A Brief History of Paintless Dent Repair (PDR)
Back in the 1950s, if you had a dent in your car, you didn’t have much leeway as to how to get it fixed. Whether the dent was big or small, the technician would have to:
- Remove the damaged panel
- Use a specialized heat tool to reshape the metal to its original form
- Sand, smooth, and repaint the repaired area
This painstaking process could take days, or even weeks.
That all changed around 1960, thanks to a Mercedes employee named Oskar Flaig who was working at the International Motor Sports Show (formerly SEMA) in New York. Visitors to the show were always scratching, chipping and denting the display cars, and part of his job was to have them all looking pristine again before the next morning. Oskar had his work cut out for him.
Using filler took too much time, so Oskar got creative, and he eventually realized he could use the handle of a hammer to “massage” the dents out of the panels! What’s more, his results were astounding—restoring the panels to like-new condition faster and better than traditional methods. Oskar went back home to Germany and shared his newfound collision repair technique with coworkers.
About 20 years later, another German, Hurgen Holzer, transplanted the innovative repair technique to Minnesota. At first, US collision repair technicians tried to hoard the skill to themselves, using sheets or tented frames to conceal what they were doing, but that only made customers suspicious. Eventually, auto repair facilities started giving demonstrations to the public, and PDR began to be widely used.
The Evolution of a Repair Revolution
Today, PDR is the preferred, non-invasive technique for collision repair technicians to repair minor dings and dents. The tools used for PDR have also come a long way since the hammer that Oskar first used, and include:
- Rods of varying sizes with different tips to push out dents from behind
- Glue pullers (consisting of adhesive tabs and a pulling mechanism) to lift dents from the outside
- Slide hammers, which apply controlled force to pull out dents that are large or have a shallow curve
- Knockdown tools, used to tap down high spots and further refine the shape of the metal
- Specialized LED lights to help technicians see and identify high and low spots and contours
Faster & Cheaper = Better
Dents are still annoying, but PDR has made them much more bearable. No paint or fillers means less labour and materials, making this a very cost-effective solution. Besides being faster and cheaper, PDR offers other advantages as well:
Eco-Friendliness
Without the need for any chemical substances, PDR is easier on the environment than traditional methods.
Value Retention
PDR maintains the original factory finish of your car, which means less of a hit to its resale value.
Convenience & Versatility
As long as the paint is intact and there’s no structural damage, many types of dents (such as those arising from collisions, hailstones and errant baseballs) are ideal candidates for PDR. It can also be effective for creases and large, shallow indentations. PDR is not the best option for large, deep dents, dents to the sharp edges and corners of a vehicle, or when the metal beneath has been “stretched.”
A Word to the Wise
A truly skilled PDR technician can be hard to find. That’s because it’s a difficult repair technique to learn, demanding excellent eyesight, fine motor skills, and the ability to quickly adjust your approach as needed in the course of the repair. Among collision repair technicians, it’s a skill that is known to demand patience, dedication, and a long learning curve to master.
After reading this, you may feel certain that your latest dent can be fixed using PDR, but only an expert can tell you for sure. At Mitek, we’ve been doing PDR since the 90s, so we can let you know right away if your dent is a suitable candidate for this technique. If not, we will always let you know why.
We take pride in doing things right, and in always being upfront. To our way of thinking, if you’re not using the proper technique to repair a car, you may as well not bother repairing it at all.