. Then sand, body fill, prime, paint, clear.

-Will removing the trunk liner give me access to the back side of the right quarter panel? Is removing the liner relatively easy? I'm wondering if it's possible to heat up the metal and hammer the dent out. I'd still be looking at sand/filler/prime/paint.

-I don't think the dent would be very noticeable to a casual observer if not for the missing paint and scratches. It's an '01 and my daily driver and 'not very noticeable to a casual observer' is a standard I can live with.

If I were to leave the dent, what are my options for touching up the paint to look minimally decent? I don't have a compressor or spray gun, so any touch up will have to be applied by rattle can or brush.

Eww good luck. Facing a similar situation. Lemon had some good steeps on polishing our rather harsh scratches. As far as the weld sand paint. If u can paint it yourself which would be quite a good skill ten that might be worth looking into, but if u pay someone it will be close to your original est just to paint it. Maybe look on here for polishing tips and see what u think, and afterwards if h still want it done, perhaps estimates would be lower because it doesn't look as bad. Good luck

option 1. Sand the panel, thoroughly clean it and sand it again, rinse and dry it off completely
tape off car 2-3 coats primer/3 coats black(to match your CC)/Clear coat/polish buff
dent will be there but the whole panel will match with no scratches. i find black hard to match perfectly when doing touchups


option 2. do the above but only to the affected area(but wash and clean the whole panel so you dont get orange peel, "blend" areas that werent sanded

option 3. the trusty dusty junkyard..you can probably get a panel in better shape than yours for cheap, and just paint and install that one

HotboxF23 said:

option 1. Sand the panel, thoroughly clean it and sand it again, rinse and dry it off completely
tape off car 2-3 coats primer/3 coats black(to match your CC)/Clear coat/polish buff
dent will be there but the whole panel will match with no scratches. i find black hard to match perfectly when doing touchups


option 2. do the above but only to the affected area(but wash and clean the whole panel so you dont get orange peel, "blend" areas that werent sanded

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I was thinking along the lines of option 2.

Related to this option, if I were to do a bit more work:
A. buy a Harbor Freight stud welder and pull out the dent as much as possible, but don't bother hammering. Just fill what's remaining with body filler, then sand, rattle can primer, rattle can paint, rattle can clear, polish.

B. skip the stud welder and just fill the entire dent with body filler. Is that pretty much guaranteed to crack in a few months time?

HotboxF23 said:

option 3. the trusty dusty junkyard..you can probably get a panel in better shape than yours for cheap, and just paint and install that one

Click to expand...

Interesting idea. I hadn't considered that. A friend of mine works at a junkyard. But I'd need to cut the old panel out and weld in the replacement - I have no clue how to do all that. And I'm guessing by the time I pay someone, I'll be close to the $500 that one of the body shops quoted me for the repair. Too bad it wasn't a front fender - replacing it would have been the easy choice.

Stopped by another body shop today and they quoted me $800.

Search around your area or ask some body shops on who they would recommend for paintless dent removal. I was going to get my rear quarter panel fixed at a body shop but they were some stand up guys and they told me it is not worth it to fix due to it costing about $2000 to fix and paint both quarter panels and trunk to blend in the paint. They recommended me to a PDR pro that does contract work for them and he fixed mine for $100. You can't even tell it was previously damaged. As with any other repair service, find someone with at least 5+ years of experience. The guy who did mine has been doing it since the introduction of PDR in the 80s!

Good luck.

Hate the rear quarter panel on these cars, would have rather had a seam somewhere and made it easier to replace since they tend to rust out anyway. Best of luck with the solution, I'm in a similar boat with some rust in my rear wheel well that I just don't feel like spending money to fix with a 15yr old car. My body guy said he would cut it out, weld it new metal, and refinish the entire quarter panel for $600.

mossberg said:

I was thinking along the lines of option 2.

Related to this option, if I were to do a bit more work:
A. buy a Harbor Freight stud welder and pull out the dent as much as possible, but don't bother hammering. Just fill what's remaining with body filler, then sand, rattle can primer, rattle can paint, rattle can clear, polish.

B. skip the stud welder and just fill the entire dent with body filler. Is that pretty much guaranteed to crack in a few months time?


Interesting idea. I hadn't considered that. A friend of mine works at a junkyard. But I'd need to cut the old panel out and weld in the replacement - I have no clue how to do all that. And I'm guessing by the time I pay someone, I'll be close to the $500 that one of the body shops quoted me for the repair. Too bad it wasn't a front fender - replacing it would have been the easy choice.

Stopped by another body shop today and they quoted me $800.

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ok i definately wouldn't go with option A as thats just wayy to much bondo
Option B? not so bad at least you wont be OD on the bondo and can still get a smooth surface through sanding it REALLY good

as far as option 3 f*k that..option B bro

HotboxF23 said:

ok i definately wouldn't go with option A as thats just wayy to much bondo
Option B? not so bad at least you wont be OD on the bondo and can still get a smooth surface through sanding it REALLY good

as far as option 3 f*k that..option B bro

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I assume you mean you'd go with option A - use a stud welder to pull out as much of the dent as possible and fill the rest with bondo.

Option B was don't pull the dent at all, and just fill with bondo. Which I'm guessing will lead to cracking down the line.

truWarier02 said:

Search around your area or ask some body shops on who they would recommend for paintless dent removal. I was going to get my rear quarter panel fixed at a body shop but they were some stand up guys and they told me it is not worth it to fix due to it costing about $2000 to fix and paint both quarter panels and trunk to blend in the paint. They recommended me to a PDR pro that does contract work for them and he fixed mine for $100. You can't even tell it was previously damaged. As with any other repair service, find someone with at least 5+ years of experience. The guy who did mine has been doing it since the introduction of PDR in the 80s!

Good luck.

Click to expand...

I contacted 4 different PDR guys. 3 of them never got back to me. The remaining guy got back to me after a week and quoted me $160 to pull out some of the dent, no painting. I asked him if he was going to use a glue-based puller because I had tried that with a consumer grade glue puller and got nowhere. That was 4 days ago; haven't heard back yet.

I get the feeling the PDR guys get enough business for common dents from balls, hail, grocery carts, etc., that don't remove paint and are easy to pull, that they don't want to mess with a dent like this.