The Body Shop vs The Paintless Dent Repair Shop
There are two types of cars on the road today. Ones with door dings and ones that will get a door ding. This may seam like a funny quote however if you think about it couldn’t be truer. Unless you keep your car in a padded garage that has no tools and the kids have no access to it it’s going to get dinged one day. So many people here in San Antonio tell me that they really try and avoid getting door dings by parking at the far end of the parking lot only to come out of 
the store to find some big hunk of ancient steel that looks like it was just shipped in from a war zone parked next to them. Or they find a shopping cart resting on the door or fender of their vehicle after spending a small fortune buying the weeks groceries.
Some people can live with one or two door dings but for the one who cant there are two options. First is to take your car to a body shop and have them grind, sand, bondo and paint over the damage. Or you can find a local reputable shop like concours auto salon to use the paintless dent repair process and have them repair that ding or small dent in as little as 30 minutes.
The Body Shop.
This is how the body shop process works. You schedule an appointment to leave your car. The body man will then start by sanding or grind all the paint away in the damaged area. Bondo is mixed to fill the dented area and then spread over it like cake batter. After it’s had a chance to harden the sanding process starts again. Bondo dust is flying
Dent in the fender of a VW Jetta
every where (you better hope they didnt leave your windows open). This process can be done a few more time depending on where the damage is and the experience of the body man. Then your car will sit the rest of the day with no other work to be done. The next day your car will be preped for painting. The damage area will get primered and painted. After this it will sit untill the next day. Ok it’s now day three and if every thing has gone as planed you will be able to pickup your car today but not until a couple of things are done. The freshly painted panel or panel’s if they had to blend will be sanded in an attempt to flatten the paint out and to remove any dirt particals that may have gotten into the paint. Then this will be polished to a high gloss. In most cases the body shop will leave swirl markes as an add bonus just so every ones knows you has some repairs done. This process can cost as little as $300.00
The Paintless Dent Repair Process
The same Jetta Fender after the paintless dent repair process
The paintless dent repair process works like this. You make an appointment with a reputable company that offers paintless dent repairs (PDR) like Concours Auto Salon. When you show up to have the repairs done you have a seat in the waiting room while the Vale Certified PDR technician pulls your car into the shop. He uses special tools to gently message the damaged area back to it’s original shape or position. This process takes as little as 30 minutes. The final step is to polish the area removing and signs of impact from the paint that might of happened when it was dented. This entire process can cost as little as $80.00 Witch process would you chose?
Now it’s obvious that if your car receives a significant impact or is in a major collision your going to need a body shop to repair the damage. However for those smaller dents that haven’t damaged the paint why not look into paintless dent repair and see if it can be fixed.
