Showerthought: I tried to pop out a door ding with a heat gun and a can of air, and made it worse in 30 seconds | Auto Body Repairers - Pinecone Attack
Showerthought: I tried to pop out a door ding with a heat gun and a can of air, and made it worse in 30 seconds
So I watched like six videos about the heat gun and compressed air trick for dents and figured I'd try it on a small ding in the rear door of a customer's Corolla. Stupid move, I know, but the paint was already tired and the guy said he didn't care. I heated the panel for maybe 20 seconds, flipped the can upside down, hit it with the cold blast, and heard a pop. For about two seconds I felt like a genius. Then I looked closer and the dent was still there but now the paint had a spiderweb crack right through the middle of it, plus a nice little ring where the cold hit. Took me another hour to blend that mess out and I ended up eating the cost on the panel. Lesson learned the hard way: the heat and cold trick is for big soft oil can dents on old steel, not a crease on a newer panel with factory paint. Now I just tell folks to leave it alone or pay for real PDR. Any of you ever get roped into trying that trick after a customer shows you a TikTok?