Watch This Incredible Tool Repair a Dent With Black Magic
You don’t need a magic wand to fix dents if you have this tool.
Skilled body shop technicians are already a marvel of specialized industry. You can run over a soda can and crush it flat, and given enough time, a top tier body shop tech will have it looking like it just came off the assembly line. The work they do is partially attributable to their specialty tools, some of which look like dental equipment for a hippo. Since no specialty tool comes with a low price tag, this video (and the tool in it) may help explain why some of the most benign-looking car accidents carry jaw-dropping costs.
At the beginning of the video, two things are apparent. First, the damaged metal panel or frame, which looks like it was kicked in by either a bull elephant or scorned lover. Hell hath no fury, as they say.
The second thing is that the operator of this tool is attaching key-like objects to the dent with a buzzing tool that appears to be using some form of arc welding to melt together the tips of the "keys" and the surface of the dent. When the full length of the dent is covered in a row of the "keys," a tool is slid into the series of holes on the ends of the keys, and a puller is mounted. The puller then begins to yank the middle of the dent out using the rod and keys, and when the center of the dent is partially pulled out, the operator slides the rod in all the way.
From there, the dent almost seems to pop out on its own. A hammer is used to flatten the now-corrected panel out, and prevent it from jumping back into the shape it was before. The keys are broken off, and their welds torn with an easy wobbling motion.
Any real body shop techs reading this are either laughing or cringing at my lack of knowledge for the technical terms for any of these tools, but no matter. They're the ones paid to know the names of these tools, not me.
