Well I just noticed a dent in my car, and I was wondering if the whole "plunger" technique would work on this, or some other technique. Looks like a rock may have hit it. Thanks, again.
Probably not. Plungers usually work best for really large dents where a whole chunk of metal can be un-stretched back to shape. The smaller the dent, the more tensile strength there is between the atoms and the harder it is to pull back to shape. The plunger also won't work for another reason: It's not a flat surface. Your dent is on a corner so you wouldn't be able to get a suction around the entire dent anyway. It doesnt look that bad. I'd say leave it and move on. It happens.
Plunger, no, but a paintless dent repair place can fix it without drilling holes etc. If they can get to the underside of the panel, they heat and flex/bend the metal back to shape. I had 3 small ones like yours on a fender on my 2006 a week after buying it from a douche and hes/her shopping cart. Cost me like $130 and they were all removed within 45 minutes.
That's sort of what I was getting at. Yeah, money will solve anything of course. But I don't think it's worth it. It's a Prius C, not a rare jag or something. If it bothers you that much then get it fixed, but wait a week, I doubt it will. You'll have new problems. LOL.
I got one on the passenger side too, bumped and scratched by someone's SUV door. I think it was a SUV because the dent is pretty high. Anyway, I just tried to fix the scratches because I know it's very easy get another one when I park in mall or supermarket. I'm not going to spend money on a small dent like this because it might happen again and again.
That's sort of what I was getting at. Yeah, money will solve anything of course. But I don't think it's worth it. It's a Prius C, not a rare jag or something. If it bothers you that much then get it fixed, but wait a week, I doubt it will. You'll have new problems. LOL.[/quote] I had a black 2006 and it was high on the front fender above the wheel well so they were noticeable (I had 3 from one freaking shopping cart) and it was getting fixed, no matter what. Plus the car was a week old so I said the hell with this... A small single dent like the one in the photo, while easy for me to say, I'd probably let it go. It's really not horrible looking and it's not on a dark colored car so saving the money would probably be the way to go. But if one has the money by all means, paintless dent repair is the way to go on those kind of dents.
Best thing is NOT to drive a nice vehicle to the shopping mall. Drive a beater vehicle there instead. Mike iPhone
If only insurance was cheap around here, even on a beater vehicle. But with only one driver in the household and insurance rates high in cities like NYC, one vehicle is all you need. It's the morons who don't care about others people stuff who need to be dealt with.
you can try working out the dent yourself with something.. but having the location right there on a crease will make it difficult. you would want a dull metal tool (like a screwdriver or something).. and basically massage out the dent from the inside pushing and working slowly to remove the dent. looking at it, it wasn't a dent made from a rock.. it was from some ignorant and disrespectful moron opening their door and hitting your car.
Surprised on loss of paint. IMO you forget about this. It's something you will only notice when the car is freshly cleaned and the light hits it just right, even though it will continue to annoy you. I have a worse dent on mine from some buffoon in a parking lot and I just forget about it for the most part. I know it does suck but eventually you'll have worse damage to the paint job and this will be forgotten
I'm kind of assuming the OP wouldn't of gone to the trouble of taking a picture and making a post asking for advice if the dent didn't bother them much. Also, owners like their cars. Especially new ones. Whether they are Prius c's or Jaguars.... So my advice...paintless dent repair would be your best investigation. And if it bothers you? And you can afford it? Fix it...and enjoy.
As has been mentioned, that dent was caused by another person opening their car door into your fender. Happens all the time in parking lots, which is why I make it a habit of parking as far from the masses as possible when I need to take a trip to any shopping center. A paintless dent repair person could take that out for about $100, if it bothers you. I've had many cars done by a great PDR person on island and it's amazing what a talented person can do. I would not recommend you try to repair it yourself unless you are willing to take the risk of permanently disfiguring your car beyond PDR help. If you anticipate getting more of these, I would wait and call the PDR person when you've accumulated 3-4 of these door dings so the price per ding repair cost would be a bit lower.
My summer cars never go to a mall or shopping lot. I save them for weekend drives and the occasional drive during the week For all the other driving and shopping, I drive my SUV. Since 1988, I have never had one of my summer cars get a door ding Before that year I drove my cars year round and every where I needed to go. For the OP, I'd find a good paintless dent repair person and let them make it look like new. It is amazing how those people can remove dents. As long as the paint is still adhering to the metal, it can be repaired with no loss of original paint or repainting. If the original paint is cracked or pulled away from the sheetmetal, then it will have to be spot repaired, which a good painter can make it look like it never happened. Mike :tea:
I don't know. I've had similar dents with vehicles that objectively I know shouldn't bother me...but they did. And I've spent more money than it was probably worth just to get it right again. It's all up to the individual. That dent actually seems so superficial that I'd investigate paintless dent repair. It actually might NOT be that expensive to get it fixed.
Silly me, I was talking with my friend having my elbow pressing on the roof and caused a dent. I totally understand how you felt. I looked up the internet and found a technique of using hair dryer and air duster to fix the dent. Search in Youtube and you can find some videos there. I'm going to try it in the weekend.
that technique won't work for dents like the one above.. it's more for very smooth rounded dings.. but i suppose it doesn't hurt to try.. the difficulty is it's along that fender and on the crease.
