Car Dent Repairs Mobile across Manchester & the North West

It depends on whether the paint is still intact. If it is, the dent comes out from behind using paintless dent removal. The technician finds access through a window aperture, a light gap or a wheel arch, then uses long steel rods to push the low spot back up in small increments, reading the reflection off a line board to judge the panel shape.

PDR works because modern panel steel and aluminium have memory. Pushed slowly and in the right order, working from the outside of the dent inwards, the metal returns close to where it started with no filler and no paint. The original factory finish stays on the car, which is the best result available for both appearance and resale value.

Where the paint is cracked, chipped or scraped, PDR on its own is not enough. The dent is worked out as far as it will go, then the area is flatted back, filled if the profile needs rebuilding, primed, colour matched to the manufacturer paint code and lacquered. Only the damaged area is refinished, which is what SMART repair, Small to Medium Area Repair Technology, actually means in practice.

Almost anything short of structural damage. The bulk of what we see comes from bollards, kerbs, low walls, trolleys, other car doors and the occasional reversing mistake, ranging from a knuckle sized ding to a long crease running down a door skin.

In every case the metal has been pushed inwards on impact, and often the paint has been scraped at the same time, so one job can involve both dent work and refinishing. Bumpers are plastic rather than steel and behave differently again: they are warmed, pushed back into shape from behind, then repaired and refinished if the paint has split.

• Car park door dings and trolley dents
• Long creases along a door skin or sill
• Bollard, kerb and low wall impacts
• Dents and scuffs on plastic bumpers and bumper corners
• Round dents in wings, bonnets and roof panels
• Dents where the paint has cracked or been scratched through

Yes, almost always. Lease and PCP returns are inspected against a fair wear and tear standard, and anything that fails that inspection is charged back to you at the finance company rate, which they set and you do not negotiate. A SMART repair booked before the car goes back normally costs a good deal less than the charge it avoids.

The same argument applies to a car you own and intend to sell. Bodywork is the first thing a private buyer or a trade valuer looks at, and a row of door dings takes money off the price for reasons that have nothing to do with how the car drives. Sorting the panels before a valuation is one of the few jobs that reliably pays for itself.

If you have a return date coming up, get the quote in early. We can usually fit several small repairs into a single visit, which works out cheaper than booking them one at a time.

Most dents are repaired wherever the car is parked. The mobile unit carries the full set of PDR rods and hooks plus paint mixing equipment, spray gear and curing lamps, so a driveway, a workplace car park or a quiet residential bay is usually all that is needed. Nobody has to give up half a day driving to a workshop and back.

Some jobs belong at the body shop. Large dents that need the panel pulling, damage spread across more than one panel, work that needs a controlled temperature to cure properly, and anything where the panel may be better replaced than repaired. We tell you which it is when we quote, not after the van has turned up.

The body shop is at Unit C, The Yard, Rear of Constellation Mill, Radcliffe, Manchester, M26 4AD, open Monday to Friday 09:00 to 20:00 and Saturday 09:00 to 16:00. Ring 0161 667 0919 or email enquiries@signatureawbr.co.uk and we will tell you honestly which route suits the damage.