How to fix a dent on a car with your own hands?

During the operation of the car, the wing most often suffers, especially the front one. This happens during a small collision or unsuccessful parking. If the damage is severe, the wing needs to be replaced. It is worth remembering that such parts are not sold factory painted. In addition to the replacement itself, it is also required to paint it in a color as close as possible to the color of the car. And this is an additional blow to the budget if you contact a car service. If you have ever done minor car repairs, then if you have the necessary conditions and tools, you can do the painting yourself.

Painting the wing yourself will cost much less than in a car service

Selection of high-quality and inexpensive material

To paint the wing yourself, in addition to the paint itself, you will need the following:

• putty and primer;
• sandpaper / abrasive material;
• paper tape;
• car varnish;
• clean rags (without small lint);
• polyethylene, pieces of old newspaper;
• dense pieces of rubber (about the size of a palm);
• solvent.

The entire necessary list can be purchased at your nearest hardware store.

The last point deserves special attention. You will need 2 types of solvent. If the amount of work is small (painting one wing), you can purchase them in bulk, which will significantly help you save money.

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Required Tools

The first step in painting a car fender is to have the necessary tools.

Necessary tools for work

You will need the following set:

• spray gun;
• compressor;
• putty knife;
• planers for cleaning.

Removing dents on a car using a reverse hammer

Using a reverse hammer is the most common repair method. If the damage is minor, the edge of the hammer is engaged with the glued blank on the defect and the metal is tapped. It is not recommended to glue the hammer itself to the surface, since it takes time for the glue to harden; it is problematic for the master to hold the tool suspended without moving.

Straightening without damaging the paintwork is a completely affordable type of DIY repair. If you use the necessary tools, the work can be done in the garage in 15 minutes, spending money only on equipment.

What should you consider when painting a wing yourself?

The biggest problem you can encounter when painting a wing is dust. It may not be noticeable to the naked eye, and the garage may seem clean, but when exposed to a spray gun, it rises out of nowhere, subsequently creating a sandpaper effect on the painted fender. Therefore, when painting a car fender with your own hands, you should pay special attention to cleaning the room - thoroughly vacuum and wash the floor.

We paint the new wing strictly in overalls, which should include rubberized gloves and a mask. This way you can minimize exposure to harmful substances when inhaling paint and working with solvents.

Rear arch repair

The rear arch can be replaced entirely, or only damaged parts can be replaced. I'm leaning towards the second option. The main thing is due to the reduction in the amount of work.

If you change it entirely, then you need to prepare for the fact that the repair one may not exactly match in size. This applies to our arches from the market. Imported ones almost always match, but native ones match absolutely, and Taiwanese ones have small errors, even in the shape of the ribs. In any case, errors are corrected with putty.

And this is how we should treat this repair. He's forced. And by the way, it’s not always simple, easy and safe. And therefore we believe that we are simply saving the arch from further destruction. A little more putty or a little less – I personally have no worries about this.

It will be worse if we weld it nicely (minimum putty), and after a year the rust spots from the weld will come out. Because there was no Movil in the arch after the repair. After our repair, even partial, we will pour Movil or a preservative into the arch, and thereby treat the welding areas and protect the places that have not yet been touched by rust.

We need to decide right away whether we will repair it in the near future or not. If we are repairing, then there is no need to pour Movil into the arch for prevention. It will then greatly interfere with welding.

The amount of work increases, a lot of preparation, and a lot of painting as a result. A small piece is always easier to fit and there are fewer surprises. There can be such surprises - the arch is filled with factory sealant, it is flammable - along with the arch, as a rule, you have to change a piece of the mudguard. Sometimes big. — sometimes repairs go into the trunk.

Stages of work execution

Painting work includes several stages, which must be performed strictly in the order in which they are indicated. Before you paint a car fender with your own hands, you need to properly prepare it. The surface must be perfectly clean and smooth, without any visible defects.

Before painting the wing, it is necessary to properly prepare it

It is worth not forgetting about workplace equipment. It is impossible to carry out work in poor conditions; the room must be clean and well ventilated. Dust is the main enemy of fresh paint.

Depending on the damage to the fender (scratches, dents or corrosion), the list of work may vary, but there is still one constant rule - the car must first be washed and dried. If the design of the car allows you to remove the wing, then it is easier to unscrew it and paint it separately.

A universal list of painting steps is given below.

Preparing and polishing the wing

Before restoring and painting the wing, it is necessary to carefully sand the damaged areas or the entire part as a whole.

How to grind correctly? You need to start from the places where the filler was previously applied. The abrasive wheel P80 – P180 is designed for them. Next, they move on to medium-grain sandpaper (up to P320) and treatment of the entire surface to smooth out the marks of primary sanding. At the completion stage, proceed to sanding with fine sandpaper. If necessary, stripping is carried out down to metal.

When sanding by hand, you need to apply proper pressure to the surface. Movements should be linear, not circular. Otherwise, large scratches will remain on the surface of the wing.

Sanding the wing before painting

Prime and putty the surface

After sanding, the wing must be puttied, after which the resulting smooth surface with a minimum number of open pores will be obtained. During the puttying process, the wing must also be sanded. To achieve an ideal result, more difficult areas must be sanded by hand.

You can do this as follows:

1. Degrease the surface of the wing and apply universal putty.
2. After drying, go over the surface with a block or machine with sandpaper from P100 to P320 (depending on the situation).
3. Repeat the process until completely leveled.

After puttying, it is necessary to apply the primer with a spray gun in 2-3 layers at a working pressure within 3-4 atmospheres. Adjust the torch so that it resembles the shape of an elongated oval. Before priming, be sure to do a test on a test surface.

Apply layers with a break of 5-10 minutes (until one layer dries). The first layer should be thin, and the second should be denser.

Leave for 24 hours, then sand the top with P500 – P600 sandpaper if the part will be painted metallic.

Puttying the wing before painting

Painting

The painting process itself is much easier than the preparatory stages. Before you start painting, you need to decide how much paint you will need. On average, it takes 150-200 g to paint one wing, if we take test paints into account.

How to paint a car fender:

1. Degrease the surface to be painted and wipe dry. If it is not possible to remove the wing, then insulate the surface of the car with newspapers and paper tape.
2. Apply the sprayer in 2-3 layers, you must work with it wearing a mask and keep it at a distance of at least 30 cm. You need to wait 10-15 minutes between each layer. Apply until the paint covers all glimpses of the primer.
3. Let the paint dry.

Typically, drying times vary depending on the paint used. It is usually indicated on the packaging. For example, acrylic paint dries in about 10 minutes.

Varnishing

The last step in painting the wing is varnishing. The varnish is applied after all layers of paint have dried. It will turn the coating into gloss and protect the paint from rapid abrasion and fading.

The varnishing process depends entirely on the type of varnish used. In addition, weather conditions are taken into account. If varnishing is carried out in winter, the holding time increases significantly.

The process of painting a car wing will not take much time.

If the wing defect is small, then it must be painted and varnished in sections. To avoid the difference between the old coating and the fresh varnish, use a transition solvent, which is filled with a spray bottle and lightly sprayed onto the transition boundaries. This is done if the side edges of the wing are damaged. If the damage is in the center, it is recommended to do a local touch-up and completely varnish the wing, rather than fill all the edges with solvent.

After the varnish has dried, a visual inspection of the wing is carried out. If there are minor defects, the varnish is polished by machine using abrasive pastes. To avoid deviations, it is recommended to strictly follow the painting plan.

Why is it convenient to repair your car with us?

Since 2005, our main profile and direction, which we have developed to perfection, is urgent local car painting in 3 hours. In Moscow, we do local painting of the front and rear fenders of cars without removing them, at competitive prices during the day and without prepayment. During this time we received a lot of positive feedback. Registration of the order under the contract along with, we bear financial responsibility for failure to meet deadlines. True, sometimes we miss deadlines, but we never sacrifice quality. We work only with trusted manufacturers, we use materials from PPG Deltron, Nexa Autocolor, Quicline, quality guarantee for all services. Doing it somehow is not about us!

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Recommendations from experts

Do-it-yourself painting of a new wing is done using a sprayer at a distance of at least 30 cm strictly perpendicular to the surface, otherwise the result may be a non-uniform shade.

If painting is done in warm weather, allow each coat of paint to dry for at least 20 minutes before applying another. As a rule, the manufacturer writes detailed instructions for the paint, which you must read before starting work.

Each layer of paint should lie extremely evenly, without smudges. Gaps are allowed only when applying the first layer.

According to the recommendations of experts, to obtain an ideal result after finishing the fender painting work, it is recommended to polish the entire car. This way, the car will look like new, and the freshly painted wing will not be conspicuous by its shine.

Correcting a dent using the back of the panel

You can quickly repair your car using a set of levers. Beginners use simplified PDR technology to remove dents from bumpers, fenders and car doors without dismantling the elements.

In addition to a set of levers, you will need a hair dryer and a mallet with a rubber knob. Removing a dent by pressing on the back side of a metal plate has become possible because manufacturers are reducing the weight of machines with thin sheet metal. Chinese cars have the most fragile bodies; the thickness of the metal, even for the base, does not exceed 0.5-0.8 mm. European manufacturers are constantly reducing the weight of cars using plastic elements and aluminum.

Repairing jams using PDR technology has a number of advantages:

1. Fast and high-quality results.
2. Body parts are not removable; in some cases it may be necessary to dismantle the lining.

Not all cars will be able to remove a dent by straightening the metal from the inside. Reverse impact technology is not used:

1. If the part previously went through the straightening process.
2. If there are microcracks under the paint layer (corrosion, broken weld, etc.)
3. There is damage to the paintwork. In this case, you can use levers to straighten out the dent, then sand the part, prime it, apply anti-corrosion protection, and paint it.

The method will be useless if the metal on the car is older than 10 years and has a thickness of more than 1 cm. On classic VAZs, straightening with a PDR tool is not carried out. For such cars, the only option left is to remove the dents with a reverse hammer and adhesive using a microlifter.

Cost of painting a wing at a car service center

The most popular choice is two types of paint - acrylic enamel and metallic. In the first case, purchasing consumables costs around 2000 rubles, and in the second – 2400-3000 rubles.

If you resort to the services of a car service, then painting a car wing costs 2000-2500 rubles. more expensive if you add this cost to the main consumables. This is the case if the damage is not serious. In other cases, painting the wing will cost a tidy sum (about 10,000 rubles). If you've ever had to deal with car repairs and have your hands in the right place, then painting your car fender yourself will significantly save your budget.

Using a Hot Glue Gun and Pull Tools

• The idea is to glue the pulling elements to the dent in several places. By pulling them, you can straighten out the dent. The house-to-house method is used in the PDR technology adhesive system.
• The pulling element can be made by simply screwing two self-tapping screws on one side of a wooden dowel, and applying hot glue to the reverse side (bottom). Such dowels can be placed in several places. After the glue has cooled and hardened, you can pull the pulling elements. You need to prepare a sufficient amount of glue and be patient, as you may need to make several attempts.

• For small dents, the pulling element can be glued to the center. Large dents extend from the edges.
• This way you can pull out the jammed stiffening rib, which “holds” the entire dent.
• At the same time, when pulling out dents, you need to tap the high spots, if any.
• To remove the pulling element, heat the glue with a hairdryer. Use isopropyl alcohol to loosen and remove the adhesive.

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Pulling out a dent with a reverse hammer

You can make a reverse hammer to straighten out dents. To do this, you need a rod 3–5 mm thick and a piece of pipe. You can use hot glue to glue one piece of the hammer to the center of the dent. The principle is the same as when using pulling elements, only the hammer adds additional force through the inertia of the sliding load.

You can make a reverse hammer yourself.

In the illustration you can see the basic concept of the reverse action hammer. You need to pull out the dent before the glue hardens too much. Because when the glue hardens, it becomes brittle and comes off the surface prematurely when pulled out. You need to apply glue, press the rod onto it and wait for it to cool, after which you begin to slide part of the pipe (weight) along the rod. A reverse hammer is convenient for straightening small and medium-sized dents.

Using a Dent Pulling Kit

This kit also uses hot glue to secure the puller to the dent. The places where the pulling device will be glued must be degreased with isopropyl alcohol. You need to use a little glue.

You need to apply pulling pressure with the device and leave it for 5 minutes, periodically heating the edges of the dent. In general, when pulling with a special device (small bridge), the slow method works better than quickly pulling out the dent. Gradually reducing the size of the dent, you can do several repetitions. If there are raised areas around the dent, they must be carefully tapped with a special punch, which is included in the kit. This set is not expensive (about 1000 rubles), you can buy it here.