SHOULD I TAKE MY CAR TO A BODY SHOP OR A PAINTLESS DENT REPAIR SHOP?
When your vehicle gets dented, should you take it to a body shop or do paintless dent repair instead? Most body shops won’t tell you about paintless dent repair because they don’t want to lose business. But, paintless dent repair is a great option, especially for cars and trucks that get dented by hail out here in The West.
With body shops, the damage to your vehicle gets filled and refinished. It’s an expensive process that takes quite a bit of time. This makes sense if the damage is “heavy.” Paintless dent repair, though, works well for “light” damage– door dings, hail damage, etc. It gets done quicker at places like Impact Paintless Dent Repair than at body shops, which may keep vehicles for several days before they get to work. Paintless dent repair typically takes a couple of minutes for most jobs, though some dents may require four or five hours in the shop. Generally, “hail cars” are completed in one day’s time.
Paintless dent repair involves special tools used by certified technicians who attack the dent from the inside out. The metal, therefore, can return to its original shape– with no repainting or refinishing needed.
So, if you want to maintain the original factory paint, don’t want to wait around for a body shop to finally get to your vehicle, and you want to avoid the repair going on your CARFAX report (which affects resale value), then consider saving money by utilizing paintless dent repair services.
One more thing… It’s not the overall diameter of the dent that determines whether or not a dent is repairable. Rather, it’s the sharpness, depth, location and type of car the dent is on. Sometimes a dent the size of a volleyball is easily repaired while a dent the size of a golf ball is not. It’s definitely worth investigating paintless dent repair before considering a more expensive, time-consuming body shop ordeal.