I learned my skill in 1991 from my brother, who was trained by DentCrafters (better he pay several thousand dollars than me). Regardless of what Jennifer said in 1991, I apparently do have the patience for this craft.
The best way to describe PDR is DentCrafters' old slogan: "The Fine Art of Paintless Dent Repair." It is an art that is constantly changing, and I take pride in keeping up with a constantly changing industry ... not easy. Back in the day, I remember techs who would never, ever let a customer see how the process was done (blacked-out windows in their shops and such). Not me, always the rebel. To the first customer who asked if he could watch me repair his car, I said, "Suuuure, come on in." If I remember correctly, I let him take a shot at repairing it himself with my tools (I could make more money if he boogered it up). That was the beginning of me irritating my competition.
PDR is an art, a skill and a craft that can only be accomplished properly by a few techs. I can go on and on about how technical the process is, but really all it comes down to is manipulating metal. It has a memory, to a certain extent, and can be worked back into its original form by accessing the back side with our "specially designed tools." (OK, that was a slam. I think they have an aisle in Checkers for the tools now.) By slowly massaging the dent from the back, the metal can be moved back to its original form, and the dent is gone.
If the sky looks like this, we, as experts, recommend getting your car under something! This was the view out our window on June 7, 2009.
