Kaius88

I have a very shallow dent on the hood that i would like to eliminate. You can only see it when the car is clean, and the light bends slightly around the reflection. I have heard that you can remove shallow dents by rubbing dry ice on the dent. The freeze would contract the metal, and pop it back into shape. Has anyone tried this? Would it mess up the paint? When you turn canned air upside down, it becomes a freeze spray....Has anyone tried using that?

codex57

I dunno. Never heard of that before. I freely admit that science was not my best subject but it doesn't sound like it would work to me. After watching a paintless dent removal guy at work, rubbing dry ice or spraying canned air to make metal contract doesn't sound accurate or concentrated enough to fix a dent.

ng123ray

doesnt that mean it'll just re-dent when it warms up again? ahha .... unless you heat it up first... then ice it....... and reheat it afterwards... iono... thermodynamics in phsyics isnt my thing...

ES350Bob

Kaius,

Unless the dent really grates on your nerves I'd leave it alone long before trying something like dry ice or compressed air, the latter doing nothing for the car, the former potentially damaging the paint.

If it really bugs you, ask service next time in for their opinion of what if anything should be done.

Dave Mac

I would be cautious about putting dry ice on your paint (I too am not a scientist) and would just have the dent removed by the paintless dent repair guy next time you are in for service - probably about $100. They always seem to do a great job on small dents like yours.

Dave Mac

Kaius88

i have to agree with you guys... well...i guess when the car is 3 years old next year, i will have it detailed and get all the dings removed at the same time. I hear you get a discount if you do multiple dings. It's all good. I think the car needs a wash more than anything. The wheels totally look different when dirty.

codex57

Yeah, body shops and paintless dent removal guys have always offered discounts for doing multiple dings. I'd just wait and do it all at once if you can.

aquanuke

Ive heard of dry ice being used before, not tried it myself

http://www.wisebread.com/remove-car-...ly-and-cheaply

TuckerZ

I've done dry ice blasting on a small dent in the past. There is a good article on this on this dry ice website. Basically, the steps are this:

1. Heat the dent with a hair dryer
2. Remove the hair dryer
3. Apply dry ice
4. Remove the dry ice
5. Repeat 3 or 4 times

yeap, it's that simple. For < $3 you can get rid of a dent. Not bad.

Blueshark

I've seen that technic, i guess the metal sheet should be very thin and flexible to work. The metal should still have the memory to return back the original place, often a succion cup or other tools are need to properly work. I worse thing that could happen is it doesn't work, i don't think it would damage the paint.

Otherwise the metal has to be massage back to shape with a paintless dent tool. I have it done on my last car and tools, technics and experience are needed for a great job verified under halogen lights at all angles.