PDR Basics

Yes — if the paint is intact. That's paintless dent repair, and it's the right answer for most everyday dents on most vehicles. The full picture is slightly more nuanced. Some dents look fine but have hidden paint damage that only shows during repair. Some dents have minor paint damage that can be addressed with…

If you own an F-150 from 2015 or newer, a Tesla, an Audi A8 or Q7, a Range Rover, certain BMW models, or a few other premium vehicles, your car or truck has aluminum body panels. That changes how PDR works on it — and changes which shops can actually do the job well. Aluminum…

Most people who hear about paintless dent repair picture a technician with a long metal rod, working behind a panel from inside a door cavity. That's one half of PDR. The other half — increasingly the preferred method on modern vehicles — is glue pull dent repair, where the technician works entirely from the outside.…

Yes — when it's done right. That's the short answer most drivers are looking for, and it's accurate. A properly executed paintless dent repair is permanent. The dent doesn't reappear, the metal doesn't "remember" the impact, and you don't need to come back next year for a touch-up. But "when it's done right" matters. Bad…

Short answer: most can. Not all. If you're staring at a dent on your car wondering whether paintless dent repair is going to save you, the honest framing matters. PDR is one of the most underused tools in the body shop world — it can erase damage that looks expensive and leave the panel indistinguishable…

Most posts about paintless dent repair lead with the pros and bury the cons in a footnote. This one doesn't. PDR is genuinely the right tool for a wide range of dents — and genuinely the wrong tool for several others. Knowing where the line falls is more useful than a sales pitch. The team…