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majorrich's avatar

What is the best way to remove a bad dent from the roof of my car?

Asked by majorrich (14741points) August 21st, 2014

I have an old Mercedes 240D that a tree fell on. It made a pretty bad dent on the roof near the corner of the sunroof, which means I can’t get to the underside of the metal to hammer it out. There is also a pretty good wrinkle right near the top of the windshield. Being as the car is a 1978, I am loathe to remove the headliner for fear of not being able to replace it. Money is in quite short supply so I am going to give it a go myself to see if I can do it. I am also considering doing a sunroof delete and just welding it up and then forgo any worry about leakage. But sunroofs are so cool and I bought all the gaskets. I will worry about the one near the sunroof, and get to the one near the windshield once I pull the windshield out. Thanks for your help.

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3 Answers

kritiper's avatar

Get a heavy rubber suction cup like they sell at some home improvement stores, or try a rubber plumber’s helper. Have someone pull on the dent in different places while you bump the edges of the dent (the most creased) with a rubber mallet or your fist. It won’t remove heavy creases, but it might make it look a little better.

CWOTUS's avatar

Autozone and other automotive parts and supply stores sell dent pullers of various types for different kinds of dents and body work. Since you’re only interested in a one-off, you won’t be looking for the pneumatic and other mechanized versions, but there are a lot of relatively low-tech solutions – and you might even be able to talk to someone who has actually done the work before.

RocketGuy's avatar

Maybe a dent removal service could help. One of them took a dent out of the side of my car in 15 min.

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