I mentioned in another thread how I was dinged by an airborne acorn. This left a small dimple in the hood of my car. I just returned from a very trusted Paintless Dent Removal "artist" where I had the dent repaired. It was interesting to watch him work. The sound insulation was removed from the underside of the hood to reveal the hole that he needed to work from. The placement of my dent was in a particular bad spot as he was unable to get directly under it. This was because the are double layers of aluminum in certain areas. There is also ribs and supports that thwarted his efforts initially.
The tools were varied and many, with long handels and curved ends. He would lubricated the tip of the tool with light grease, and massage the underside of the dent and (heres the scary part) tap the painted surface from the top with a graphite pin and urethane hammer. He worked like this for a good 30 minutes using a magnifying glass and flouresant lights.
Contrary to what I first thought about aluminum panels, that they were prone to dings, was incorrect. He told me that aluminum actually is MORE resistant to dings even being thin and light like our hoods. The aluminum has very little "memory" and likes to spring back to its original form. However, this is also the reason that Paintless Dent Removal on aluminum is much harder to do. The hood once dented wants to stay that way.
Once all the massaging and tapping were done, the results were outstanding.
Not all dings can be removed that way due to placement and type of dent etc., but I highly recomend this method. Factory paint left unscathed and not a trace of a ding.
Sorry for no "before" pictures. I was too pissed about the dent I wasnt thinking of taking a picture of it. The prior damage was in the center of the frame in the pictures.
For those not familiar with New Englang Oak trees. The acorns are very dense when they are green. When they fall from 100 feet its like a rock.

 

another

 

last one.

 

Great to hear you have been relieved of your dent! Nice description of the process. I had never heard of paintless dent removal before and found it to be very interesting.

Those new New England acorns must give that paintless dent removal place a lot of business.

 

nice pics
those trees suck man

 

Please forward your "artists" phone #.

I have a current need for my wife's SUV and I'd like to have the referal in case I have any mishaps with the 8.

Thanks.

 

Oh, I can see where it was dented. Yea, that sucks. haha I'm just kidding! I can't see any traces of a dent whatsoever. Glad to hear you got it fixed. I was thinking of getting paintless dent remover for my door ding, but I'm afraid they won't be able to reach the dent. It's on the passenger side door, close to the front, and in the lower half of the door. It's very small, half the size of a dime, but bothers me.

 

a week after i got my 8, i got a ding located on the back passenger door...it was the size of a dime also, barely could see it, but it bothered the crap out of me. So i took it to a shop that does this procedure, and it was a miracle. Gyro explained the procedure correctly with all the different tools, etc. The technician wanted to get to the inside of the door to work on it from there, but wan't able to...he just used that tool and hammer, working from the outside, and no more ding...like magic! it was around $75 for the repair & took about 45 minutes. That $75 gave me the peace of mind that i needed. I would recommend the process to anyone that has slight imperfections/dings...
Remember, not all dings can be taken out because of it's location. flat surfaces only

 

My wife had it done about a year or so ago to my 3000GT. Some mastermind had opened a car door into the front left fender at the top of the wheel well and creased it pretty good. The painless dent removal is amazing. You'd never know anything had happened.