RX8Union

It just caugh my attention that there is a quarter size dent on the side of the roof of my RX8. The dent located right on the edge of the roof above the driver side door.

I had no idea how the dent got there, obviously not by another car's door. So I guess maybe my neighbor's kid were playing ball and the ball hit my car or something. Anyway, so I drove to DentPro, who specialized in fixing dents without repainting. They can push the dent out from behind the metal.

Now, the problem is, to get behind the roof's metal part, they need to take out the interior head lining, which they claim is a two hour job and costs an additiaonal $180 on top of the $140 for actually fixing the dent.

My question, did anyone ever DIY removing the head lining? How hard is it and how long does it take to remove and re-install the head lining?

Thanks!

Overport

do a search in the "diy" forum and find out?

xy4xx

I also have a dent there. on driver's side you know that strip of metal runing from front of the roof to the back on driver's side. It was there when I got the car

spieder

Interesting. I too have a dent on the top of the car, drivers side. I actually have two very close together. I didn't notice it when I bought it. Maybe when they make the RX-8s they dent each one just for good luck? Or, maybe its a speed dent to increase performance ).

Grabitquick

Ya'll sure you didn't **** off an ex-girlfriend?

Seriously, very easy to fix, and it sounds like you have it under control already. As for your head lining, I can't say. I don't have a head, so I don't need a lining.

RX8Union

wow, so many ppl have dent on the roof, that is strange. My 8 is Velocity Red. It would be more strange if all of us has VR.

Anyway, the dent will be easy to fix only if the head lining is removed. I don't want to pay $180 for the DentPro guys removing the interior lining the trim. First, $180 is a lot of money, second, they are probably just as clueless as I'm in terms of how to remove the trims and lining probably.

beachdog

I would be very careful removing the headliner. If you decide to let the dent guy remove it, be sure that he knows that the car is equipped with side curtain airbags that traverse the door tops from the front to the rear.

You might be better off posting in the tech forum and asking someone with the shop manual for the removal instructions.

spieder

Hmm, my car is VR. You might try those suction devices. I have seen them where they use 4 stand off suction cups and a fifth in the middle. You just back out the center one till it pulls the dent out. I think it was an As Seen On TV thing. They had a little demo at a store, I went to, playing on loop. It looked like it worked good on a quarter panel or a door side. I don't know how well it would work on the edge of the roof. I imagine that its a great deal stiffer up there.

Speedracer

spieder

I had 5 or 6 dents in the exact same place. I called a paintless dent removal technician that has a very good reputation in the area.

He tried to get at the dents from the inside by removing the headliner. He was smart enough to see that the side impact air bag/curtain system was in the way...and didn't want to damage the system. He put the headliner back on as it was and used his suction equipment to pull the dents out. He pulled the dents COMPLETELY out...w/o breaking the paint...after a couple hours. He also waxed and buffed the area.

I couldn't even tell that the dents were there.

It really depends on the tech. The person who fixed my car was very meticulous.

He had a bunch of expensive equipment/lighting.

I paid $130. Well worth it...considering a bodyshop would charge close to $1000 to do it. He came to my house.

RX8Union

I just left a voice message with my local Paintless Dent Removal guy. Hope he will give me some idea whether he can do the repair from outside and not requiring to remove the head lining.

Thanks!