Well, they showed up in my town; like a bunch of pdr locusts! They are are on every corner with banners and some with large tool trailer setups, special gear, lights, tents, etc. I only got two estimates but surprisingly; they both were @ $700 (plus another $100 to remove the headliner) and that was for the roof only! One guy; was pretty heavily disassembling the interiors of the car he was working on and even removed body panels, like a trunk lid, to do the dent removal. Whether, this is a lack of skill on their part or normal pdr technique to get access to the back of the panel, I don't know.
It seems from the insurance industries point f view; pdr has changed the whole body repair estimation game. Cost drives everything, obviously; the estimator was looking at pdr and just replacing panels (hood/trunk panels) and essentially was going to total the car, junk it. Looking at my options; I figured I would take the money for the repairs estimated and see what I could do, about repairing things myself. Hopefully, keeping the costs lower than taking things to a pro. From a practical point of view; to get the car to a acceptable repaired condition, it will require a combo traditional auto body repair and pdr techniques., to fix everything.
As for buying the tools and trying to do the work, you could very well be right. The nature/condition of the car; is such that it isn't worth much at this point in its life cycle and a decent amount of the car needs repaint/body work. I don't know about my potential of success but in another life I worked in a body shop, so I thought I would at the least research the possibility of doing it myself. $700 seems like allot of money and that doesn't address the hood and rear trunk lid,. They need to be repaired because of hail damage and repainted (clear coat has flaked off). Currently, I have more time then money and trying some pdr, sounds interesting. I respect your experience and appreciate what you are saying!
my thoughts were I could give it a try and if I got nowhere; I could resell the tools and probably, not have lost much in the process! I'm sure there is a mix of nievete, ignorance and curiosity, in my thought to give pdr a try (as they say; ignorance is bliss)! I welcome more comments and specific tools or tool kit recommendations, that would be good to get me statrted! I maybe totally out of my depth but I guess you don't know, until you try! Right?
