Remove car dent with a lighter !

 by loup226
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I tried this method and work very good on my old dodge.

the video remove car dent witha hair dryer and air duster


 
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Step 1: Heat the dent

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take a aluminium foil to protect your paint.and warm up with a lighter about 30 to 60 seconds.
Kedakari says: Dec 20, 2010. 3:11 PM
I guess this is OK for small dents and old cars.
You can really ruin your car doing this.

I had better luck using suction cups.
Toilet bowl plunger works great.

Anything that the suction cups wont fix, then take it to a shop.
zack247 in reply to KedakariJan 12, 2011. 10:07 PM
for some bigger dents couldn't you push it out from the inside?
PSPerson in reply to zack247Aug 7, 2011. 8:56 PM
I believe that is what some dent shops do, except they have specialized tools to do it. sometimes they have to drill a hole, pop it out, and fix the hole.
Kedakari in reply to PSPersonSep 11, 2011. 3:11 AM
THEY will pop them out after heating them so the paint wont crack.

I mentioned taking it to a shop because even if you un-smash a tin can it's still not 100% lined up. Even if you do manage to make it look perfect, a lot of the metal will be weaker in areas.
Sometimes pulling one dent can shift metal over slightly so you end up with pumper covers that look twisted
:(
So PSPerson is also right. They drill holes and pop them out so they are not stretching metal and making a wobbly mess of think metal.
afkararmani says: May 11, 2010. 9:25 PM
Wow, great tips. I want to try that.
Foaly7 says: Apr 10, 2010. 8:40 AM
Could you pull out bigger dents with a flamethrower & a fire extinguisher??? Dun Dun DaHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!
mbonneau7 says: May 7, 2009. 6:02 AM
Does this cause damage to the paint????
blackspike2710 in reply to mbonneau7Oct 7, 2009. 8:58 PM
i have worked in a auto body shop for 13 years and I know if you heat up the metal enough to shape it will damage the paint

I do not recomend any one try this

Take Your Car To A Pro
Prodigity says: Jul 2, 2009. 5:56 AM
If you put the spraycan upside down it'll generally be (alot) colder =)
mcvd2 says: Jul 22, 2008. 10:24 AM
Does anyone know where I can buy this air duster spray in The Netherlands?
shveet in reply to mcvd2Mar 29, 2009. 7:45 PM
all it is, is a computer duster..really usefull
olivierdemontpellier in reply to mcvd2Jul 23, 2008. 2:32 PM
hello, i'm french, i find air duster at my supermarket ( carrefour, auchan ... migro...) with the computer stuff close to " screen cleaning wipe", otherwise in an electronic or computer shop ( i pay 8 € for a can )
blakeredfield says: Feb 9, 2009. 11:17 PM
Has anyone tried this and succeeded on hail dents? My dad's Citroen GSA Special thats in = MINT = condition even after 25 years of daily use just got MASHED UP by a hail storm.

He had just painted it a month ago, did all the detailing and rebuilt the dashboard from failed instruments and it looked like a spaceship!
gripes says: Apr 9, 2008. 5:58 PM
i tried this and it didnt work for me. yes my cars body is made of metal, but no i didnt use a straw for a concentrated spray stream. i think this is where i went wrong. also my dent is about 2 times bigger/deeper than the one shown. would this technique work for a dent of that size?
lonerayven in reply to gripesJan 7, 2009. 12:40 AM
Need more heat and a really concentrated stream of Co2 from the can. But should work on a larger dent. If it's a thinner car metal and not a big ol' truck thick metal.
egreen767 says: Oct 5, 2008. 6:35 PM
I cant get this to work. I've tried it a bunch of times.
cantthinkof bettername says: Aug 18, 2008. 4:21 PM
All of our cars have hundreds of dents in them from a hail storm.
cantthinkof bettername says: Aug 18, 2008. 4:17 PM
What if the dent is on top?
ag006 says: Aug 14, 2008. 10:50 AM
does this damage the paint ?
mcvd2 says: Aug 14, 2008. 12:38 AM
Thanks Olivier. I bought the spray from Office Centre. Unfortunately, removing the dent in my car using this method didn't work (used a hair dryer).... :(
sachou says: Jun 3, 2008. 11:29 PM
Cool. Great idea, never thought to use heating an hyper cooling to undent cars. I usually use cheap suction cups for larger dents, but this pretty innovative
xad says: Jan 18, 2008. 1:10 PM
One thing i don't get is, why does the air duster foam up? Isn't it supposed to let out air only? Also, i'm guessing any kind of aerosol should do the trick? Even deodorants for those who don't have an air duster on hand :D
nafango22 in reply to xadJun 3, 2008. 3:11 PM
no, air dusters are actually not aerosol at all, they contain a liquid similar in behavior to CO2 (liquifies under high compression, releases gas) however can be liquified at much lower temperatures and lower pressures. similar in purpose but completely different from aerosol (which uses a chemical reaction)
aaron102977 says: Feb 10, 2008. 7:53 PM
I'm a PDR tech and I've seen many other methods of removing dents. I have had no luck with any of them. I will give this a try for sure, and I hope it does. The other method is no where this easy.
RobbGodshaw says: Feb 9, 2008. 3:50 PM
nice instructable, but just for the record, air dusters do not contain CO2. they contain a refrigerant that is not safe to inhale. a few kids have died thinking that they contain harmless CO2 or laughing gas (N20).
tonefour says: Jan 11, 2008. 3:05 PM
this trick is very cool indeed! however, it looks like it'll only work for bodies of newer cars made mostly of plastic materials. I'd like to try this on my 1987 Sentra Sports Coupe made mostly of metal, but I doubt it work. =/
Madrigorne says: Dec 12, 2007. 4:46 AM
I am so going to try this. I have dents from a parked too close jerk who violently opened his car door - didn't even scuff the paint, but the dent is there. I bet it will pop...
kaboomspray says: Dec 10, 2007. 1:23 PM
"this technique cause any damage to the pain." wait, what????
kaboomspray in reply to kaboomsprayDec 10, 2007. 1:24 PM
second video
cyndyca says: Dec 8, 2007. 3:51 PM
cool but its an old trick .my brother do this method on his bike tank.Do a great job
Ohm says: Dec 8, 2007. 2:03 PM
I saw someone with a dented roof do this with a torch and then threw some liquid nitrogen on it, nice violent pop from that one and he was going to repaint the roof anyway.
bleachworthy says: Dec 8, 2007. 1:33 AM
Nice! I've always tried to think of clever ways to pull dents, but I never thought of using the properties of the metal to do so. great work!
samantha Jr says: Dec 7, 2007. 4:03 PM
My father tried this tip.And both work really good.My car is a toyota . But my sister have a Saturn car (made with polymer ) and after few test i donT work on her car. Thanks alot for this very very good instructable.
Jack Daniels in reply to samantha JrDec 8, 2007. 12:29 AM
you should check your model saturn to see if it's the kind with plastic fenders
DR.sam in reply to samantha JrDec 7, 2007. 4:07 PM
i did it twice on my car .nice work.
cry_wolf says: Dec 7, 2007. 5:37 PM
You know how amazingly awesome this is? its perfect for my mom's Lexus. It has like for dents in the side from my moms terrible parking =/
Brennn10 says: Dec 7, 2007. 3:49 PM
I am going to have to try that!
GorillazMiko says: Dec 7, 2007. 3:38 PM
ahh, very cool!
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