Paintless dent repair is the 21st century blacksmithing way to repair an automobile without bondos, filler, replacing parts or painting.

Although it’s hard to pinpoint the origin of Paintless Dent Repair it has become a crucial part of vehicle maintenance and restoration.

Dent Repair for automobiles is believed to have been developed by Mercedes Benz factory workers in the 1940’s. On the assembly line during the manufacturing process of the automobiles minor dents and dings were created. Before the vehicle was to be painted, a metal worker would use exclusive tools to gently massage the dents to perfection by working the metal from the inside out.

The paint on vehicles is a major factor for the Paintless Dent Repair technique to be effective and work. Around the 1980’s Paint distributors started changing the pigment agents in paint due to being toxic and expensive. The amounts of volatile organic compound (VOC’s re the solvent portion of coatings that serve as a carrier and evaporate into the air) were lowered, and most important to Paintless Dent Repair technique, the clear coat was improved. With the clear coat being advanced in improvement the paint had become more flexible and not spider, meaning crack when massaging behind the metal. 

This allowed PDR-Paintless Dent Repair to evolve and become a revolutionary method of removing door dings, minor dents and hail damage.

Car manufacturers played a significant role for PDR. During the manufacturing of the vehicle car companies started painting in stages.

This means instead of putting all the paints in one bucket and spray the vehicle. They began to paint in stages (coats). Primer, color (pigment), clear coat (solvent). Standard is three stages. Some vehicles can go up to four stages or more. Stage painting makes the paint more flexible also.

There is one more elements to Paintless Dent Repair being effective:
Metal has memory. SMA- Shape Memory Alloys.  SMA is a special kind of alloy that allows the Metal/Dent Technician to deform the metal anyway way it needs to be; and shape metal any way it needs to be.