Dent Repair Help

Got dents? Millions of us do. What to do about it?

Some people don’t care. Those people who drive a 76′ Cutlass Supreme, or 84′ Corolla.

How about all those Mercedes, or new Fords? Parked tight in the mall spaces designed for Mini coopers, yet Suburbans squeeze in and little

Timmy bangs open his door to romp off to lunch with Momma..but there it is..that fresh new dent in the side of your treasured Audi. DANGIT!

Thanks to Paintless Dent Repair, and a few bucks, you will have your Audi back to new in minutes, conveniently done at your home or office.

Paintless Dent Repair- saving lives. Saving smiling faces.

And since this process is so ultra-cool, let’s take a quick chat about how much chedda a typical Paintless Dent Removal tech

makes in 2011.

Assume the following (with confidence):

A) An average tech can repair dozens of cars a day, but say he does 6 vehicle repairs.

B) Now, say each vehicle nets him $150 each. Sure, many charges blow through that amount, but

let’s be conservative.

C) Math time: $150 avg. repair charge X 6 daily repairs X 5 days in a week worked, 4 weeks per month, and 12 months: Grand total:  $216,000.00

That means, on a CONSERVATIVE estimate, a Paintless Dent Removal Tech earns $216k annually, working 8 hours per day, 5 days per week.

And you wonder why this is becoming a VERY popular business!!

Dents for cash!

With Paintless Dent Repair.

Brian J

• Looks like: Mini designers watched one too many movies with dune buggies in them
• Defining characteristics: Doorless, roofless, all-wheel-drive, off-roading…Mini?
• Ridiculous features: You noticed it has no doors or roof, right?
• Chance of being mass-produced: Zero, but an all-wheel-drive Mini crossover is on the way next year.

Oh, Mini. You’re so cute with your clever advertising, in-your-face billboards and mobile apps. Now this. Instead of showing the real all-wheel-drive crossover, which goes on sale in 2010 everywhere but the U.S., at the 2010 Detroit auto show, you unveil this cutesy, dune-buggy-inspired concept.

The Beachcomber concept packs the same all-wheel-drive system that Europe and other international points will get to drive in the 2010 crossover; besides the overall size and stance, that’s where the resemblance will likely end. The Beachcomber has no doors because the company wanted to make sure there were no “body elements that could limit the intensity of the occupants’ encounter with their surrounding world.” There’s a company called Jeep that kind of has this market covered, but we wonder if a production version of this concept — complete with removable doors and roof — would sell.

Regardless, the Beachcomber concept is strictly a tease — a mean one, too — for the potential U.S. buyers of the upcoming crossover. Especially now that the company has told us we won’t see one until 2011 and the rest of the world gets in on the action in 2010. That kind of puts a damper on this fun-loving buggy.

The company Old Carco — better known as “Old Chrysler” — will not repay the initial $4 billion government loan it received from the Troubled Asset Relief Program in January, according to the reorganization plan filed in a New York bankruptcy court.

This means unsecured creditors will likely not recover their claims. The Creditors’ Committee has filed a lawsuit against former Chrysler owner Daimler AG and could receive payment if they win the lawsuit. Some secured lenders may receive full compensation for their outstanding $20.6 million.

The $4 billion loan was approved by the Bush administration and has nothing to do with the additional aid the new Chrysler Group received to get itself restarted in a partnership with Fiat. Old Carco holds only the bad assets not purchased by the Chrysler Group when it came out of bankruptcy in June.

This liquidation plan must be approved by creditors, so final payouts might not take place for a long time. Unsecured creditors will await the outcome of the Daimler lawsuit, which is valued in the neighborhood of $25 billion.

Chrysler Liquidation Plan Won’t Repay $4B Fed Loan (Detroit News)

• Competes with: BMW 6 Series
• Looks like: Mercedes is building on the success of the E-Class sedan
• Drivetrain: 268-hp V-6 or 382-hp V-8
• Hits dealerships: May 2010

Mercedes’ new E-Class convertible sure will go on sale at the right time. Starting in May, droptop fans will be able to buy the all-new E-Class Cabriolet with either a 268-horsepower V-6 in the E350 or the 382-hp V-8 in the E550. All too often we see a hot new convertible go on sale in the fall, right in time to enjoy it from the comforts of a garage.

The new E-Class sedan has been a hit for the luxury brand, almost single-handedly boosting sales as the year winds down. The coupe followed, and now it seems the convertible continues the design’s overall handsome look. Larger, four-seat convertibles like this aren’t the norm these days.

The E-Class Cabriolet will sport the latest version of Mercedes’ Airscarf technology, which is a vent that’s built into the front headrests and pushes warm air around the neck. This allows more enjoyable top-down driving in chilly weather; we’ve tested the previous version, and it’s never been that impressive.

The E-Class has a new feature Mercedes is calling the Aircap, which is basically an integrated rear diffuser that doesn’t sully the car’s lines.

What about the top? Well, it’s a soft-top, folks. If you were looking for one of those cool, retractable hardtops you’ll have to stick to the SLK or SL in the Benz lineup. However, soft-tops usually have advantages like less weight and faster closing times. Mercedes says this one will close in less than 20 seconds and at speeds of up to 25 mph, so if you start the process at a stoplight you can go on green and finish up if you have to. The trunk is 13.8 cubic feet with the top up; it only loses 3.2 cubic feet when it’s down, which isn’t awful.

Pricing hasn’t been announced, but we’d expect it to be significantly higher than the coupe’s $48,050 starting price. Think mid-$50,000 range. More photos below.

• Competes with: Mercedes-Benz SLK, Audi S5
• Looks like: BMW’s new Z4 got better, with a worse name
• Drivetrain: 335-hp, twin-turbo six-cylinder with seven-speed double-clutch transmission
• Hits dealerships: May 2010

For 2011, BMW is adding a new trim level to its recently redesigned Z4 convertible hardtop roadster. A new 335-horsepower model with an adjustable sport suspension, which is borrowed from the company’s M lineup of performance cars, now sits atop the range. BMW has dubbed this model the Z4 sDrive35is. There’s also a Z4 sDrive30i and a Z4 sDrive35i, which has the same engine as the new 35is but puts out less power and doesn’t have the performance and body modifications of this new entry.

The sDrive35is gets a specially tuned exhaust, the M suspension that lowers the car 10 millimeters or a third of an inch, unique 18- or optional 19-inch wheels, matte aluminum trim and special silver side mirrors no matter the car’s exterior color.

The only reason we can tell this Z4 isn’t given an M designation is that the engine isn’t as powerful as the current Ms in the lineup, which bottoms out with the 414-hp M3. Even with the “paltry” power ratings, the Z4 sDrive35is is predicted to go from zero to 60 mph in 4.7 seconds.

Pricing hasn’t been announced, but the 2010 Z4 sDrive 35i starts at $51,650; expect the “is” to cost more than that. More photos below.

We love to travel in really great looking cars. While the vast majority of cars that are available on the market look great they are similar. In fact if you see one Porsche you have seen them all. While this is just a generalization it serves the purpose of showing you that there is no external differences to make your car unique from all of the rest. Auto body kits however can change all of this.

With the various different auto body kits that are currently on the market you can change the look of almost any type of car or for that matter truck. With a few interesting changes like Lambo car wings you can change the way people look at your car and in extension yourself.

Before you buy lots of different auto body kits you should have an idea of the many different changes that you are going to perform on your car. With these changes you should also be prepared to pay the price tag that accompanies these body kits. When you are first hunting around for dealers who can sell these body kits to you, there are various questions you should ask about. Read the rest of this entry »

Paintless dent removal is really best on small dents no larger than a 50p, it can be used on dents that are larger but the results can be mixed! – it all depends on things like the thickness of the bodywork and the position of the dent.

The problem is that you can never get dents perfect… they just look perfect! Here is what happens when a panel gets dented.

(image)

If you look carefully you can see that the panel has become stretched. The shortest distance between point ‘A’ and point ‘B’ is a straight line, so the fact that the metal is now in a curve means that it HAS to be longer than the area you want to push it back into. The extra length has to go somewhere because unfortunately, you cannot shrink it back.

(image)

So what happens is that when you push it back you actually get a ripple in the metal – this is shown in the diagram above. Both these diagrams are heavily exaggerated and on the real thing you wouldn’t notice the ripple because it would be too slight and would be hidden by the ripple that is on the cars paintwork commonly known as orange peel.

Orange peel is the name given to the rippled texture effect on car paintwork. When a panel is painted the paint doesn’t lay totally smooth – this ripple could be removed but if the car was given a totally flat glass-like finish it would show every imperfection.

The larger the dent is, the more the panel gets stretched – so the less likely it is that the dent can be totally removed - we can usually make an improvement, but this will also depend on conditions. We do say on our dent pages that we can only remove a dent if it doesn’t cross a swage line, if the dent doesn’t form a crease, and if the paintwork is un broken… this leads to many people sending us dents that meet this criteria, but are too sever for us to do, or we can only make an improvement on. If we can make an improvement, we need to make a judgment as to how much of an improvement we can make which is a matter of experience, and make a judgment as to ‘an improvement’ will suite the car – obviously an improvement isn’t good enough on the bonnet of a 2 year old Mercedes, but it may be good enough if it is a 7 year old Ford and the dent is some place less obvious such as below knee height. Read the rest of this entry »