While most accidents, damage, and issues with cars should entail calling your insurance company to see what can be done, there are a few times not to. Small dents to your car are one of those times. The number of ways you could be removing dents from a car on your own mean that you don’t have to rely on expensive repairs to get the job done.
Here are six of the best ways to remove dents from your car quickly, easily, and for less than a visit to the mechanic.
1. Try a Plunger
While there are lots of practical uses for a plunger inside your home, there are also some ways to make use of a plunger in car repair. If you’re dealing with small or medium-sized dents, you can use your bathroom plunger to help.
If you put some water on the dent and on the plunger, you’ll help to create a seal when you meet the two together.
Push the plunger into the car and then pull until the dent pops out.
Using a flange plunger, like the one you use for toilets, will be far less effective than that traditional cup plunger used for sinks.
2. Boil Some Water
When you back up into something, you can easily dent your bumper or some of the exterior plastic pieces of your car. These elements are hard to use a plunger on for varied reasons, but you can actually use water to help fix the problem.
If you boil water in a pot, carry it outside, and then throw it on the dent.
As soon as the water hits the bumper, you need to carefully reach in and push the dent back. The heat of the water will soften the plastic enough for you to push it back into shape. Time is limited so wear gloves, be careful not to burn yourself, and ensure you work fast.
You need to work quickly, so don’t be too frustrated if you don’t push the entire dent out in time. Often you need a couple of rounds of water and pushing to get the whole dent out.
3. Try a Hair Dryer
Since heat is the answer for fixing your dent, you can try other methods beyond boiling water.
If you have a long extension cord and a hair dryer, you can remove dents with just these tools. Heating the car’s dent with your hair dryer will help the plastic to loosen and expand. Once it’s good and hot, take a gloved hand and then push on the dent.
Better yet, grab a can of compressed air. Spraying compressed air into that region will help the plastic contract so that it then pops out the way its supposed to.
4. Dry Ice
While dry ice is usually considered something to be used to cool things down with, dry ice can actually help get dents out of your car. Again, wear gloves before handling this material, but if you can hold it on the dent and rub it around, your dent might pop out and go back into place.
You can use this application as often as you need to, so long as you see progress happening. If your dent isn’t deep, you can pop it out fairly easily. If you can’t get the dent out, it might be too deep for you to pop it out.
Rubbing ice on the dent can be more effective when combined with the hair dryer method. Combine the two with compressed air and you’ll be able to easily fix the plastic dents in your car.
5. Try a Vacuum
Since suction is such a great tool for fixing dents, you could rig up your own tool for pulling the dents out of your car. A strong dent puller is hard to find, but you might be able to make your own.
If you have a bucket and a vacuum cleaner, you might have everything you need.
Cut a hole in the bottom of the bucket big enough for the hose extension from your vacuum cleaner. Tape the suction hose to the hole and make it airtight. These tools together can get the dent out fast.
If your dents are shallow, the suction from your pot and vacuum cleaner can pull the dent right out. Be careful to make the seal tight without scratching your paint. Tape up the edge of the bucket if need be. Also, try adding water to the edge to create a better seal.
6. Buy a Specialty Tool
Given all of the methods, there are for getting dents out of your car, there are tools on the market for doing this DIY repair on your own. Rather than trying to rig something up or stressing out to create a perfect tool, you could buy one.
Since you’re already doing the work on your own, it’s not unreasonable to try the tools that are on the market.
There are tools that use the same principles of suction and pressure to pull the dents out. Since they’re specially designed to your needs, they give you the leverage you want when you’re pulling out a dent.
Removing Dents from Your Car is Easy
When you’re considering ways of removing dents from your car, don’t be afraid to pick up the tools and try to do it on your own. While removing dents from a car isn’t the easiest type or repair to do yourself, it’s viable that you could get the job done in under an hour without paying a dime. With the low risk and high reward, there’s no reason not to give it a shot.
Once you’ve finished fixing your car’s body, check out our guide for waxing it back to good health.
