Scrapped a wooden beam comming into a garage the other day. Tried to rub it out a little bit...what do I do from here?

Pics, clickable thumbnails:



Thanks,
DrCR

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The dent is a pain because it's over a crease. You may not be able to have it taken out without using bondo. A really good dent guy will be able to smooth it out, but might not look perfect on closer inspection. For the paint I would recommend using a heavy rubbing compound then work down to a light rubbing compound and then to a finishing glaze. After that I would do a wax and buff with some high quality product. Personally I think Nano is the best around.

Call a PDR service, they can make that go away for probably around $100 bucks.
Might not be 100%, but it sure will be pretty damn near close.

forget the dent.. as for the paint rub, try rubbing compund but be aware that with and area that HUGE, it will SHOW no matter what. rubbing compound will take it off but it WILL destroy/dull the clear coat.

pretty much nothing at home can get this fixed properly.

How easy would it be to remove the body panel? Then I could try to pop it out a bit, use some filler, and then repaint the spot with spray cans.

bondo, sand, color match, clearcoat and it will look very different than stock... should be easy to remove. once you take the wheel liner out you should see most of teh bolts

Typically, PDR outfits don't deal with scrapes and paint that is lifted.

Unless you are absolutely broke and if a PDR place can't make it look 100%, I would get it fixed properly at a reputable body shop and live with the financial pain.

Avoid wooden posts in future.

Do you mean those color matched spray cans (saw them on a sticky thread around here somewhere) won't exactly match?

Yeah, I may indeed have to take it to a body shop. I'm going to have to talk around and find a good one in my area if it turns out to be a non-DYI job.

Thanks!

DrCR

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that's nothing. my next door neighbor hasn't even bothered getting this fixed and it's been about 2 years. is it really worth the cost for you to get it fixed professionally?

Have you ever heard of pride of ownership? If I had a dent like that in my car it would depress me no end and I would get it fixed ASAP.

is that bird sh.it?

Yea I relly screwed up my fender when I hit this wood thing in my driveway backing into my garage and I got it fixed immediatly. No living with dented fenders for muwa(?).

I hear ya! Even the smallest dent brives me nuts

well sometimes i hear people talk about this so called "pride of ownership" phenomenon yet i still can't figure out what they are talking about

i never said i wouldn't replace that fender if it were my car, in fact i would. the neighbors left for a week or so and the car was parked under a tree. they seem to be in touch with this strange "pride of ownership" deal that you speak of, and cleaned the car when they got home. my point is, that small dent on dude's fender is hardly worth fixing. it's good to have a nice car, but something like that is not the end of the world. there's far more important things to spend $200-$300 on or worry about than something as insignificant as that small ding on the fender lip.