Took the Jag to work last friday – which I very seldom do – and parked it in the widest spot I could find. When I got back a Honda had parked ridiculously close (with its left wheels in my slot) and the driver had slammed his/her door into my rear door. The dent was shallow but wide and clearly visible. Do I have to say I was upset.

Anyway, this Tuesday I took the Jaguar to a PDR-guy. I have had PDR-work done once before (on my old ex. X300 XJR) with equally amazing results.

The dents just vanish and what I can't figure out is why more people aren't using these services more frequently? I see many almost new high end cars with their side panels full of dings. So, this may be old news to some of you, but considering the amount of dented Jags I see cruising around I figured it is worth repeating: for $170 per panel your car can look as good as new.

Cheers,
Christian

 

I agree -- both on getting upset and having the PDR done! I had a brand new, less than 100 miles, car dented like that and paid the PDR guy $100 to fix it -- was well worth it to me. I don't understand why people park like that and bang my car -- I got a small paint chip in my passenger's side door two days ago - really pisses me off!

 

I live in a rural area so find plenty of out of the way places to park my baby.
I hate door dings so much I try and parallel park every chance I get. Only problem is now my bumpers are exposed to the next guy...
The PDR guys are great.
They'll earn a good seat in heaven, I'm sure.

 

Great stuff Chris - befores and afters pictures??

 

Over the past 6 years, I have devlevoped quite a friendship with Travis our PDR guy. When he is in the area, he gives me a call to see if I need any work done.

I used to have him come quarterly and now is sooner than that. Living here in Charlotte, the spaces are tight and people just don't give a damn about other peoples property.

 

Yep....paintless dent removal guys are AWESOME!

I've had cuase to use them a few times and the results are amazing .......as the owner I know every inch of my car and the size / location of the said dings etc were etched into my memory.............Once he finished I was second guessing myself as to where they had been!!!

 

I guess you can't avoid them. If you don't buy boat fenders for your car or one of these:

HOW IT WORKS - DoorDefender® - Driven to Protect - How To Install The DoorDefender® Magnetic Car Door Guards, Van Door Guards, and Truck Door Guards - Oakville - Ontario - Canada

But then you will have to put up with looking like a mad man every time you park your car and mount them. And, of course, the Jaguar won't be as pretty on the parking lot.

Sean: Sadly, I dont have any good before pics, but I will get some after ones tonight.

 

Took some after pictures tonight. Can't tell exactly where there was a 3" dent on that door, but somewhere there was. The white dust is pollen by the way.

Cheers,
Christian

 

You guys would really be impressed with a guy that I used to work for back in the mid 1980's.

He's one of the original paintless dent removal guys that was trained at Fisher Body (google it) back in the 60's.

Anyhow in the summer of 1984 or 85 there was a hailstorm here in Detroit that dropped clods of ice the size of golfballs. I watched him work on 40 dents in the roof of a black car with a propane torch and dry ice. I forgot the order but he'd warm the area of the dent then slide the dry ice over it or vice versa. He worked for a few hours and had them all out. He then took about 20 more out of the hood and another 10 or so out of the decklid. It took him all day but when he was finished the car was a smooth as new. I've never seen anything like it since.

Fast forward to present and my neighbor is a PDR guy. Needless to say since I own 2 black vehicles and the world is full of idiots, I'm glad he's right near by.

 

When I purchased my XJS the previous owner had backed into something and this left a dent on the portion of the boot lid between the top of the lid and the chrome strip that runs above the rear lights. Is this panel too small to be fixed with PDR??

Thanks

 

As hard as I try to park in a safe parking spot, inevitably some clown will park close enough to my car to make opening the doors difficult. It's uncanny. I did the PDR once on a boot dent and it was miraculous. I'm just wondering, did you have to take the door panel off, and can they get to dents right along the waistline ? I have one that irritates me every time I go to get in the car.

 

glad you are satisfied with your repair. you have touched upon one of my greatest sources of aggravation.My car is just about as close to a "1" (especially on the exterior) as you can get and yet I am at the point of paranoia whenever I take her out (mostly week ends) and I guess waiting for disaster to occur.

It hasn't happened yet. Very careful where I park but sometimes I wind up parking in a spot which is potentially compromising. This happened last Friday night where I took dinner at a local watering hole but also a biker bar.I had just detailed the car but wound up parking it fairly close to the bars' entrance. No other spots available so I grabbed the last spot available and hoped for the best.

When I came out the first thing I did was a complete walk around. Thankfully no knicks or dents. But one guy practically sitting on driver side fender. I had to tactfully ask him to move, no altercation but thought to myself what kind of a jerk is this? If its not their stuff people just don't care (about yours).
Wondering.... for the xjr with the aluminum body makes the fix easier or harder?

 

The 01 XJ is pristine but my 74 XJ has a dent on a rear door which some fat broad caused when she parked right next to me despite my having parked WAY out. There was lots of space on the opposite side, but no, she had to park right on top of me.

My 06 Subaru has plenty of dings despite our parking care. It's the Costco and winter car, so I understand how it happens. What is it about winter that people slam their doors into you? Does cold affect sense? (We're in CA but in the mountains.)

Our Miata has an aluminum hood and it has a few dimples from rocks. I used a heat gun and ice to shrink some but dry ice would have been better, I'll do that again some time. It's an old body man trick. Guys working in the midwest were masters at it. The trick is to do it quickly. The longer it sits, the less memory the metal has.

A guy I know has been doing this for almost 20 years. He was one of the original guys buying a franchise. It's as much art as skill. He has developed his own tools too.

Anyhow, congrads on having someone do a proper job.

 

Don't even get me started on this. Most of the door dings here in Southern California are caused by careless or uncaring SUV owners; as well as most of the accidents on the road I might add. As far as I am concerned, a good SUV is one that was just committed to the scrap yard.

 

PDR is Voo-Doo, I swear.
I hired a fellow to do three of my cars once and watched him the entire day. One of the cars had commuter lot rash in a big way, it looked like it had been beaten with chains thanks to all the asshats in a hurry who just can't be bothered to be careful around other's property(deep breath), after a few hours and nearly all of my Belgian beer it was nearly perfect. The lesser damaged panels were completely restored.
The guy is an artist. He used bright lights even on a sunny day. He never drilled a hole(said he could get the car above perfect if I let him drill)and manipulated the metal with bizarre looking tools like it was putty. Said he can push the dents out of Korean cars with his fingers!