Does the paintless dent removal process weaken the metal thereby making it even easier to dent in the future?

I don't think I'd testify in court, but, I did the dent removal thing on my 95 Lumina and it looked great for about 6 mos. then it quickly started looking like cellulite on the back of a fat chicks legs. I'm curious to know if the heating they do to "massage" out the dents weakens the metal at all.

Anyone know?

 

I've never had a problem in that regard and the first time I used in on my Maxima SE was over 8 years ago. I have used the process twice subsequent to then and have had no problem whatsoever.

Lastly, the two places I went to did no heating at all. I suspect the shop you went to didn't know what they were doing. All they do is tool the dent out by getting in behind it from whatever angle they can. Sometimes they drill a hole to access the area, depending on where the dent is, and then fill it in later - however, they didn't use that method on my car.

 

How many dents were done that it wound up looking like cellulite. I would think that if there were alot of dents, that yes, the metal would loose some of its strength. A few dings here and there however should not pose any cause for the rigidity of the metal to deteriorate and look liek cellutlite. I do know what you are talking about though. MY PDR experience required no heat however. I have seen cars that have that cellulite look to the sheetmetal Never really thought that it was due to PDR though.

 

Most PDR is done by cold-working the metal from the inside - for body steels, this only makes it stronger. The issue is that there will be residual stresses in the metal no matter how you do it.

Applying heat is a bad idea IMO, but I'm not a body man so I can't say for certain. The only thing I would try is maybe warming a plastic panel so it pops out more easily, but that wouldn't be much more heat than the sun on a sunny day.

Dave

 

I have a slight dent on the passenger fender right where that crease is over the wheel well. It also has a slight scratch. If anyone near jersey knows how to do it or where to fix it **cheap**, let me know. I dont know how to post pics here so i cant really do that.. Thanks

 

"Lastly, the two places I went to did no heating at all. I suspect the shop you went to didn't know what they were doing." - rmurdoch

This is possible, it was at a Saturn body shop. They told me they had a guy come in and do it a couple days a week. This was about 5 years ago. I thought they told me the process was that they used a rod of some sort that friction heated the door panel from the back making the metal softer temporarily in order to work it back into shape.

The "cellulite" look I am referring was because the door had SO many small creases and dents it reminded me of cellulite (after PDR). It just seemed that prior to the PDR the door didn't have that same look (even though it did have small dents obviously). It just seemed that after the PDR the doors that were worked on experienced alot more small dents than you would think possible. I understand doors get hit occasionally by other doors, it just seemed like the doors that had PDR work didn't have the same resitance to dents imho.

I was just curious if any Maxima owners had the same occurance after PDR.

 

pdr works this way
if you look at the surface of your paint on your car it has an orange peel look to it,the pdr replicates that where the dent is, a dent may take 20 minutes to work out or an hour depending on where it is on the car and how accessible it is.
working their way around the dent slowly pushing it back out.
when they drill access holes they are supposed to put a plastic or rubber plug in the hole,alot of times they do not.