Woodbert

Anyone ever heard of using dry ice to pop out small, roundish dings? If so what are the procedures? Should you touch the metal with the dry ice or use a towel or something to avoid direct contact?

Thanks!

gwhayduke

Interesting idea. The cold CO2 when applied to the apex of the ding should cause the metal to contract and may pop the ding out.

Liquid nitrogen should work well also, although only on horizontal dings.

I have a couple of hail dings from a trip to Kansas. I'll try it out.

base554

The metal has to be hot before you apply the dry ice or whatever you are using to cool the metal. Put something black over the affected area and park it in the sun for a few hours. Once it's hot, immediately put on the cooling agent. It's not perfect, but it will make the dent less noticable.

dajabr

Base, have you done the dry ice fix yourself? If so, where'd you get it...

base554

I had a black car with some light hail damage. I live in AZ, so I just parked the car outside in the middle of summer so it was really hot. I took a regular ice cube and just held it on one of the dents and it made it appear smaller. They didn't go away, but they looked better.

dajabr

Just found this, first paragraph at the top...
http://www.west.net/~science/feedback_CO2.htm

base554

I forgot to mention about cracking the paint. When the dent happens, the paint gets tiny cracks in it. When you apply the ice to remove the dent the cracks are still there. They are usually very very small cracks that look like spiderwebs. They aren't noticable unless you really get close to inspect the paint. A little waxing will usually take care of it.

mtnfreak

Here in Colorado the sun is usually strong enough to pop out small dents on horizontal surfaces, so I've never tried this. This may seem obvious, but you don't want frostbite - wear insulated gloves!! Once your hands stop feeling the cold, the damage is done. Safety glasses would be smart too.

Mad Chemist

The paint cracks are partly due to how fast you're popping the ding out- the temperature difference between the vehicle and the dry ice. If you tried it with a "lukewarm" vehicle you could probably get by without the paint cracks. I've seen dry ice at the local grocery stores.

AznSky

so the dry ice IS touching the surface of the dent correct?

Mad Chemist

I think you're just supposed to hold it a short distance away (1/8"). As center of the center of the ding cools, the metal surrounding contracts, pulling the metal tight and popping out the ding.

dajabr

I'm gonna do this. There's a big dent on my pass door, and two small ones I can try it on. And an Omaha Steaks one block away, will BBQ and do body repair. Waiting for a warmer day. Will post.

gwhayduke

I believe the dry ice MUST BE TOUCHING the center of the ding. The vapor sublimating off the dry ice will have a slight cooling effect, but I doubt that there would be enough heat transfer from the DI to the metal to accomplish anything. However the solid to solid contact would allow more heat transfer, causing the ding to contract more.

I'll bet a copper or brass drift punch with sufficient mass, cooled in the dry ice or liquid N and placed in the center of the ding would accomplish the same thing if not better.

Woodbert

Let us know how it works. Hopefully, it'll warm up in Virginia by June...

momo.75

I have used these paintless dent removal guys before and they do a great job. They have several tools they can use to massage the dent out from the inside of a door panel or fender. You should try to find one of them.

Mad Chemist

I'm just wondering what the direct contact would do to the paint? Would make it pretty brittle, possible seperate from the sheet metal and flake off? I've never tried this, so I'm really interested in how it turns out! Its almost worth putting a dent in my 4-runnner to give it a shot

TuckerZ

Mad Chemist,

I was reading an article on the leading dry ice website about dent removal. They said that it is not the dry ice you need to worry about, but the heat. If you keep the heat on too long, it could damage your paint. Beware.

*URL removed by tofer*

Tofer

You bump a 7 year old thread to post a link... i smell a tasty meat alternative.

2DoorRunner

Hahahaha this seems to be happening all to often recently.

Although, i DID learn that you can use dry ice to remove small dents

dropzone

iTrader: (6)

tofer got to have all the fun with this tool...i only got to edit one of his posts