Miata Mailing List: November 1993, Message #191
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   From: steve@laforge.ksc.nasa.gov (Steve Davis)
Subject: Re:  Door Dings
   Date: Mon, 22 Nov 1993 16:41:46 -0500



> [...]  You guessed it, whomever was not in full control of their  
>door and now I have a dent exactly in the middle of the door.  No  
>paint is scratched off however and it appears that if I could get in  
>behind it, I could push it out.  My question is how to get the inner  
>door panel off to gain access to the backside of the door  
>sheetmetal.  Any suggestions?

Tom,

  Matt already posted a good procedure for removing the door panel,  
so all I need to say is this:  Be very, very careful about just  
"pushing out" dings yourself.  To the best of my understanding, the  
material properties of metals are such that the metal that is  
actually bent is harder than the surrounding sheet metal.  (This is  
why a piece of metal will eventually break, not bend, if you  
repeatedly bend it enough times.)

  So the trick is to remove the ding without rupturing the paint, and  
without causing any more damage to the surrounding area.  Quite  
often, amateur dent-removers cause more damage than the original  
ding, winding up with a dent within a dent, so to speak.  And unless  
the dent is larger than a few inches in diameter, don't even think  
about using a suction cup-- unless you're ready to repaint the door.

  I've been told by several coworkers that some paint & body shops  
can do what they call "paintless dent removal," which usually means  
removing small dings without disturbing the paint.  I don't know how  
it works-- I've heard they heat the area, then rapidly cool the dent  
itself.  I have two small dings in my passenger door that may be  
candidates for this procedure-- any net.wisdom on this?

Regards,

Steve