Ask the Dent Experts

A NEW YEAR,  A NEW DENT

The holiday season is over. Time to take a deep breath and settle back into “normal” life again.

Did you shop last month? Did you shop at a mall? And was it packed with cars? You might want to take a look at yours. Malls during the holidays are notoriously bad for parking spaces, for being packed in like sardines and, due to the snow and ice this time of year, lots of slips and stumbles.

Our type of dent repair typically shifts this time of year for exactly that reason. Other vehicles parked too close to yours often seem to have their doors opened just a tad too wide; not enough space to get out without touching the car next to you, rushing in or out and swinging that door open without really paying any attention to where it’s going, doors getting caught by the wind and thrashing out without control. On top of that, there’s the times you need a push out of the snow, or have helped someone else. A lot of “handprint” dents come from that. Pushing against a weak area of a trunk lid, a box side, or a fender.

So yes, rest up, there’s no crazy shopping sprees for another ten or eleven months (or, well, the day before you need to). When you get a second though, after you’ve caught your breath, take a peek at your vehicle.

If you do need to come in, we’ll always estimate for free for you. And we’ll undo that dent. No paint, no fillers, no chemicals. Then you can really breathe easily!

 

December 2011 Article

TURNING IN YOUR LEASE? GETTING A NEW VEHICLE?

Those are two of the most common reasons that you might want to have your current vehicle looked over for dents, dings, or hail damage.

When you are turning back in your ride at the end of the lease, almost every major manufacturer allows you a certain amount of wear-and-tear, and that’s a great thing! Check your lease return documents to determine just what is or isn’t allowable. But if you’ve gone over that limit – you have too many dents, or they are larger than permitted – you may want to give us a call to take a look at it. Then you might be able to turn that back in without any traditional bodywork being done, without being penalized on your lease, and without any delays!

Trading your old vehicle for something else? In almost every case of dents, dings, or hail damage, your trade-in value will be substantially lower than trading off a “clean” vehicle. Why? If you don’t take care of it the dealership has to, and they have a lot more administrative overhead costs to include when they have to fix it. At the least, you should be able to recover the cost of your repair with a better trade value, and you may well be able to increase that value! Everybody likes a nice looking vehicle better than a damaged one, and that includes dealerships!

 

 

November 2011 Article

WHERE DID THAT DENT COME FROM?

Well, it could have been from anywhere. A large number of the folks who come in to see us have no idea when or where they got a ding in their fender, door, trunk, or boxside. Those that come in and do know have a really wide variety of tales as to how it came to be.

We often have the “garden variety” of dents: door opened into yours, shopping cart rolled across the parking lot, that kind of thing. But we’ve also had: slipped against the vehicle pushing it out of the snow, neighbour’s child on their bike ran into the side of the car, livestock on the farm grazed too close and slowly pushed in the side, a deer “kissed” the back door, a box of rocks fell off a shelf in the garage; just too many to list.

Fortunately, you shouldn’t have to replace and repaint that part of your vehicle. We repair hail on a daily basis this time of year, but we also repair all of the above types and more. All with no fillers, no sanding, no chemicals, and no repaint.

The cost? Usually quite a bit less than a conventional repair. The time? For this kind of thing, less than a day. For hail? That averages a couple days in most cases.

We can’t fix everything. But estimates are free, don’t take much time, and if we can’t fix it, we can probably tell you who can.

It doesn’t cost a dime to ask!

 

 

October 2011 Article

IT REALLY DID HAIL THIS YEAR

We have had an uncommon number of people in this year who have had hail damage on their vehicle and did not know it. They either showed up for an estimate on a door ding, or were booked into the shop for a minor repair. Once the vehicle was in the shop and under our lighting, it was quite apparent that they had suffered damage from one of the Alberta hail storms this past summer. In some cases, quite extensively.

I mentioned this a couple of months ago, but since then, we’ve seen it again and again. Generally, this unnoticed damage is minor as far as depth of the dents goes. Sometimes also in the number of dents. In a few of the cases, the number has been quite substantial.

So here’s the thing: take another look. If you can see one or two, I can guarantee we’ll find more than that in the shop. If you aren’t sure and think you MAY have received some damage, give us a call anyway and we’ll be happy to take a look for you. There’s no charge for an estimate, although it may take up to an hour to do a complete one.

Repair of this type of damage uses no chemicals, fillers or paint. There’s no environmental impact. You retain your factory paint. The repair time is considerably less than having your vehicle repainted. You retain resale value.

Call us up today for your estimate!

 

 

September 2011 Article

IT LOOKS EASY.  ANYONE SHOULD BE ABLE TO FIX THIS.

The skill of a Paintless Dent Repair (PDR) technician is everything when it comes to having your vehicle repaired at a dent repair shop.

There are a significant number of people and shops who have been taught PDR by taking only a one or two week course, or even by watching a DVD bought over the Internet explaining the process!

At Dent Clinic, all of our technicians must complete a two month certification course, and then work an additional four to six months in the shop before anything larger than a small hail dent is given to them to repair.

As with any type of work you are paying to have done, ask to see what the shop is working on now and, if it’s available, some completed work.  Many PDR shops will refuse this request, stating that the work is a “secret process”.

In our opinion, no skilled technician should be hesitant to show you their work.  Ask your neighbours or your car dealership who they have used and seen good results from.

The type of damage you have will certainly determine whether your dent is a good candidate for Paintless Dent Repair.  We repair a lot of hail damage, but the type of hail that was the size of a baseball and took out all the glass in your vehicle is destined for a traditional bodyshop.

Door dings and dents make up the majority of our business.  If that dent blew paint off your vehicle or punched a hole in the panel, again you are looking at a traditional bodyshop repair or panel replacement.

Not sure?  Estimates are free.  We won’t hesitate to send you to the bodyshop (or anyone else that can help you better than we can) if that’s what you need.

 

 

August 2011 Article

IT MIGHT BE SMALL, BUT CHECK AGAIN

Well, it’s happened. Hailstorms, that is. A number of storms have blown it, ravaged our vehicles, and promptly left. Fortunately, the tornados that appeared with some of these events didn’t seem to do as much damage as they could have.

Something we’ve noticed in the last couple of day though – a few customers have been in for dings and shopping cart dents (don’t forget we can take care of those too!) and while they were in the shop we saw that they had minor hail damage. Out in the sun we hadn’t seen it, the customer didn’t know they had any, but in the shop under our lighting, it was pretty plain to see.

So what? Well, if you plan to sell or trade-in your vehicle and it doesn’t get noticed until then, you may have to have it repaired to get full value for your car or truck. And if you don’t notice it for a long time, it may be too late to make an insurance claim for the repair.

Sure, we’d love your business. But if you’re paying insurance premiums to cover this damage, why leave it until it’s too late to make a claim? Get your vehicle out of the sun and take a closer look, just in case. Or we can take a look for you. We do ask you to make an appointment for a hail estimate (they take a while longer than an estimate for a door ding), but the estimate is free. And if I haven’t drank it all, we might even give you a coffee while you’re waiting!