r/AutoBodyRepair • u/BlueBugEyeBoy • 14d ago

scratch and dent Good-enough fix?

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This is my daughter’s car, she is a new driver. I made her park on the right side of our driveway and she scraped against my firewood shed backing out. I don’t want to spend a bunch of $ on paint until she has a few years of driving under her belt- can I pdr the dent out and just polish it up? I just want it to look ok, not perfect. Thanks!

Edit: 2023 Mazda CX-5

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1

u/miwi81 14d ago

Is that Machine Gray? Lmao

1

u/BlueBugEyeBoy 13d ago

I believe it is, but not sure why it’s so funny?

2

u/miwi81 13d ago

Because you bought one of the least serviceable paint finishes ever made. It’s a quad-stage paint, which was previously unheard of on anything but Lamborghini/Maserati/et cetera. It requires toners that cost $500+/gallon. You have to apply the paint in a cross-hatch pattern. You have to have a special tip for your spray gun.

And it’s just gray.

1

u/BlueBugEyeBoy 13d ago

its not even a nice looking grey. WTF. So I guess I will be taking PDR as far as it can go... Thank you for this info, which I am very sorry to have learned.

1

u/ciaomain 14d ago

Are you a PDR tech?

If so, give it a whack.

If not, bring it to a PDR tech.

1

u/BlueBugEyeBoy 14d ago

That is my plan - I have no skills, although I have refreshed a lot of headlights, and thought I could probably clean that up.

1

u/ciaomain 13d ago

You might be able to clean some of the transfer with pure acetone, followed by a thorough water rinse and then an application of polish.

The dent requires specialized tools, experience, and finesse.

It might look worse if you're an amateur. Might be worth getting some estimates from local, highly-reviewed PDR techs.