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Got a call for a hail repair job that turned into a real mess
I was working on a silver sedan at our shop in Phoenix, using a paintless dent repair kit to fix some small hail dings. About an hour in, I pushed too hard on a tricky spot near the roof edge and heard a sharp crack. The metal didn't just pop, it actually split a tiny line about an inch long. My stomach dropped because I knew I just turned a simple PDR job into a full panel repair. I had to stop, tell the customer, and we worked out a deal to replace the whole roof skin, which added like three extra days to the job. Anyone else ever have a PDR attempt go sideways like that, and how did you explain it to the owner?
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phoenix6251mo ago
Man, that reminds me of my buddy's shop disaster. He was doing PDR on a truck's hood, one of those aluminum ones, and the glue tab just ripped a chunk of the clear coat right off. Had that same moment of pure dread @lisayoung mentioned. He ended up having to eat the cost for a full respray to make it right with the guy. It's crazy how a two minute fix can turn into a two thousand dollar problem, you know?
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lisayoung1mo ago
Honestly the worst part is the customer's trust just evaporates. That sound of cracking metal means you're instantly the bad guy, no matter how you explain the thin factory paint. It's a brutal lesson in knowing when to walk away from a tricky spot.
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