This week I'm working on this BMW convertible with a nasty little dent just on the corner
of the boot, it's taken in the body line slightly and inside the main dent we have
some small horizontal creases but using my Paintless Dent Removal method I'm going to
show you all the stages it took to remove this damage and make it look brand new again
Hi everyone Jake here from 1st Track Dents bringing you my first paintless dent removal
repair video of 2022 and today this video is sponsored by Skillshare,
more about that later in the video. So the vehicle I'm working on today is this lovely
325i BMW convertible with a strange dent on the rear boot also known as the trunk,
the customer suspects that the damage was probably created when the boot or the trunk opened up to
lower or raise the hood mechanism and it may have hit a low wooden post in the car part which
is quite common on these types of convertibles as the panel hinges backwards when it's in operation.
Looking into the middle of the dent we have some strange small horizontal creases but to be honest
BMW metal is always a pleasure to work on so I don't suspect I'll run into any problems
whilst removing this damage, but before we get into this repair as always let's
take a closer look at all the damage so you can see exactly what needs repairing
So the first thing to mention about this panel, is that it's made from mild steel
and looking at this damage the total size of this dent covers an area of
approximately 120 millimeters by 80 millimeters, this is also a
very strong area of the panel due to these two body lines running across this section
and if we look closely we can see that the main body line has been deformed about 8 millimeters,
looking at the head-on view here we could be mistaken by thinking that I'm just removing
this rounded shape dent here but if we look closely into the middle of the dent we have
several rows of horizontal creases so I'm guessing whatever hit this panel was not smooth but had
some kind of textured surface, we can also see some crowns around the perimeter of this repair
which will need to be flattened back down this will allow the metal to flow back into shape,
you can also see the crowns highlighted in the light from this direction too.
If we look on the top of the panel here we can also see some minor distortion but once
the main bulk of this damage is out that should just resettle and disappear. The last thing to
mention is that on close inspection I noticed that this panel had been painted before so I don't have
the option of using glue pulling on this repair as there's a huge risk of pulling off the paint
so it will all have to be pushed out using PDR bars, so without any more delay let's get started!
The first thing I need to do is to check how I'm going to get access behind this dent
so upon opening the boot or the trunk I can see that we have the central carpet cover and two
plastic side covers. I've decided to take off the side cover to see if I can get any access
in behind to do this, I just have to remove these two plastic trim clips, this plastic
trim just simply slides off and then I can set it aside until I need to reinstall it later
It looks like there is some access, but I will need to remove the rear light. To remove this
light I need to undo the 8mm nut behind so for this I need to use the correct socket on a ratchet
Removing this 8mm nut behind the light allows the plastic locating clip to drop down
Next I just have to unplug the cable that powers this light I can now use a general bit of force
behind to push the light fitting out, This can also be set aside until I need to use it later.
From the top view it looks like there is a nice big gap to get a decent PDR bar in behind and
looking from underneath it looks like the square hole will be the best access point to thread this
bar through. I've decided to put several pieces of strong tape around the area I intend to lever
off as this will give some added strength and will ensure that when the bar is rubbing across
the edge of this inner panel it won't strip off all of the paint and it won't scratch this panel
that's it now I'm ready for the next stage
the first thing i need to do is to position my pdr light so i can get the best view of the dent
in relation to where i'm going to place my pdr tool underneath and that looks pretty good to me
the bar of choice for this dent is the straight
screw on tip bar and to start with i'll be using the large rubber tip
Next I need to heat the panel up this will ensure the paint
won't crack when I'm pushing this dent up from underneath
Slotting this bar into position I start by applying strong but controlled pushes using
my hand this allows me to move around the dent in a precise way lifting up as much metal as I can
to relieve the pressure from the dent but I'm being extra careful not to over stretch the metal
For any areas that have come up too high I simply use my standard rubber
tip on the end of my knock down and I lower these areas gently back down again
This sometimes means that the panel goes back in again as the dent contains soft and tight
areas that will move differently and the tight areas need a lot more force to get them to move
Okay so that's the first round of pushes done now
time to start pushing the metal up with my standard rubber tip
Again I'm heating the paint so it doesn't crack when pushing the metal up from behind
As before I slot the tool up through the access point behind and get to work,
I'm pushing this dent back up as you can probably see I'm starting at the
top of the panel and gradually coming down to lift up the low area just above the body line
There are still some high areas on the panel so I'm using my knockdown
again with a standard rubber tip and I'm using it to tap down the hard high areas
and again you'll probably notice that the panel will become quite low again it's very
rare to push a dent up level in one pass it can take several goes to break the metal down
therefore I need to go back in with the heat again to warm up the paint for more pushing
I'm still using very controlled pushes with my hand on the handle of the tool and I'm starting
again at the top of the panel and gradually working my way down again in order to lift up
the metal a third time and each time I'm seeing an improvement on what it looked like before
This time when tapping down the high areas I'm using my plastic bullet tip
this is because the high areas are smaller than before and also the plastic bullet tip is
really tough so I can be a bit more precise in the areas I'm bringing back down again
and there we go so far I'm really pleased with the progress
Right so now let's take a look at the next stage, I'm going to tackle these horizontal creases
like before I need to get the light board into the best position while working on these areas
and that suits me just fine. To start with I'm sticking with the standard rubber tip, using the
heat gun I give the panel a gentle bit of heat so the paint doesn't crack when pushing behind.
Next I thread the bar through the back of the panel
First I'm going to start on the low section to the left,
it's the softest horizontal section so that's why I've stuck with the standard rubber tip
and as you can see this section pushes up quite easily
Again after pushing up the low areas I need to tap down a few high sections
which I do with my standard rubber tip on the end of my knock down,
I then follow this up with a few taps with my plastic bullet tip to tap down some of
the tighter areas and there we go this low section on the left has lifted up nicely
I'll come back later and fine tune this some more but now I need to work on the other two
horizontal creases to the left. The choice of tip to push these up will be my plastic bullet tip.
When pushing up tight sections of metal the paint can crack very easily so again
heat is very important. I grab my straight bar and thread the tip in underneath and I take my
time to ensure I'm right in the middle of the crease before committing to pushing the crease up
otherwise I will add more pressure into the crease making it harder to remove.
As you can see I've managed to get right in the middle of both of these creases.
Next I'm using a knockdown made from Delrin which is a harder material which is better
for tapping down the harder sections of metal and the metal is really tough here so I need
to tap on the metal quite a few times to get it to move, I still need to go back over these
creases a few more times but so far I'm really pleased with the progress that I'm making...
So if you're like me, you love to learn new things and you take a lot of pride in what you do,
for example I love editing my own videos and create all my own graphic design elements to
help explain to you what I'm repairing and some of you know that I'm passionate about 3d design and
3d printing, well if you are passionate about learning things like this or want to be able
to learn new things like this well then I can fully recommend Skillshare, it's a huge online
community of creative and curious people exactly like me where you can pretty much learn anything
you desire and on that point of 3d design and 3d printing I have some very interesting videos I'm
currently working on where you can download and print some of my own designs and to help
me get this off the ground I've been following this Fusion 360 master class by Jeffrey Wolfe
called 'design for 3d printing' which has helped give me the knowledge and skills to be able to get
these new ideas off the ground and as with all the many courses I've taken on Skillshare I love the
fact that you can learn at your own pace and all their courses are ad free so you can always remain
focused and in the zone when learning something that really interests you and with new premium
courses being launched each week you won't fail to find something new to learn and discover so
if you want up your game in 2022 and increase your knowledge in maybe video editing, graphic design,
creating your own visual effects, 3d design and printing or anything else I can highly recommend
Skillshare they have everything you need to take your learning to the next level and don't worry
if you don't speak English their entire Skillshare catalogue is now available in subtitles in Spanish
French Portuguese and German. To sign up simply use the link at the top of my description.
the first 1000 people to use this link will get a one month free trial of Skillshare,
right now let's get back to this repair...
Okay now that I've removed nearly all the low sections it's time to start removing the crowns
This time I'm going to be working from the other direction so I place my light board
on the right side of the panel the first crown I'm going to remove has a low section in front
of it so I'm going to heat this area up first push it up then tap the crown down behind it
Feeding the bar through behind you can see the low section being pushed up with the standard
rubber tip here you can see that I'm working around this low section to bring it up gradually
once I'm happy with this low area I can grab my knock down with a large rubber tip
and get to work on tapping this crown down using the large rubber tip I can
bring this crown down gradually without putting any low spots in the panel.
Now before removing the other crowns I just want
to lift up this low spot on the body line which you can clearly see here.
To do this I'm going to use this smaller bar which is a plastic vinyl tip on the end
After applying some gentle heat I slip the bar under the panel into the recess behind
I then work across this body line bringing up the
low section until the body line is back where it was originally.
Grabbing my sharp plastic tap down I address any high areas left present on
the surface of the panel, luckily there isn't too many so this doesn't take too long to do.
Right so now the next thing to do is to remove the longest crown of the whole repair
so I move my light so I can get the best view of it
it's quite an obvious crown and it's probably around 10 centimeters long,
to remove this crown I'm going to be using my knockdown with my standard rubber tip
First I'm going to start on the right side of this
crown and gradually move over to the left side until it's completely gone
I make sure I do this carefully so I don't create any low spots in the panel
and there we go the crown has now been blended back into the adjacent metal
Okay so running my light board across the panel we can see that I'm virtually finished
there are just a few micro highs and micro loads to deal with
therefore I need to set my light in the best position and heat the panel up ready
for my sharp plastic bullet tip which I have on the end of my straight bar.
It might be very difficult to see what I'm doing here but I'm carefully pushing
up all the tiny little micro lows so that they are level with the adjacent metal.
then using my sharp plastic tap down I'm tapping down any last remaining high spots
on the surface of the panel and there we go the repair is finally completed.
Time now to put everything back together, but first before I put the rear light back in
I just want to clean this area behind the light fitting. Next thing I need to do is
to remove the black tape from the edge of the panel this prevented any damage to the paint,
I then run my edge straighteners over this section to make sure the metal edge is completely flat,
I then grab the light fitting and place it into the recess.
Then using my 8mm nut I use my socket and tighten the plastic fixing bracket onto the back side,
I then connect the wire back into the wiring connector,
I then grab the plastic light cover and slide it back into position underneath, then using
the two clips I removed earlier I carefully press these back into the holes in the cover that's one,
and there's the second one. The last thing to do is to close the panel
and check out the FINAL RESULT
Well there you go, not a super difficult dent to remove although as always with these kinds
of dents you do have to make sure you attach the right sections in the right order and as
this panel had been painted before I wasn't able to use any glue pulling on this repair but seeing
as I had really good access behind this dent it didn't matter as I was able to get a good variety
of bars behind to carefully push this damage out. The other thing is that metallic silver can always
be a difficult color to repair especially when pushing out creases as the paint finish can tend
to bruise so I was extra careful and luckily no bruising occurred, everything turned out really
well and the customer was extremely pleased with the result. As always if you liked the video
it'd be great to get a thumbs up and if you're not already subscribed then it'll be great to have you
on board, so hit that subscribe button and don't forget to click the bell icon to be notified when
a new video is uploaded. Also feel free to check out some of the other great videos on my YouTube
channel, but that's all for now, thanks again for watching and I'll see you all in the next video!