How To Repair Large Dent In Car Door: 6 Useful Solutions

The majority of car owners really fear getting a dent in their vehicle. Coming out of a grocery store only to discover that your door, fender, trunk, or even bumper has a dent is the worst feeling in the world. No matter where the gash is, dents on your car are awful, and they can be quite expensive to fix.

There are, fortunately, DIY methods for repairing car dents. Of course, you might need to take it to a professional if the dent is particularly large and deep. However, if your vehicle hasn’t suffered any significant damage, you might be able to fix it yourself with a few straightforward steps.

We’ve put together a comprehensive guide to repairing annoying car dents, whether they resulted from an accident in the parking lot or from taking those turns a little too quickly. Without further ado, here’s how to repair a dent in your car without a professional’s assistance.

Common Car Dent Problems

We’ve all been there: you walk into the grocery store, buy your peanut butter pretzels, and walk back to your car when, oof, you notice a nice dent in the bumper and perhaps a broken light housing. Some mouth-breather couldn’t be bothered to walk 13 feet, so his roaming cart accelerated with the ferocity of a bighorn sheep in mate, ramming your vehicle. However, car dents can occur in other places as well. Listed below are a few potential causes why the exterior of your car now resembles a golf ball.

• Golf balls
• Hail
• Aforementioned grocery store heathens
• An accident
• Tree branches
• Children playing baseball or soccer too close to your ride (or kids practicing batting on your ride)
• The list goes on and on.

Solutions to Repair Large Dent in Car Door

The Hairdryer Method

Although it may seem absurd, many car owners have had success using hairdryers to repair dents in their vehicles. This is possible because the heat applied to a car’s metallic surface can cause the dent to pop out, solving the issue (with a little assistance from a few extra tools).

You will need a good hairdryer, aluminum foil, a package of dry ice or a can of compressed air, and a pair of rubber-coated gloves to accomplish this. The dent should first be warmed up with the hairdryer. Hold the object away from your car’s surface by at least six inches.

Put on gloves to protect your hands because the area will be quite warm at this point. Then, cover the dent with a piece of foil. Once you’ve done that, use the dry ice to cool the area by rubbing it over the foil covering. Dry ice is optional; however, you could substitute compressed air for it. The dent will be able to deform due to the rapid temperature change on the already heated surface. This process should take about 60 seconds.

A Plunger

Using a plunger to repair a car ding is another typical technique. It’s possible that you already have one lying around your house, but we’re assuming that you’d prefer to spend money on a new one for this. Since plungers aren’t that large, this works best for particularly small dents.

This method simply involves attaching the plunger to the dent, pouring water over both, pushing the dent down, and then pulling it back up as you normally would with a plunger. Once the dent pops out, do this a few more times. The good news is that this will probably be much less messy than flushing a toilet.

Boiling Water

Some individuals just fix dents by adding boiling water. This technique works best if the depression is located on a plastic bumper or even just another plastic component of your car. With this method, you must first boil a pot’s worth of water before pouring it over the dented area. Push against the indentation by extending your hand behind the area that is afflicted. You might need to take the bumper off to access a bumper dent if that is what you have. After doing this, cover the area where the dent was initially present with a pot of cold water.

Vacuum Cleaner and Bucket

The third and final technique is also simple to use because it makes use of standard household items. In this instance, you must first make a small hole in the bottom of a bucket (the hole should be large enough to accommodate your vacuum cleaner hose). The vacuum cleaner hose should then be placed over the hole at the bottom of the bucket and the dent should be covered with the bucket’s top. Finally, start the vacuum and watch as the dent magically disappears.

Dry Ice

Dry ice can be used to remove minor dents from your car, but it is primarily used as a cooling agent. Hold down a piece of dry ice on the dent and rub it until you hear the dent pop back into place while still wearing safety gloves.

If the dent isn’t too deep, you can apply the dry ice as many times as necessary before it pops out. You might also try applying dry ice to the dent after first heating it up with something like a hair dryer (similar to the hairdryer and compressed air tip above).

Hot Glue, Wooden Dowels, & Screws

You always run the risk of doing more harm to your car when you try to remove dents on your own, whether you worsen the dent or chip the paint. Several wooden dowels, a few screws, and a hot glue gun can be used to try to remove large dents from your car in a secure manner.

Put the bottom of the dowel with hot glue and two nails on each side. The dent can be removed by inserting the dowels glue-side down in the areas surrounding it, covering the area as necessary, letting them dry, and pulling each one out one at a time.

Summary

Small blemishes on your ride should quickly disappear thanks to the techniques described here. It’s possible that you’re dealing with a particularly obstinate dent if you try these methods and they don’t remove it. You ought to consult an expert in that situation.

But hopefully, you’ll be able to do the small dent repair yourself and be back on the road in no time with a flawless vehicle.

FAQ