[koenig]

Received a small dent in a rental car the other day. Rental place gave me a shop for paintless dent removal. Most small dings and some dents can be removed without paint work. As long as the paint is not damaged. Most of us enjoy older vehicles and they do get little dings and even dents, so its good these shops exist. Most are very speedy as well as reasonable cost. My dent fairly large was $170 CDN and two hours wait.

Youtube vid examples: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SVFpkvuJXeo&feature=related

 

[Stirling]

I've heard of this. A friend of mine is in insurance and he had a $60,000 claim on a rather new Bentley that was caught in a hailstorm.

The paintless dent removal took the cost down to $8,000.

 

[koenig]

The shop I went was busy cause we had a hail storm earlier this week. Its better on those dings, but some minor bumps can be removed. Canada can be enviromental; pretty sure only waterbourne paint will be allowed for autos starting after this year. Acrylic and nitrocellulose lacquer do not mix well with these new paints. The 2 pack paints with deadly isocyanates that most places use these days, also can't bond well with older paints. Matching is a pain.

UK based T.V show called Wheeler Dealers, takes a clunker fixes it and then resells them for money. One episode was a pretty worn Bentley Mulsanne eighties vintage. They did a full respray. Removal of the trim, front and back lights, bumpers, lights, etc. Took 60 hrs and that did not include sanding, priming and painting. Hence why work on our cars are rather pricey.