Hello! I have a 2001 Prius (white) here in Edmonton, Canada. A few years ago I managed to slide the car down a snowy ditch and the front-drivers-side fender skin suffered damage as it slid into a tree stump. I talked with a body shop and the damage seems to only be aesthetic. (See attached photographs) The body shop said that they would need to get the fender skin replaced and then paint it to make it look right. This would end up being over C$1200. Ouch. I have been trying to use different means to un-dent this with little luck. Can someone offer me any suggestions about this issue? I'm thinking that maybe I could get the body shop to simply remove the body panel and I could take it home and try to un-dent it that way (heat it up and push the dent out). Would you think this would be possible? Any ideas much appreciated.
You might remove the inner fender well, and maybe it will allow you enough access to push the dent out from the backside of the fender. I use a tool, on small dents that requires you to hotglue a stud with a large base to the dent, then attach to that stud a pressure bar which is secured at two locations of the car, outside of the dented area. Then you screw a nut onto that stud, which slowly pulls the dent out. Once the dent is removed, you remove the hotglued stud, if it doesn't come off anyhow while applying the pressure to remove the dent itself. But if you can get to the dent from the backside, you'll have an easier chance of popping it back out, if it's not creased anyhow.
Well, a lot of it depends on the body-shop. There are two types of body shops: Those that do nothing less than a perfect job and do it right, and those that will do it cheaply. Because the shop wants to replace the fender, they sound like the type that wants to do it right. If you are trying to make it look "better" but not perfect, then perhaps you need to find another shop. Also you might consider trying to locate a fender from a salvaged prius.
