Fixing Garage Door Dents On a Car with PDR

If your kid hits your car while opening or closing the garage door, the significant dent can be rather unsightly. However, you don’t have to live with a cratered car dent. 

A1A’s certified technicians offer paintless dent repair for their clients in Florida. They also give their clients free estimates of their damage and calculate their repairing cost. 

Assess Your Damage

A damage assessment is needed before you do anything else. You need to see if the dent on your car is small and check if the paint is intact. If you backed your car into the door with speed, the damage could be severe. 

Minor damages are inexpensive and easy to repair. But if the damage is severe, you may need a professional fix for your car. 

How PDR Can Fix Your Car’s Garage Door Dents

If your car has dents and dings and needs a professional dent repair, A1A’s certified technicians will do their job. 

There are a variety of methods PDR offers to repair the damage on your car.

  • Hammering Out the Dent

Aluminum is malleable and used to make cars. We can remove small indentations by tapping the sections back into place. First, PDR’s certified technicians locate the dent and wash the dented surface with water. They then use a mallet to tap the sections until they sit with the surroundings. 

  • Using Glue Pulling Methods

PDR fixes dents in your car’s body using  glue pulling method. This technique is the best for your car, helping pull dents and dings outward. The glue pulling method is usually used for small-scale jobs as they take less time to repair.

  • Using Heat to Repair Dents

Rapid heating can repair your car’s body. A heat source can reshape the damaged part of your car quickly.

Why Use A1A Services?

A1A services offer a free estimate for your car repair. They replace your damaged car’s body using the best techniques and tools, preserving your car’s factory paint. They fix your car’s dent back to its original shape. 

A1A services always ensure the safety of their customers. Our certified professionals perform dent repair and ensure the best results.

Mobile PDR Repair

For a professional dent fix, A1A’s technicians are just a call away. A1A quickly sends a repair professional to your home to fix and repair your car’s dent and dings caused by your garage door. They also check for any internal component damages. 

Call 904-664-9088, and A1A services will send a professional to your home to fix and access the damages.

Got Hail Damage? What You Should You Be Looking for on Your Car?

Hail damage can be easily identified, especially on the hood and roof, after a hail storm. If any body part of your car exhibits clusters of small to medium dents, it is likely because of hail that fell on that part.

The roof and hood of your car are most susceptible because they are facing up and take direct hits from falling hail. Sometime hailstorms are fierce and your car may experience hail damage on its sides due to heavy winds causing hail to hit your car diagonally.

Hail damage on cars can be very costly to owners and it can easily bring down the value of a fairly recent car model down by around $5,000 to $10,000. If we compare this drop in value with the typical cost of hail damage repairs, it is substantially more than getting your car fixed.

Sometimes owners want to wait out the hail season before getting their hail damage repaired. If this makes sense to you, it should not. If your car takes hail damage from more than one hailstorm, it may result in you not being able to get a Paintless Dent Repair (PDR), which is the best dent repair for hail damage.

What Is Paintless Dent Repair (PDR)?

PDR is the most advanced and innovative form of dent repair. Unlike traditional dent repair, it does not involve any fillers, sandpapers or repainting.

A certified PDR technician, like the ones at Appearance 1st Automotive (A1A),uses their skill and experience to repair your hail damage far more efficiently and much faster than traditional dent repair. If you are looking to repair hail damage in and around Florida, A1A PDR is your best option.

Here’s why.

Benefits of PDR for Hail Damage

There are incredibly great benefits of A1A PDR for hail damage when compared to traditional dent repair. These, they include:

  • Saving Money

Hail damage repair can be costly with traditional dent repair. Not so much with PDR because there are no extra costs of fillers or paint, which means you save money. You only pay for the expertise of your A1A PDR technician.

  • Saving Time

Most people who have gotten hail damage repaired know that it is a far lengthier process than typical dent repair. This is not the case with PDR. Our A1A PDR technicians are experts at repairing hail damage and can easily go through 5 cars a day.

Moreover, the lack of repainting and drying in the PDR process means that you do not have to wait multiple days to get your car back. You can get your hail damage fixed in a few hours on the same day you bring your car to Appearance 1st Automotive.

  • Saving Value

Since A1A PDR restores your car to its original state and does not tamper with the original paint coat, you get to save its resale value. While traditional dent repair makes your car lose value with repainting, A1A PDR repairs hail damage without any repainted parts.

  • Saving Paperwork

The inexpensive costs of PDR allows you to pay out of pocket and never file a car report with your insurer. No paperwork is involved and once your car is repaired, no insurer or expert will not be able to tell that there was any hail damage to begin with.

Why A1A Services?

You need only a highly skilled, experienced and certified expert to deliver the PDR process for your hail damaged car, and Appearance 1st Automotive is where you will find one. Paintless dent repair is solely reliant on the PDR technician and you want the best.

Our certified PDR technicians have years of experience with all sorts of rare, unique and common cars and can deliver you the best results in and around Florida.

Conclusion

Waiting for the hail season to end or letting hail damage reduce your car’s value is not the best practice. Identify any hail damage and quickly get it repaired from the best certified PDR technicians at Appearance 1st Automotive in Florida.

For more information on hail damage and Paintless Dent Repair, please visit our website today.

Progressive Insurance for Hail Damage

Hail damage got you worried about dent repairs on your car?

Worrying about dent repairs for hail damage on your car is a thing of the past. The modern world brings many new innovations and thanks to the latest and greatest ones in dent repair, your hail damage dents are now easier than ever to repair.

No more long periods of downtime, high costs and poor results, Paintless Dent Repair (PDR) has all the solutions to your dent repair problems, especially if it is from hail damage. Appearance 1st Automotive (A1A) brings you the best Paintless Dent Repair service in Florida and here’s how it benefits you.

Let’s discuss these benefits and one particular insurance benefit that comes with A1A PDR.

Benefits of Using PDR for Hail Damage

Everything you thought about traditional dent repair has changed with the modern innovation of PDR.

  • Time Benefits

You no longer need to wait for days to get your car back from the dent repair shop. The PDR process does not require using filler or repainting body parts, which significantly cuts down the dent repair time. Your car can be repaired on the same day if the damage isn’t extensive with PDR through Appearance 1st Automotive.

  • Money Benefits

With A1A PDR, you will not be spending nearly as much money as you would if you got a traditional dent repair. This is because there are no extra costs of fillers or paint and you only pay for the skill set of an experienced A1A PDR technician.

  • Restoring Benefits

When our certified PDR technician fixes your hail damage, the results are far superior to those of traditional dent repair because the technician is essentially restoring your car, rather than repairing it. The original paint coat of your car is intact and the results are indistinguishable from the original state of the car.

  • Resale Benefits

Since there is no tampering with the original paint coat, an A1A PDR will save you tons of money on the resale value of your car. Traditional dent repair drops the resale value of your car with each repainted part but PDR has no effect on its resale value, other than increasing it by fixing the hail damage.

A1A Accepts Progressive Insurance, If You Opt for It

Since PDR is so inexpensive, most people opt to pay out of pocket to save themselves the insurance paperwork and increased premiums. Their insurers can never tell the difference once our certified PDR technicians are done repairing the hail damage.

However, if you want to go through your insurer, Appearance 1st Automotive gives you that option as well. We accept Progressive Insurance for all your hail damage PDR repairs, if you choose to opt for insurance repairs.

Why Use A1A Services

Hail damage is very tricky and only experienced and certified PDR technicians should handle it, which is why if you are looking for Paintless Dent Repair in and around Florida, Appearance 1st Automotive is your best option.

Our skilled and certified technicians have vast amounts of experience with all kinds of cars. They perform PDR on exotic, rare, classic and common cars all the time. They give results that our customers stand by and keep coming back for.

If you want to learn more about hail damage, Paintless Dent Repair or Appearance 1st Automotive, please visit our website today. We even offer a free estimate online.

Top Reasons to Use Appearance 1st Automotive Paintless Dent Repair

Most people believe that dent repair is expensive, time consuming and an unnecessary strain on their lives, especially if it is a relatively small dent. This could not be farther from the truth. The fact is that not all dent repair services are equal.

Appearance 1st Automotive is an industry leader in Paintless Dent Repair (PDR), which is a modern dent repair technique that defies all your preconceptions of dent repair. You would be shocked to learn the innovative advantages it has brought to the world of dent repair.

More importantly, Appearance 1st Automotive provides this service better than the competition in all of Florida and its surrounding area. Let’s discuss the PDR process and the top reasons to use Appearance 1st Automotive Paintless Dent Repair.

The Appearance 1st Automotive PDR Process

The process can be broken down into three simple yet effective steps, they are:

  1. Cleaning your car from edge to edge to remove any dirt and dust particles for a smooth repair process.
  2. Placing your car under UV light to assess the damage and accurately identify which areas need repairing.
  3. Finally, a skilled PDR technician repairs the damage using a glue slab or by massaging precisely the right points of the damage from behind the body part.

It is that simple to bring your car back to its original state. Hard to believe, isn’t it?

As simple as the PDR process may seem, it requires the skills and experience of a reliable PDR technician who knows exactly how to get the best results.

Top Reasons to Use Appearance 1st Automotive Paintless Dent Repair

Here are the top reasons you should opt to use Appearance 1st Automotive PDR service.

  • It’s Fast

While traditional dent repair requires dismantling the body part, fixing the dent and then repainting, PDR does no such thing, which means it is much faster. There is no need for repainting and that means not having to wait for 3-5 days, you can get your PDR done in a few hours of a single day.

  • It’s Inexpensive

The fact that there is no need to purchase fillers or paint for the PDR process means it is much less expensive than traditional dent repair. You only pay for the skill set of Appearance 1st Automotive’s experienced PDR technician.

  • It Retains Value

This is our favorite reason to use Appearance 1st Automotive PDR, because your car retains its value for longer when you use PDR. The original paint of your car is left intact, which means that it will sell for more because the original paint coat has not been removed.

  • It Does Not Require Paperwork

Unlike traditional dent repair, PDR is inexpensive, which means you can pay out of pocket and never have to fill paperwork for insurance. After the repairs, no one, including your insurance company, can ever tell there was a dent to begin with.

Conclusion

If you are in or around Florida and your car needs dent repair, we highly recommend that you opt to use Appearance 1st Automotive Paintless Dent Repair. It is fast, easy and inexpensive and it eliminates all the concerns you may have for dent repair services.

For more information on PDR or Appearance 1st Automotive, please visit our website today.

Dents from Hitting a Deer? PDR Can Help!

Dent Removal

While hitting an animal with our car or getting in their way is the last thing any of us would like to happen, sometimes it’s inevitable and you can’t hold yourself responsible. Getting a dent on your vehicle can be annoying when you have to rely on traditional methods of dent repair. The old-fashioned way of repairing the dents on your car can take up a lot of your time and can become quite expensive. 

But are there any substitutes? Even though the traditional method has stuck around for years upon years, it isn’t exactly the perfect solution for all your dent-repair needs. It ends up damaging your car in unimaginable ways, and if you get damage more than once on the same car, you’re going to have a car that is extremely vulnerable to dents and dings on the road. 

You might be wondering the reason for that. Keep reading to learn why.

The Traditional Repair Process

If your car got hit by a deer and the incident left a dent or a ding on your vehicle, you’d immediately start thinking of a dent repair service that could help repair your car. But the few of us who do make the mistake of opting for the traditional process end up damaging the car. 

This is because when our car goes for an auto body shop repair it goes through a painful process of dent removal. The PDR technician uses tools to drill two holes around the dent. Afterward, they fill the dent with body fillers, and then the dented space is painted over with body paint. This makes it look like the dent on your car has been repaired when actually something terrible has happened to your car. 

What’s Wrong With An Autobody Shop Repair

Here, we list some reasons why you should reconsider getting your car repaired from an auto body shop.

  • The traditional way of repairing dents is expensive because the dent repair specialist uses several materials to repair the dent
  • It’s not environmentally friendly because when your car is painted with car paint, it releases harmful chemical fumes into the air
  • Your car comes with a protective coating that saves it from dent and dings. When your car goes through a traditional repair process, this coating is removed. 

Paintless Dent Repair

Paintless dent repair is the modern way of repairing the dents on your vehicle. Unlike the traditional method of repairing dent, PDR does not take away the protective coating from your car and is affordable as well. Because PDR offers such mind-blowing advantages over the traditional method, car insurance companies recommend their clients to get a PDR because it increases the longevity of the car’s body. 

This can also mean that the insurance company will pay for the damages that your car has suffered. If you’re looking to get a PDR repair completed due to deer damage, contact Appearance 1st Automotive.

Dent Removal on a Bumper With PDR

A bumper is one of the most commonly damaged parts of a vehicle. It’s also one of those few parts of your vehicle that you can’t see when you’re driving your car, because of which it often gets a fair share of dents and dings. Apart from the obvious reason that a dent on a bumper is easily visible – you should also consider getting a dent removal with PDR because a dent can have several effects on your car that you might not know.

Here’s why you should get a dent removed from your car’s bumper as quickly as possible.

  • Rust

Why would anyone want to look at an ugly dent that tarnishes the beautiful look of your car? Even when you aren’t looking at it, there’s always that tiny voice in the back of your mind constantly nagging you to get a repair. Ignore it as long as you want; the problem gets serious when you start to see how the dent can damage the paint on your vehicle. 

The cracks caused by the impact allow water to seep under the dent. When this water touches the unprotected metal of the car, the body starts to oxidize, and rust beings to form. The worst part is, while a dent might not expand, rust will!

  • Long-Term Damage

Another problem with a dent on the bumper is that you’re going to need a lot more than just a paintless dent repair if you ignore it for a long time. If there are scratches on the car, your car will need paint, and if you aren’t able to find someone experienced – the process of the repair would be prolonged. 

Weather conditions and occasional wear and tear can make the problem get bigger. 

  • Lesser Resale Price

Let’s suppose you ignored your bumper dent to the point you’re thinking of reselling your car. Now, the dent has expanded, rust has formed, and even if you get a repair, the overall process will drastically reduce the value of your car. Not only are you paying a lot more for a process that could’ve been a small repair, but you’re also losing money off the price of your car. 

That is why – not only should you get PDR on your car’s bumper – you should also get it quickly!

But why PDR?

The Advantages of PDR

  • It’s Quick!

You don’t have to wait for a week to get your back because the PDR process is a lot quicker than a traditional auto body repair, depending on the damage your car has sustained. Since PDR is simpler, certified technicians at Appearance 1st Automotive can get done with it quickly. 

  • It Prolongs the Life of Your Car

PDR also won’t damage the protective coating your car has when it is shipped from the factory. This way, your car can stay safe from paint cracks and dents for a longer period of time. This also means that your car won’t lose value with a small repair! 

Contact us today for a free estimate to get that bumper dent fixed!

 

Why You Should Get a Dent Repaired Quickly

Trunk Dent

If you’ve owned a car in Jacksonville, Florida – a dent has probably popped up on your car somewhere. It happens to the best of us, and there’s no reason to feel ashamed! No matter how carefully we drive, small damages happen here or there.

The dents and dings that happen to our vehicle can occur for many reasons. Someone could open their car door close to your car. A reckless driver could bump into the back of your car during a traffic jam, or perhaps, someone might throw a baseball that might hit your car to cause a dent. 

Often, people have no idea how a dent happened. They walk out of an exhausting day at work and notice the ugly sight when it’s too late. You might think of putting it off because “it’s just a dent,” but do you know what’s happening under? 

Get Dents Repaired Quickly

Getting a dent repaired from a professional dent repair shop like Appearance 1st Automotive is the best decision you can take. This way, you won’t have that little voice in your head nagging you to get the dent repaired. Here are a few reasons why you should get that repaired ASAP.

Rusting Problems

Dents cause blemishes on your car that are not pretty to see. But one of the most prominent damages a dent can cause is to the paint. The cracks on the paint of your car can cause the water to seep through to the metal of your car. This part of your car is unprotected and will soon to oxidize and rust. 

When the dent is small, you might not notice this at first. But as soon as the metal starts to rust, the damage on your vehicle becomes a lot more apparent. 

Long-Term Damage

Dents don’t only cause damage to the body of the car. If you don’t repair a dent long enough, you’re going to get your car repainted as well. Since you’re going to need a paint expert and a dent repair expert to repair the damages on your car – you’re going to have to wait until you find the person for the job. 

This wait will worsen the damage. Weather conditions and everyday wear and tear slowly chip off more paint than the initial damage your car sustained, and with time, you’re only letting the repair cost go further up! 

Reduced Value

There are no arguments that a dented car is going to sell for a much lesser price – but that’s not the point we’re trying to make. After your car has got a dent, there’s only a limited amount of time that you can take it for a paintless dent repair. Even though we at Appearance 1st Automotive want to fix every dent with PDR – our hands are tied in some situations. 

Once your car has been repainted, and a body filler has been used on it – it will sell for a significantly lower price. 

So don’t wait around! Drop by Appearance 1st Automotive and get your car repaired today! Or call us for a free estimate!

PDR vs. Do it Yourself Repair Kit

black mustang

You come out of the movie theatre feeling thrilled because of the movie you just saw. You never quite understood the twist at the end, but you tell yourself that not knowing is part of the fun. But while you hear your friends debate continuously – trying to make sense of what they saw – a dreadful sight pours cold chilly water over your blazing emotions.

Your Cadillac has sustained a dent on the door, and it just doesn’t look the same anymore. It feels like a punch in the gut because you’ve been so protective of your car all this time. A situation like this leaves many people reaching for two possible options that offer to make sense of the mayhem that has ensued.

A Do it Yourself Repair Kit?

The do it yourself repair kits you see online are designed in a way that they implore you. These repairs kits “claim” that without the help of a professional, you can get rid of the most annoying dents yourself. They tell you to stop paying a professional for the job because you can do it all yourself – but how much truth is there to this bold statement?

In some cases, DIY kits can work but to be fair – in those cases, you don’t need a DIY kit for a repair either. DIY kits are made for small repairs that can be fixed without a professional. If you have time and patience for a DIY kit – it might work for you, but then again, doing it wrong can have disastrous consequences as well.

The point is – a DIY kit is not the perfect solution. You’re going to need a lot of patience and some experience repairing dents to make sure everything goes right for you.

DIY Won’t Always Work

In some situations, even the most experienced and skilled home technicians can’t fix dents with a DIY kit. The dent either won’t change at all, or your relentless efforts will make the dent bubble out on the other side of the car.
Even though your DIY kit will come with tools that are supposed to stop this from happening, it’s a very easy mistake to make. And once the dent has bubbled out – your problems have just increased four-folds.

Leave It To the Professionals

There’s nothing like PDR repair from a professional.

Because the professional has done this procedure more times than you can probably imagine – leave their job to them. Not only are they certified experts in the field – but they also work for your best interest. Our technicians at Appearance 1st Automotive, make sure they make every paintless dent repair as affordable and safe for the customer as possible.

Since the PDR process is a lot quicker than a traditional dent repair, customers leave with their car a lot quicker, too. If your car has sustained damages in Jacksonville, Florida– drop by our shop anytime, or call us 904-664-9088 to get a free estimate of your damages.

PDR Hail Damage Estimate Process

PDR on hail damaged car

We can all agree that Jacksonville, Florida, has unpredictable weather. We’ve all come to befriend rainstorms with the passage of time, but the one kind of weather we’re still trying to accept is a hailstorm. Being stuck in a hailstorm is one of the most helpless situations you can find yourself in. Not only can hail damage your home, but it can also leave devastating effects on your car. 

Quite normally, a car is one of the first few things we check after a hailstorm hits our area. Seeing several dimples on your car after a hailstorm is a heartbreaking experience – to say the least. You automatically think of getting your hood replaced, or your car door replaced because when damage is that catastrophic, you think of spending a lot.  

But is that the only way?

Paintless Dent Repair

Paintless dent repair (PDR) is the modern way of repairing a dent. When a certified technician at Appearance 1st Automotive uses PDR to repair the dents and dings on your vehicle, they massage the dents from the back until the shape of your car restores to its original shape. 

The Advantages of PDR

  • When your car is shipped from the factory, it comes with a protective coating on top of the paint that keeps the paint from scraping off. When you opt for an auto body shop repair, the technician drills two holes around the dent and then fills that space with body fillers. They then paint over the dent to make it look like your car has been repaired. But when you opt for PDR, this protective layer isn’t compromised.
  • PDR is a lot quicker! Most cars that come into the shop with small dents and dings leave on the same day, depending on the damage the car has sustained. This is also because the PDR process is a lot simpler than a traditional dent repair. 
  • Since PDR requires few materials to repair the dent, it is a lot cheaper, too. 

But one should also bear in mind that not every dent can be fixed with PDR. If a dent is too big, and if the metal of the car has a tear, there isn’t much that can be fixed by PDR. 

Estimating the Price of the Repair

To give an accurate price quote for every repair, a PDR technician follows a process that gives them a price for your repair.  This is usually a process, rather than simple guesswork. 

Cleaning the Vehicle

The vehicle is first cleaned so the dents can be visible. A dirty vehicle might hide dents on some occasions.

Lighting

The appropriate lighting is crucial for the repair process. A PDR technician usually uses a light strip of LEDs for this task. Fluorescent bulbs can also be used. 

Dent Size

PDR technicians usually use the US coin estimate to calculate the size of the dent. The sizes can be:

  • Dime
  • Nickel
  • Quarter
  • Half dollar

Please call us for a free estimate today at 904-664-9088.

FAQs About Dent Repair with PDR

Black Porsche

What is Paintless Dent Repair?

Paintless Dent Repair (PDR) is the modern way of repairing a dent. With the help of this procedure, certified technicians like Appearance 1st Automotive can remove small dents and dings from your vehicle. A technician does this by massaging the back of your vehicle’s dent with special tools that they are equipped with. 

Will the Paint Of My Vehicle Be Damaged?

Unlike a traditional auto body repair, PDR does not damage the paint on your car’s body. To repair dents the PDR way, the technician uses a massager to massage the body of the car back into its original place. The paint of your car also has a protective coating over it, which prevents the paint from chipping off, or it can help save your car from cracks. 

A traditional auto body repair destroys this protective coating, too, while PDR lets it stay intact. 

Can Any Dent Be Fixed?

No.

Even though at Appearance 1st Automotive, it is our priority to fix every dent with PDR – in some situations, our hands are tied. Larger dents or dents that tear the sheet of the metal on your car can’t be repaired with PDR. Dents that can be repaired with PDR are:

Round Dents

These dents are usually classified as hail repair or can be caused by a basketball, football, or baseball. These dents are pretty common and can be repaired easily with PDR.

Dings

Dings are pretty common, too. Dings are usually caused when a car is parked in the parking lot of a shopping mall or in a crowded place. Other cars or shopping carts can easily cause dings on your vehicle, but you don’t have to worry! Dings can be easily repaired with PDR, too.

Creases

Creases are complex dents that can be caused by storms. They stretch the body of your vehicle to a dangerous extent and for a very long time, repairing these dents with PDR was not possible. However, with advancements in PDR technology, these dents are repairable by PDR, too. 

If your car has any of these dents, or even dents apart from these, contact Appearance 1st Automotive for expert repairs!

Does PDR Have Benefits?

Yes.

Compared to the traditional method of repairing dents, PDR can have several advantages. 

  • It’s affordable. The traditional method of repairing dents drilled holes around the dented area and filled the dented area with body fillers. After the process was complete, this part of the car was repainted. This process reduced the value of the car, and it’s structural integrity. At the same time, PDR  does not use body fillers or paint to repair the dent. The value of your car is not affected. 
  • PDR is also a lot quicker. Most cars that come into the shop for a PDR leave in a day, depending on the repairs needed. However, a traditional auto body repair can take up quite some time. 

PDR is also environmentally friendly since no harmful chemicals are used to repair the dents.