How good a spot repair can be?

[MyFragileHalogen]

I got a dent on the A-pillar. PDR guy was able to get it out mostly with the glue pull method but ended up burning through the clear coat. I am wondering if a really potent painter can do a good spot repair that can last at least few years. I am trying to find "good" painters in this area and ask for advice but it's not easy to find a good professional answer. So I wanted to ask here since we have lots of experienced people here.

Best sustainable solution seems to be having the whole thing repainted at a good body shop, but that seems too much for me at this point. If that is the only possibility I will just live with it for a while.

[KevinM]

Originally Posted by MyFragileHalogen

I got a dent on the A-pillar. PDR guy was able to get it out mostly with the glue pull method but ended up burning through the clear coat. I am wondering if a really potent painter can do a good spot repair that can last at least few years. I am trying to find "good" painters in this area and ask for advice but it's not easy to find a good professional answer. So I wanted to ask here since we have lots of experienced people here.

Best sustainable solution seems to be having the whole thing repainted at a good body shop, but that seems too much for me at this point. If that is the only possibility I will just live with it for a while.

Wow, I'm surprised a professional PDR company used a glue/suction method...I hope they are taking some responsibility for this.

But yes, a good paint shop will definitely be able to re-clear that area and blend it in with the rest of the panel.

GL

[MyFragileHalogen]

Originally Posted by KevinM

Wow, I'm surprised a professional PDR company used a glue/suction method...I hope they are taking some responsibility for this.
GL

What do you mean? Is it not a professionally safe method? Definitely there was no way to get to the dent unless drilling from side under the weather strip. My goto guy said he would need to drill it. So I tried other guy who said could try the glue pull method; but I didn't know that method involves that much of clear coat removal.

[allinon72]

A good PDR guy would have been able to get behind an A pillar. And the second guy should have warned you of the risks...there's no point in "paintless dent removal" if you need paint work after.

[KevinM]

Right. Without knowing exactly where the dent was it's hard to say, but I've never seen a professional not push the dent out from behind. And if he couldn't, agree that you should have been warned.

[MyFragileHalogen]

Originally Posted by allinon72

A good PDR guy would have been able to get behind an A pillar. And the second guy should have warned you of the risks...there's no point in "paintless dent removal" if you need paint work after.

Yeah... he did not exactly warn me the risk. He mentioned he will wet sand (I can't remember the exact term, not buffing) but he'd never pull out paint on a 'German' car before and was pretty confident. He had good online reviews so I gave him a try. He was a pretty nice guy so I don't wanna blame him. He was trying to give me referrals about painters though he somewhat don't answer me anymore lol.

Though it's painful to look at the photos, I might post before PDR and after PDR and after paint repair photos later if people are interested.

I have a friend who knows people with exotic cars as well as owns more expensive cars himself; and I am trying to find a referral through him.

[Eric S]

glue pull is better than drilling holes...its 95% of the time safe to do...on factory paint in good condition. Not good on repaints.

depending on the location of the dent, it might not have been accessible otherwise.

So he burned the paint while sanding and polishing, right? That's just a case of a heavy hand/polisher

[MyFragileHalogen]

Originally Posted by Eric S

glue pull is better than drilling holes...its 95% of the time safe to do...on factory paint in good condition. Not good on repaints.

depending on the location of the dent, it might not have been accessible otherwise.

So he burned the paint while sanding and polishing, right? That's just a case of a heavy hand/polisher

Looks like almost each try of pull involves wet sanding. Not sure if that is to stabilize the paint or just to level them to see it better; also fixing dent to ~90% and then wet sanding to trick eyes seem a part of the whole trick. He only concerned about pulling paint and didn't expect burning it through.






He at last introduced me a painter who sounds like who can blend well enough so that it won't 'delaminate' like other spot repair. I am giving him a go.

While commonly a spot repair will fail like this:
https://www.repairerdrivennews.com/2...earcoat-paint/

From what the painter said, I could find few references that say proper blending/melting can make it last a lot longer:

https://www.bodyshopbusiness.com/ble...ory-clearcoat/
https://www.hotrodhotline.com/md/htm...g_in_paint.php
http://nastyz28.com/threads/blending...ht-way.258231/


The painter in the last one says something like "Actually rich people won't even look at their repair, and only people with cars that are expensive for them will be picky about the detail."

I think that might be a reason why the detail shop which get exotic cars all the time wouldn't even answer my quote request/phone calls in spite of a referral by a friend who is their frequent customer. They might be just busy as hell but funny to think about it in that way

[Eric S]

who is it in Oregon? DM me, I have some references

[Eric S]

I'd find a new dent guy if he wetsanded after every glue pull...that's not how its done.

you fix the dent best as possible first, and then it should take no more than 5 min to sand and polish the spot (they aren't getting aggressive nor flat) as they are just trying to "match the texture"

[MyFragileHalogen]

Originally Posted by Eric S

who is it in Oregon? DM me, I have some references

I don't want blame anyone and it seems like it's being taken care of. If the repair goes hell I might ask you for the references.

[bmwbaltimorem5]

first off glue pulling doesn't do any damage to your paint. I have watched PDR guy doing work on my car for a few times and never had a single problem.
Second, I think you should get rid off this company but before make them pay the damage they caused

[MyFragileHalogen]

So the spot repair was finally done after multiple visits to the shop. I turned into a detail freak and bugged him so that he had to polish all the imperfections I spotted, but then after 5 days we found that from one narrow angle under sunlight the paint was transparent all the way through the repair spot (crazy! we were all just laughing...) and he had to redo. Very nice people and I thanked them many times for dealing with me and gave them some cash afterwards so that they can celebrate getting rid of me. The result is amazing. It just looks like factory finish!

Then back at home I looked into the extra detail and found some foreign particles inside of the gap between A-pillar and fender, where you have to purposely point a light in order to see it. I tried to hand polish that inside area, then I figured he probably sprayed very thin layer of clear coat on top of the old clear coat; and they were peeling off.

Well it's where no one's gonna see and also a limitation of spot repair without removing the fender cover (if that's possible). I don't want to bother them anymore- I would have to be a crazy person to do so. I am just going to touch up some base color so I won't see it and call it a day...

[icegrill]

What body shop did the work? I've had pretty good luck with Active and Alpina?

[MyFragileHalogen]

Originally Posted by icegrill

What body shop did the work? I've had pretty good luck with Active and Alpina?

DM me if you wanna know the name.

[MyFragileHalogen]

I ended up destroying the clear coat in there and I had to go back to the shop with a bag of cold beverages as a bribe.. And got to see him taking off the fender in like 10 minutes!

And got to see the area beneath fender is not really painted at all from factory.

[Eric S]

its the feathering of the paint/clear when they cant get in places...should have left it, or told them this in the first place. removal and re-install of fender will easily be a 150 charge most places. BUT, now this side wont match the other side.

Its not just BMW, every manufacture is like that

[MyFragileHalogen]

Originally Posted by Eric S

its the feathering of the paint/clear when they cant get in places...should have left it, or told them this in the first place. removal and re-install of fender will easily be a 150 charge most places. BUT, now this side wont match the other side.

Its not just BMW, every manufacture is like that

Right. I think he did a good job first, but then in the second redo the added clear was not doing great. Now the underside the fender is gonna have a bit more resprayed paint than other side of the car (but I am not gonna be able to see it anyways). By the way I went to the shop you (and my friend) told me and it was her who advised me that best way now was to remove the fender and clean up and seal the clear. She was super cool though.

By the way they didn't want to charge me for the fender removal even though I told them I wanted to. I just need to bring them more bribes.

[MyFragileHalogen]

Wanted to self answer my OP- it can be fixed beautifully by a good painter.

For those who looking for a good paint repair in Portland area I can give you name of the shop. Really potent skill and also good people.

[ShootingBrake]

Can you give me this name of the shop?

Thanks

Originally Posted by MyFragileHalogen

Wanted to self answer my OP- it can be fixed beautifully by a good painter.

For those who looking for a good paint repair in Portland area I can give you name of the shop. Really potent skill and also good people.