My uncle swore by pulling dents, but his method cost me a door skin

Uncle Ray has been doing body work since the 80s, and he told me to skip the stud welder on a shallow crease, just use a slide hammer and body filler to smooth it over. Followed his advice on a 2015 Civic last month, filled the dent with about a quarter inch of mud, and it looked fine until the customer hit a pothole. The filler cracked right down the middle and I had to redo the whole panel, plus buy a new skin for $180. He swears he never had issues back in the day, but cars today flex way more than that old Chevy he learned on. So is old-school technique actually worse on modern panels, or did I just rush the prep work? Anyone else get burned by a family member's tried-and-true shortcut?

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morgan51225d ago

Did your uncle happen to mention the part where old school filler was basically lead and fiberglass that didn't care about flex? Because that's the thing nobody talks about when they say "it worked back then." Modern panels are thin and springy, so any body filler thicker than a skim coat is just waiting to crack. My buddy learned that the hard way on his F150, he filled a crease on the bedside and the whole thing spiderwebbed within a week of hauling gravel. We ended up calling it the "crunchy door" until he caved and got a stud welder. Anyway, you probably could have saved the skin if you'd used a flexible panel bonder or even just less filler, but I get why you trusted the family legend.