Ding-a-Ling

For this week's podcast, I looked into how to deal with dents and dings in your car. I did some research on car repair and found out a few interesting things:

1) There's a relatively new industry out there of paintless dent repair and it seems to be vastly cheaper than taking your car to an auto body shop. I talked to Eddie Martin today, the owner of The Dent Devils which is based in San Diego, CA. He says his jobs start as low as a hundred bucks for a repair that you'd be lucky to pay around $250 for if it was done as a new paint job.

2) I found out that despite other people's assertions, there is a catch to the 3M Invisible Film method, which Martin says is easy to screw up. The 3M company actually recommends having a pro install it for you. But from what I've found online, it looks a lot people have had success with it.

3) Martin also says beware of those suction dent removers as they can sometimes cause your dent to pop out the other way and then you've got a big old mound on your car. Doesn't it look like so much fun though?

4) Lastly, if you're thinking that taking up two spots in a parking garage will help protect your car from door dings, think again.

That's all for now, look for my podcast to post Friday afternoon.

12:02 PM ET | 11- 7-2008 | permalink

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