Small dent advice

Hello, I have a 2024 4 runner sr5p and I’ve received several estimates from auto body shops and just want to make sure to make the best choice for her. I plan on keeping her for 300k miles. Hopefully she’ll be the last vehicle I ever own. I got some minor scratches and a slight dent. Please see photos. I would prefer not to use bondo but that what’s I am hearing. In my understanding bondo is not a long lasting fix. Would replacing the entire panel be the answer? Thoughts? It’s hard to see in the pic but the dent is near the white scratches. I just hate the it’s only a year old with this damage

 

Hi Denae and welcome. It’s hard to tell from the photos because of all the reflections but to me that dent looks like a good candidate for paintless dent removal techniques. Even if the scratch needs some paint it doesn’t look to me like bondo would be required. But even if it were, Bondo, properly applied, is a legitimate long lasting repair. You shouldn’t be afraid of it..

 

A PDR technician should be able to hammer this out from the inside.

Panel replacement is invasive because it's part of the welded cab structure, so it'll involve grinding off welds, removing rear quarter window glass, etc.

 

Take to a PDR shop. They can most likely get most if not all that out if they can get access to that area.

As for the paint a detailer might be able to buff some of it out to where it’s much harder to notice. Also some PDA shops can help with paint buffing to minimize scratches.

 

Agreed - perfect candidate for paintless dent removal.

 

My buddy does pdr work and that should be an easy fix

bodyshop and bondo not needed. Find a dent removal company and save time and money.

 

Get a PDR kit from Amazon and give DIY a try. We did this with a small door ding and it worked well.

If you can't get to it from the inside to push it out, you could also try a plunger and see if you could suction/ pull it out.

 

Denae, welcome to the party. If you’re like me, I had never even heard of PDR. My truck had 1,800 miles on it when it was hit by a very strong hail storm. There were dozens of dents all over the top, hood, and sides. That’s when I learned about PDR and took it to a guy who had a great reputation. He was able to make it new again. I recommend you let a PDR professional look at it and go from there. Good luck.

 

Agreed with dent removal pros. I backed into a bent steel pole in a parking lot with my Pilot. A dent guy had some nifty vacuum cups and the 5" vertical crease in the rear hatch was put flush again. A slight line on paint was only remaining mark. I think he charged less than $100 and he did it while I waited.

 

Welcome from Wisconsin! The P D R is the way to go.

 

I agree with trying a paintless dent removal first. I would find some shops in your area and see how they are rated by the BBB. I had an Acura fixed with PDR and what they can do is amazing. I am not sure how much they can or cannot do for the paint. But having the dent taken out by PDR is much better in the long run than a panel replacement.

Best wishes in getting fixed. Keep us posted on your progress. Lots of solid advice here from others.

 

Paintless Dent Repair. I got a very small dent in my right rear quarter panel that I caused by doing a mod, but they were able to pull it out. It was very small and cost me $85, but something like this could be a couple hundred. Well worth it. Not sure where you're located, but I can recommend the shop I used in Colorado.

 

I forgot to mention that when you use smaller PDR guys there is a very good chance it will never show on a carfax report. When you use a full on body shop and or insurance it will get reported and the insurance company will use it against you if they ever have to total it out.

 

OP appears to be AWOL. Lots of great advice if anyone else stumbles upon this thread.

 

PDR guys can do wonders. My coworker had a dent right on the body line of his Silverado, a PDR guy was able to completely remove any Trace that it was there.

Personally, I would rather have a PDR job that's less than perfect than having the invasive work done to replace a panel. It always seems like there's some kind of an issue with it, and depending on how they do the work it can lead to issues later on down the line.

 

Agreed. Better to have a small area of a panel where the paint might show a bit of work being done than an entire body panel repainted, and the shop just couldn't get the paint to match quite right. That would be like a neon sign saying something was 'fixed'.

 

This should be pretty simple fix if you don’t want to spend much money. People saying paintless dent removal are on the right track. Kits are $35 on Amazon, I just pulled a similar dent out of mine. I’d say you can expect 80-90% fix with a slide hammer and the hot glue anchors, and cleanup is really easy with soap and water. Good luck!

 

Thanks for sharing. This sounds like a great solution for my old Honda to practice on. If I get comfortable with the technique, I may use on 4runner or my wife's car for issues that come up. I have a few small hail dents on the Civic that would great to test this on.

 

What is the reason that “makes” shops report to Carfax? I’m genuinely curios about what goes into that practice. Is it some sort of business arrangement, does Carfax pay shops to report?

The whole point of PDR is to avoid a needless expensive repair. It pisses me off to think insurance would raise your rates for avoiding a claim.

 

Large shops have a “partnership” with carfax. I have been told in the past that a financial benefit is made by the shop if they report data. What exactly is the benefit (i.e. free report pulls or a payment) and how accurate that is I don’t know.

I doubt anyone that it reporting it is doing it for your benefit and they sure as heck are not going to do extra paperwork for free.