Imagine you want to save money on repairs and decide to do the work yourself.
Imagine you want to save money on repairs and decide to do the work yourself. Painting and priming the damaged surface are straightforward, but what do you do about dents? You probably don’t have any specialized tools. That’s where an ordinary plastic bottle can help. And getting one shouldn’t be a problem.
If the dent is not serious, even a beginner should be able to straighten it out without much difficulty.
Several PET bottles with caps.
A stick of hot glue.
Ideally, you should also have a heat gun.
First, prepare the surface for straightening. If you plan to paint it afterward, sand the dent with medium-grit sandpaper. Then be sure to degrease the surface. If the surface will not be painted, simply degrease it.
The bottle cap should also be sanded with coarser sandpaper and then degreased.
In this case, we will be straightening a longitudinal dent in a rocker panel.
Now we can get to work. Heat the hot glue with a heat gun (if you don’t have one, use matches or a lighter).
Apply plenty of glue to the cap, then quickly attach it to the center of the dent you want to straighten.
Attach as many bottle caps as necessary along the entire length of the dent, then screw the bottles onto them.
Now start straightening the dent. Pull each bottle one at a time, using small, progressively stronger jerks.
Keep going until they all come off.
Visually monitor the straightening process. You may need to repeat these steps several times. It all depends on the specific defect.
In the end, the rocker panel was straight again.
Any remaining small irregularities and imperfections can be hidden with body filler.
That’s a useful little trick that may come in handy.