Paintless Dent Removal

[Jon Tara <jtara@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I recently had paintless dent removal done at the same time that I was
having insurance repairs following a run-in with a hunk of metal on I-5.

(the thing came flying at me, hit the nose square-on leaving a dent
roughly the shape and size of a golfball, then bounced off of the
windshield creating enough nicks to justify replacement of the windshield,
slid over the top (creating just enough of a scratch to justify color
sanding) and bounced on the pavement behind me...)

Anyhoo, I figured I'd take the opportunity to get the body back to
"perfect". The body shop doesn't do litttle dings any more, and just
contracts out to one of these dent guys.

It cost me all of $70 to fix perhaps a half-dozen dents on 3 body panels.
I marked the ones that I could find with a grease pencil, and the dent guy
found one more.

I can't tell there were ever any dents, and needless to say I am
over-joyed with the results.

Somehow, I'd had the impression that they used some kind of suction-cup
thingie, but I asked and they explained that they have a number of special
tools that they manipulate from inside the body panels, drilling access
holes from below in some cases as necessary.

The cost was less than I'd expected. They generally will quote a price
"per body panel" on the phone, typically $60 or so, so I was prepared to
pay $180. A pleasant surprise when they did the whole thing for $70.

I guess I was just having a $70 day, as I also had the grey rocker-panel
(you know, the one that everybody always wants to re-paint body color)
on one side repainted for $70. (Ahem! It had tell-tale yellow marks...) 
Now I wish I'd had the other one done, because now one looks so much 
better than the other. (Another shop quoted  $400 to do the same job! 
Shows it pays to shop!) They did a great job,  mixing some kind of 
aggregate into the pain to match the texture. Would much rather have a 
fresh coat of this than body color, as the original is (IMO) a much more 
robust and suitible finish for that part of the car.

The bill for the nose job was $1500, though - at least it was payed-for
primarly by AAA.

BTW, the body work was done by Harloff BMW in Encinitas, CA. I was a bit
put-off initially, because they are also a Chevy(!) dealer, but they are
the only BMW dealer on AAA's "pre-approved" program in S.D. (AAA doesn't
send out an adjuster - you just take the car to the shop, they write it
up, and make an appointment for the repairs.) The paintless dent removal
was done by an outfit called Dent Pro, which apparently is the typical
one-guy-working-out-of-a-pickup-truck operation.

Jon Tara
95 325is

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