Man...I'm In The Wrong Business!!!

alko

alko

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***caveat: Kind of a long off-topic story***

So Sunday I washed my car and applied some XMT 360 spray wax. And man did she look ggggaawwwjjjuuusss!!! So from doing this, I went through every square inch of my car. Even when I park, I look at my car to see if there are any scratches of dents or anything.

So anyways, Monday I park in the parking garage at my job like I do every day during the week. I park in the same exact spot each time. Well now that the 100 degree days are back, the parking garage gets full again. This guy who also normally parks in the garage decided to park next to me. I go to lunch, and while at lunch I park next to NO ONE. Return to work and park in the same spot. When I left for the day, I'm walking towards my car and notice a door ding....SHUT THE FRONT DOOR....are you serious?!?!?!
So the ding lines up perfectly if the guy opened his door. And get this...I've had a conversation with him about detailing. He's always saying how nice my car looks etc. We talked about the fact that both of our cars are black and hard to maintain. So as I was sitting there debating whether or not to say something to him, he's walking to his car. He smiles and waves at me and I get out of my car. I asked him if it was possible he hit my door with his. He said he didn't believe he did and so I left it alone. I told him I wasn't trying to make a big deal about it and there really wasn't nothing I could prove, but I was still pissed.

So I called up the PDR guy I used the last time I had a ding taken out. I met up with him at his shop and in less than 2 minutes he got the dent out. He charged me $75!!! $75 bucks in less than two minutes?!?!?! I’m in the WRONG business!!!! That’s a lick right there!!! I need to look into adding PDR to my resume! LOL! With anything this comes with skills and maybe one day I will. But for now, I know exactly who to call for any future paintless dent removal.
 
alko said:
***caveat: Kind of a long off-topic story***

So Sunday I washed my car and applied some XMT 360 spray wax. And man did she look ggggaawwwjjjuuusss!!! So from doing this, I went through every square inch of my car. Even when I park, I look at my car to see if there are any scratches of dents or anything.

So anyways, Monday I park in the parking garage at my job like I do every day during the week. I park in the same exact spot each time. Well now that the 100 degree days are back, the parking garage gets full again. This guy who also normally parks in the garage decided to park next to me. I go to lunch, and while at lunch I park next to NO ONE. Return to work and park in the same spot. When I left for the day, I'm walking towards my car and notice a door ding....SHUT THE FRONT DOOR....are you serious?!?!?!
So the ding lines up perfectly if the guy opened his door. And get this...I've had a conversation with him about detailing. He's always saying how nice my car looks etc. We talked about the fact that both of our cars are black and hard to maintain. So as I was sitting there debating whether or not to say something to him, he's walking to his car. He smiles and waves at me and I get out of my car. I asked him if it was possible he hit my door with his. He said he didn't believe he did and so I left it alone. I told him I wasn't trying to make a big deal about it and there really wasn't nothing I could prove, but I was still pissed.

So I called up the PDR guy I used the last time I had a ding taken out. I met up with him at his shop and in less than 2 minutes he got the dent out. He charged me $75!!! $75 bucks in less than two minutes?!?!?! I’m in the WRONG business!!!! That’s a lick right there!!! I need to look into adding PDR to my resume! LOL! With anything this comes with skills and maybe one day I will. But for now, I know exactly who to call for any future paintless dent removal.
Click to expand...

The good news Alex is that his talent brought your car back to perfection for a reasonable price and avoided the much less desirable and expensive body shop!
 
idk didley on pdr . did u watch his guy do his work ? can u explain the process? seems like it could fix a few of my dings. $75 a pop , hope there is a multi ding discount .
 
I agree that the $$$ is a good lick, but check out the franchise cost of the business.
 
I talked to some storm chasers one day that were set up locally doing pdr work. It seems there is a substantial initial investment if you want to have all the tools, lights etc. Then there's the whole chasing storms around the country thing that keeps you from home and I'm sure there's a lot more expense that someone who's not in that industry isn't aware of.

I've watched a ton of videos on it and always thought about getting some of the tools and practicing the techniques.
 
Audi X2 said:
The good news Alex is that his talent brought your car back to perfection for a reasonable price and avoided the much less desirable and expensive body shop!
Click to expand...

As well as avoiding, perhaps, a: "Private" tête-à-tête...
You did very well, IMO, Alex.


BTW: Adding PDR to your resume? It never hurts to expand your detailing services, even if it's only for 'local' business.
Even Your 'locality' may also change, someday...'Your-PDR', then, will be able to accompany you.

:)

Bob
 
I've had a handful of dings taken out and was happy to pay it. Couldn't tell where they were when the job was finished. There's gotta be as much art as science to it.

My thought is that if the guy did your work in just a few minutes, the you got someone with experience and skill.

I'd be kinda concerned if the guy was fiddle farting around unsuccessfully for a 1/2 hour.
 
Alex, that just goes to show you how much you need to charge when you detail for profit. $50 bucks an hour and up.
 
I am currently in the process of learning PDR to add to my business. The tool investment was $2000. I bought a hood and door and made some stands to practice on. It's defiantly a skill that takes time.
 
I had some PDR work performed on one of my cars back in early June. One very noticeable dent and a couple other less visible were removed. The tools looked like elongated medical equipment. He knew exactly what needed to be done, and he charged $125 for them. He spent maybe an hour or so doing the work. I can attest to the fact that if there is science involved it is only in the equipment and car knowledge they have. Everything else is learned through practice.

He did have to drill a small hole on the inside of the door to get at one dent (he did seal it afterwards) and put it in a spot where you have to look for it to know it was there. While expensive, it was worth it.

Funny thing as we were talking, he told me he recently came back from US competition for PDR and came in 7th place across the entire country. Really, they have competitions!!! I just looked it up and it is called the Dent Olympics.
 
I too had an experience with a pdr person and thought... Wow I need to do that. Until I found out how much their tools cost. Yikes... No wonder why they charge what they do.

Sent from my DROID BIONIC using Tapatalk 2
 
Tip of the cap to the guys who spend THEIR hard earned or inherited money to get into this business, its what makes our country so great, too bad the people that go in and out of 1600 Penn Blvd don't understand this! The price they charge isn't alot when you consider the fact that there's NO overspray, NO chance of the paint not matching, NO downtime and 100% satisfaction!
 
"gluepullers.com" offers an "ultimate" glue puller and PDR tool kit with instruction/training manual for around $1000. I've got that kit on my radar for an up coming purchase. Does not include the light but it does include a lined dent board and would be a good place to start.
 
There's more discussion about this then I thought would be. The guy's process was simple...rolled the windows down and he shoved a felt covered board between the window and panel. Then put in what looked like two white door stoppers to give it alittle more room. He took yello reflector tool and suctioned it against the door (I kinda cringed alittle)Then took the long hook tool in and started to finesse it.

I was so amazed that it didn't take long at all. He said its because he's been in the business for 15 years. He said if he were to be sitting there for an hour sweating then thats a problem. I agree.
 
Dent Olympics

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eL0xDrCb1ak]Dent Olympics Contest / Competition / Mobile Tech Expo 2010 / Paintless Dent Repair / Removal PDR - YouTube[/video]

and

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=imbATOKbe7o]Dent Olympics Director | Terry Siegle | 2011 Mobile Tech Expo Corpus Christi - YouTube[/video]

Too much talk, not enough dent removal video.
 
i hate it when people do that and dont admit to it. A long while ago i would usually park on the opposite side of my house since my family would always take up the parking spot under the tree. I had this license plate holder that tilts it. so i parked the car that night and when i woke up i went out to check on my car to see if there was any damage. as soon as i near my car i was pissed. my neighbor parked her car up so close to my car that she dented my bumper and bent up my license plate and license plate holder. i could not do anything about as i could not prove it was her but only to my knowledge i knew because she always parks in front of my car and on that day she moved her car when she realized what she has done. now i check my car every time im parked.
 
alko said:
...in less than 2 minutes he got the dent out. He charged me $75!!! $75 bucks in less than two minutes?!?!?! I’m in the WRONG business!!!!
Click to expand...

That reminds me of the story of the factory with the production machine that isn't working. They call the repairman, and the boss brings him over to the machine. He looks at it for a minute, takes a hammer out of his toolbox, bangs the side of the machine, and it starts working.

The boss is happy until the repairman hands him a bill for $500. The boss goes ballistic, says "would you care to itemize that bill!?!?" So the repairman takes the bill and writes on it:

Banging on side of machine with hammer: $1
Knowing where to bang: $499
 
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