Dent removal vs. real body work: which one do you need?

Not every dent needs new paint, and not every dent can be pulled. Knowing which one you have saves money and time, and it is usually visible from the sidewalk.

If the paint is unbroken — no cracks, no chips, no exposed metal — the dent is a candidate for paintless dent repair. A technician works the metal back out from behind the panel with specialized tools, and the color never gets touched. It is fast, it is cheaper, and it leaves the factory finish intact, which matters for resale.

Once the paint is cracked or creased sharply, paintless repair is off the table. The metal has stretched past where it can be massaged back, or the paint will not flex with it. Now you are in body-work territory: the panel gets repaired or replaced, primed, painted, and blended into the panels around it.

Hail is the classic paintless case — dozens of shallow dents, paint intact. A parking-lot door ding is usually paintless too, if it is clean. A scrape down the side that took paint with it is not.

The honest answer is to bring it by. We can tell in a few minutes which road you are on, and we will say so plainly. If it is paintless, you save the money. If it is not, you find out what the real repair costs before any work starts.