October 2009 - Advances in PDR since 1992

October 2009 Paintless Mentor Coaching newsletter
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"When I was your age we walked uphill in the snow to PDR a dent. Both directions!"
Its an old joke, but there really have been a number of advances in paintless dent removal.
Members have full access, here's a snippet:

The no drilling rule definitely will have you tearing more things apart, now.
I remember being scared to death when I dropped my first head liner. I’ll bet you were too. But R & I or remove and install, need not be scary. Frustrating if you break a clip or worse, but its rare. Just explore as well as you can without hurting it and you’ll do fine.
How far would you go to get to a dent? Removing window glass and the regulators or motor mechanisms can sure help. Just be sure to get paid for it.

Tools:
Steck pliers clip tool: Hold on to the clip and won’t mushroom out or break off the head. No more needs to be said about these beauties from Steck, Model #21720. You can pick these up from paint jobbers in your town, or some auto parts stores.

Cars then

How much can change in 10 years? Turns out, a whole bunch.
Very few cars had uniside rails. Hondas were about the only ones, then Toyota followed suit. Take a look at a 1990 or ’91 Nissan Maxima next time you’re out. See how the Quarter seems to flow into the roof with no molding between? This is how cars were made then.
Every car had a roof and a quarter panel which welded together, but the seam was covered with plastic filler or lead.
Metals were even quite different. You could count on the higher end cars to be good thick metal. Hard to dent, easy to fix.

Cars today.
Now, almost every car is made with uniside technology. Its genius really, in design, I mean. Its fast to build, no filler and much stronger. The quarter panel is a continuous piece all the way up to the front door hinge pillar, or cowl. As you know, most of these rails have no access, thus need glue pulling.
Metals of today are not just thinner, they are of a different alloy. To paraphrase Toyota, ‘Our metal is nothing today like it was ten years ago.’
Even the cars which historically had good metal are just as thin and easy to dent as the Asian cars.

Also in this issue:
How to make $500 with one phone call and one email.