Knowing how to gain is access to the dented area through the routes that are available in the car saves a great deal of time.
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Dents to the Hood:
For the hood, as in the case of dings caused by hailstones, access is gained through the underside.
Before going to work under the hood, make sure that you secure the hood so that it won't fall while you're working due to inadequate support. The way you support the hood is by putting something in the center to hold it then use two 12-16 inch long bungee cords spaced evenly. Make sure they are secure, as you don't want any upward movement in the hood. . Now, you must take the dent removal tool, slide it through the brace, and use it for leverage, as you need it.
Getting through the underside of the hood requires a lot of skill. Sometimes all you have to do is to access the noise dampening pads and cut through a section to get to the metal. Other times you have to go either through or between the brace. To go between the brace, you need a thin blade to cut the caulking, and then you can drill through the brace and access the area.
From Front to Back:
For the front and the rear ends, you have to gain access through the headlight or taillight assemblies, and then gain access through the wells of the wheel and the ends of the doors. A few technicians insist that they must drill, often the standard sizes being ¼, 3/8, ½, and ¾ inches, but other technicians insist that this type of access is totally unnecessary.
The other area to think about is the roof. In the case of hailstones, the roof is obviously the hardest hit. Roof work requires that the headliner be dropped. Some technicians make it a practice to take the windshield out if there is excessive roof damage and the procedure can take a long time to fully repair when there are a lot of hail dings. Still, it's better to save the money by going with this type of dent removal system, rather than the more expensive dent removal and paintwork.
Dings to the Door:
To gain access to the door panel. You have to go through the reflectors or the water drain holes. You can also use wiring harness channels, or other holes, depending on the make or the model. Sometimes the whole door has to be removed to gain access, and determining all of this is where the training skill pays off. Sometimes you have to get in through the window area, in which case you insert a piece of plastic to avoid scratching, and then you gain access with a wedge like when you have to unlock the door, this opens an area about ½ inch wide. The tricky part here is when pressure must be applied, because you have to be cautious that you do not break the window.
So, that is a short intro into the fine art of pointless dent removal on doors, roofs, hoods and panels.
Modern cars are more susceptible to dings and dents than the cars of just a few decades ago. As fuel economy and accident safety have become increasingly important, automotive engineers and manufacturers have designed cars as more of a space frame with the external body panels literally stretched over the frame. These external body panels have been made from progressively thinner materials such that today's new cars can be dented quite easily.
The external body panels of newer cars are also made of many different materials and are no longer hail damage repair exclusively rendered from simple stamped expanses of rolled sheet steel. Cars have body panels made from materials such as dent-resistant high-impact plastic, soft aluminum, high-strength fiberglass, high-tech carbon fiber, and softer plastic compounds for bumpers and other susceptible areas. Each of these materials offers different properties when it comes to fixing a car dent. Aluminum areas can dent easily, while high-impact plastics, fiberglass and carbon fiber areas may sustain gouges from impacting sharp corners of other vehicles or objects such as parking barriers, fences or children's toys.
Car dents can often be easily repaired and removed by technicians who have skill and knowledge in this field, depending upon the depth and severity of the dent. Such repairs will typically prove to be too difficult and technically challenging for the average "do-it-yourself" car owner, but professional technicians are specially trained to perform such repairs. If the damage is too extensive, the body panel or bumper must be removed and a new panel painted and installed. However, if the damage is repairable, the technician will use various methods to pull the dent back out of the panel without using any body fillers or repainting methods. These paintless dent removal methods are often highly effective for removing dents, hail damage, and other types of indentations that can mar the surface of a car, without resorting to the trouble or expense of body work. For those times when fixing a dent does require repainting, paintless dent removal can still be a great way to prepare the car for painting.