This week it's the turn of this Skoda Fabia which has sustained a nasty dent over the front wheel
arch, having this repaired in a body shop would be very expensive but I'm going to show you the
full repair method of how I fix this using the Paintless dent removal method so stay tuned
and watch all the stages involved in removing damage like this with no filler and no paint
Hi everyone it's Jake here with another repair video showing you the advantages of paintless
dent removal and today this video is sponsored by Skillshare, but more about that later in the video
as you can see we have a Skoda Fabia which has sustained a nasty down right on the body line
of this front wheel arch. Now this was the result of another vehicle brushing up against this panel
and leaving all the damage that you can see here, unfortunately when something brushes
up against the side of the vehicle it never leaves a straightforward
dent especially when it hits a strong body line it tends to leave a mixture of dents
and creases but luckily in the case of this vehicle no paint was damaged from the impact
so the paintless dent removal process can be the perfect solution to repair damage like this but
before we get started on this repair let's first take a detailed look at all the damage
firstly I've checked this panel with a magnet and I know it's made from Steel.
Now taking in consideration the different elements of this repair
the total size of this damage covers an area of approximately 256 millimeters by 165 millimeters
the wheel arch profile shown here gives this area of the panel its strength and rigidity and both of
these have been displaced from the impact the top profile has been displaced about 20 millimeters
taking a look at the front of this panel we can also see that on top of the body
line going towards the front of the vehicle we have this crease which on its own is around 112
millimeters long. As with nearly all dents and the nature of the metal we have some high ridges
on the panel which are shown here in red, this is where the metal has been displaced from the impact
flowing out to form these ridges we call crowns from what I can see this looks like an original
factory painted panel so I do have the option of using glue pulling if needed
although on most of these front wings or fenders the access behind is pretty good so
I'll probably just use PDR bars, right so that's what I'm up against, time now to get started
So to get behind this panel I need to loosen the stone guard otherwise known as the wing liner,
so using the jack I raised the vehicle up which gives me some clearance between the
tyre and the panel. To remove the screws underneath I need to use a T25 Torx bit
One by one I can remove the screws which fix this plastic part to this panel,
there are usually five or six of these screws dotted around the perimeter of the panel
sometimes they can be difficult to find as they may be covered in all the mud and dirt underneath
This plastic part can then be pulled away from the main panel
I only need a small gap for my tools so the complete liner doesn't need to be removed and
I'll be levering off the tyre so the liner will be well out of the way so it won't get damaged.
Now I can lower the vehicle back on the floor to get started. I'm putting the umbrella up
today as the weather is constantly changing and at the moment it's slightly raining
so here's a quick recap of everything that needs to be pushed up,
the first tool of choice is this double bend tool and I'm starting with the large rubber tip
but first before I start pushing this metal out I
just need to heat the panel so that the paint remains flexible and won't crack
Sliding the bar underneath I'm just feeling around for the tightest areas
in this damage as these sections will need to be pushed up first
so using this 24 inch bar I'm struggling a bit to get strong enough leverage as the
metal is quite tight, so I've decided to swap this bar out for a larger 36
inch bar as that will give me more power and I'm sticking with a large rubber tip
As always I need to warm the panel up before pushing and then I can slip the bar up underneath
As you can see the metal is moving but it's certainly putting up quite
a good fight and not moving as easily and cleanly as I'd hoped
this just means there'll be a lot more cleaning up to do at the end of the repair which is fine
Now you can see I'm using my plastic bullet tip to tap down some of these high areas on the surface
of the panel I'm also using my standard rubber tip to address some of the more gradual high areas,
this action of lifting and tapping down the metal
allows the metal to move more freely and can be manipulated more easily
Interestingly as the main part of the damage was pushed up it
left behind this second crease along the body line which you can see here
To remove this crease I need to use a lot of force
so I need to heat the panel up first to keep it flexible
Putting the bar underneath the panel you can see that I'm concentrating on pushing up the
body line section which starts to move and raise up bringing some of the surrounding metal with it
Now this section has come up nicely I can get to work on tapping down the crown just above
the wheel profile as you can see I'm using my knock down with a standard rubber tip
I'm taking my time with this knock down to bring the crown down gently and gradually
Now I just want to concentrate on the area between where these two creases were as there
were some high areas in this section so again using my rubber tips on my knockdown I can get
to work on trying to get this section of metal level and nice and straight again
and there we go I'm really pleased with the progress so far considering I've only roughed
this section out you can see that this flat section panel is starting to level up nicely
Looking down from the top of the panel the next section I'm
going to concentrate on are these two crowns here
First I need to get my lightboard into the best position so I can get the best view of them
and then I can set to work removing them
I'm using my knock down here with the rubber tip because I like to
get close to the panel and feel the vibration and feedback from the metal
as it helps me decide how much force I need to give it in order for it to move.
That's the first high ridge tapped down now time to concentrate on the second one above it.
I'm using the same knockdown and I'm taking my time to knock this high ridge back down
gently because I don't want to put any low spots in this panel as that will create more
work at the end of the repair. And there we go I'm probably about halfway into this
repair now so there's still a long way to go but already it's shaping up quite nicely
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will get a one month free trial of Skillshare, right now let's get back to this repair
Right the next stage to this repair is to remove this horizontal crease
just over the top of the rear arch
First I want to check under the bonnet or the hood to see if I can get any access to this
dent from above as it's a much better angle to work from in order to be more accurate
when removing this crease and luckily there is a nice access point here that I should
be able to thread my bar down into the bar of choice for this repair is this straight
bendable bar from Ultra and to start with I'm going to be using a standard rubber tip.
To prevent any damage from the bar going through this gap I'm placing one of my soft
cloths around this hole which will give me a nice soft base to push off next I need to heat
this crease to soften the paint as pushing a crease cold is likely to crack the paint
using this straight bar I'm able to give some control pushes onto the back of this crease
and slowly you can see the crease start to disappear before your eyes
working from this standing position also really helps me with great vision which is
important with a crease like this as you need to be very accurate with your pushes using my
knockdown with a rubber tip I can lower any sections that have come up too high
I can then go in with a straight bar again for a
second round of pushes to bring up any other remaining low sections
so far this crease has been quite nice to push up and the metal is flowing back into shape nicely
Now just a few more taps with my sharper plastic tip brings down any sharp high sections
a quick review of the whole panel shows it's all starting to come together nicely
we just have some minor high and low spots on the panel next it's time to fine tune the whole repair
To start the fine tuning stage I'm going to be using my plastic bullet tip
first I need to heat up all the little microlows especially when using finer tips on your bar as
the pressure on the panel is greater and in a much smaller area as you can see one by one I'm
choosing a specific micro low and pushing it up before moving on to the next one this requires
a lot of patience and a good eye for detail then for all the little micro highs I'm using a
hard Delrin tap down which is a great tool for all the sharp highs I'm also using a variety
of different tap downs as the panels start to level out and the micro loads start to disappear
Next I'm using a double bend shave tool with a smaller tip
This will help me to lift up some of these micro lows as this bar has good leverage and is very
strong but light to use these micro lows aren't too small so I don't need anything sharper than
this like before I'm using my hard tap down to remove the sharpest of the micro highs
and there we go the repair is almost completed.
Time now to remove any surface marks and minor scratches from the panel that were created
when this damage happened I'm also polishing the panel to remove any minor marks created
from using my tools on the panel which will only be very minor surface marks this last compound
here is a fine polish which is also great for putting a nice glossy finish back on the panel
The last thing to do is to put everything back together so after raising the vehicle
and clipping the wing liner back into place I reinstall all the Torx screws
that were removed earlier inside the wheel arch housing then the only thing left to do
is to lower the vehicle back to the ground remove the jack check out THE FINAL RESULT!
Well there you go another repair successfully carried out using the Paintless Dent Removal
method as always I broke this repair down into the different stages from the initial roughing out to
the removal of the crowns the creases and right down to the fine detail work which in this case
took about 50 percent of the total repair time it was quite strong metal
to move and initially it didn't seem like it was happy to flow back into shape but
after a lot of gentle persuasion with the right tools and using the right tips
I managed to force the metal back into shape and get this panel looking brand new again
the customer was really happy with the result but understandably doesn't really want to see
me again in a hurry so let's hope he stays dent free. As always if you like the video i'd really
appreciate a thumbs up and if you're not already subscribed and you like watching content like this
then why not hit that subscribe button and don't forget to click the bell icon to be notified when
a new video is uploaded also there's lots of other videos like this on my YouTube channel so please
feel free to check out one of those or maybe watch one of the suggested videos at the end of this one
but that's all for now thanks again for watching and I'll see you all in the next video