PDR Surprise!

[Oldspanners]

There had been a large dent in the front wing of the Golf for the last 15 years or so and even back then when it was a mere 15 years old as the paint wasn't damaged it wasn't worth the cost of a "proper" repair. Since then recently it acquired a door "ding" as did the Mercedes after investigating I bought an ebay special PDR kit, 12V glue gun (useless), glue sticks, bridge puller (cheap plastic and very basic), a slide hammer (good), various tabs, tap down hammer and different tips (V good). After the usual youtube trawl I left it lying about for a few weeks as other jobs, gardening intruded.
Anyhow this morning I tackled the Golf as a trial, "no, no I really bought the kit for your car dear"
Pulled the door ding a bit but tabs not small enough to completely remove it, needs attacked from the inside with rods. But surprise the large dent about the size of the palm of your hand, between the body line and the edge of the wing I all but removed after about an hour of work with the slide hammer and various tabs. Not perfect but certainly passes my six foot test and encouraged me to finish it when the weather allows. As a first attempt it encouraged me enough to tackle the Mercedes some time as well but I need a line board eventually and have ordered up a set of rods to finish the door.
Small successes welcome at these strange times

 

[ajlsl600]

Any before, after pics?

 

[Wighty]

If there aren’t pics , did it even happen

 

[Oldspanners]

Any before, after pics?

Some after tomorrow, weather permitting Didn't expect it to be worthwhile or worthy of note a surprise in fact.

 

[Oldspanners]

If there aren’t pics , did it even happen

After coming along tomorrow Wighty some of us can only handle one sort of new technology each day

 

[ajlsl600]

If there aren’t pics , did it even happen

I will try tellin lovely this tonight .

 

[Oldspanners]

The things I do for non-believers Battling with a French computer as mine is still Hors de combat, pairing phone to computer, uploading photos, editing and posting. Today's technology for me probably last years for others and this is the second attempt as just as I posted the whole damn thing crashed.
Anyhow, as you will see by not seeing it`s difficult (for me) to photo and shows why a line board is a good idea especially when it comes to setting the tabs in exactly the correct position.
So 1st photo shows approx the original size of the dent and the dots whats left,
View attachment 63579
2nd the door ding after a couple of pulls but needs finishing with rods inside the door (bad reflection of gravel doesn't help to see it) but it was about the size of a 1p coin but now I can see it was an edge that caused it and is not round.
View attachment 63580
3rd Useful tools slide hammer, hammer and tapdown with various points.
View attachment 63581
4th Tabs used and detritus from over an hour and almost 3 glue sticks.
View attachment 63582
5 Useless tools a 12V glue gun and a plastic bridge puller that only has one size of tabs
6 The bridge which was too small to span the original dent just for scale.
7 What is still visible from about 6inches away.
Must say the paint work that is over 30 years old stood up to my attacks although original I half expected some of it to pull off. If you have the time and patience and a line board you could make a good presentable repair to a car that perhaps doesn't warrant the money needed for a perfect professional repair.
I think the finishing touches can wait until the weather heats up again (Christmas) and I will try the Mercedes then, I ended up using a heat gun yesterday just to get a little bit of temperature into the panel.

 

[Oldspanners]

Update made a line board by drawing a lot of lines across an A4 sheet and sticking it on a piece of cardboard works well enough outside to see any high and low spots. It'll do the job for me when I get the right weather to finish off.

 

[davemercedes]

Well done Old Spanners! As you say, your timing is just about right which probably increases the level of self-satisfaction!