VIDEO: Car dent removal with hair dryer and compressed air
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We'd like to be able to explain exactly how this home brew process for removing car dents works, but Physics 101 didn't agree with us in college. The process is simple and involves heating the dent with a hairdryer for 30 seconds to a minute. Next, quickly spray the area with compressed air for about 10 seconds. The last step is to take a step back and listen for the dent to pop itself out. Surely the explanation involves the expansion and contraction of metal due to the hairdryer's heat and the -110 degree Farenheit temperature of the liquid CO2 from the compressed air. The video's producer is quick to point out that his process will not harm your vehicle's paint, though we imagine whatever dented your car in the first place already did.
Thanks for the tip, Dave!
[Source: Metacafe]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
Ethan 6:19PM (5/29/2007)
I don't see the dent
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jonh dho 2:36PM (5/30/2007)
my car had a similar dent .i saw this vide and i tried.Believe me or not,my dent dissapear like in this video
Robert 7:50PM (6/01/2007)
I have been doing Paintless Dent removal for 14 years full time i Make a Living doing this.If it was that easy I would be out of Business the dent your showing or trying to show in your video is a dent that any person that could get there hand behind the panel could also pop out that dent. or just use a toilet Bowl plunger No heat or Cold Air Needed .Now show me how you would do a Parking lot door ding , a 12 inch Crease or the entire car with Hail Damage?I do work for 24 Body shops, five new car dealer How come they dont know your trick? Guess they have been Paying me because there stupid? Hope you donnot put me out of business.
Paddy 4:13PM (6/05/2007)
You can accomplish the same thing by heating it with the hair dryer and then placing dry ice over the dent. You can duct tape it over the dent if need be.
Tommy 6:35PM (5/29/2007)
This is so fake. Someone is moving it from the back. It is physically impossible for such a thing to happen...nice try though...
Oh and the little asian kid who created this video needs to learn how to spell
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John R 11:07PM (5/29/2007)
How do you know it's a little asian kid?
K Cook 6:30PM (6/01/2007)
Ah another racist. Why can not America rid Herself of such slime? Oh oops because slime is always found under a rock where it always tries to climb out from under but America stands above the rocks proud and strong. Get a clue slime, I'd rather see some misspelled words than have slime like you spread your disease!
kenny 3:34PM (6/05/2007)
You obviously do not understand the principles of expansion and contraction. This technicque is also used in many machine shop operations and in the removal of high pressure boiler tubes. You heat the tube till it is red hot, Then immediatly quench it with cold water. The tube shrinks and can be driven out of the hole or sometimes they just fall out. I used this procedure for over 20 years, And yes it works!!!
Hmmmm 6:40PM (5/29/2007)
^ amazing, to think we invented the atom bomb with people like this.
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Hamud 6:45PM (5/29/2007)
THe heat is to prevent the paint from cracking, I guess.
I saw a big dent on the front bumper of my uncle's car disappear with heat, actually he left the car under the sun and the dent was gone.
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Richard 7:22PM (5/29/2007)
When dented, a car's sheetmetal is stretched slightly. Unless it is creased by the dent, it retains the memory of its manufactured shape. If effective, then this process works by thermal contraction when the dent is cooled by the CO2 gas. The contraction reverses the stretching which caused the dent. However, heating the dent first appears to be an extra [and unnecessary] step.
Barney 7:20PM (5/29/2007)
I have seen the same with heat & dry ice. I don't have dry ice but have the other two ingredients. I'm giving it a whirl. I imagine it is best for a more recent dent but will try, never the less.
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Fooman 8:05PM (5/29/2007)
I think it is true... makes sense with me the metal wants to move back into the original shape, which is the theory behind most paintless dent removal. This "shocks" the area and will allow it to get past the what ever the equivelent of "static friction" is with metal sheets.
I also thought this was BS untill I saw it in more then a few places. Icelandic tire mounting
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2546412343290969246
and
http://www.metacafe.com/watch/331287/fixing_a_tire/
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Bill Hancock 8:55PM (5/29/2007)
Very cool ive never seen that before. It makes sense since the fire is heating the air inside the tire causing it to rapidly expand-- thus re-seating the tire.
Jonathan Fung 8:47PM (5/29/2007)
I'm pretty sure all of that ice is why the label tells you not to tilt the can more than 15 degrees when in use. But I would imagine it works. However, depending on where the dent is, I think rubber hammer might just be easier and safer.
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Kai 9:25PM (5/29/2007)
Did a second grader do the captions?
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Sebastien 10:31PM (5/29/2007)
It works about the same way a bimetal strip works in a toaster.
When you heat the metal in about 1minute, you get a large portion at high temparture, the metal expend. Then quickly, you cooled off a smaller part. The difference between the two portions makes the cold metal pull the hot metal out by thermal contraction.
The bimetal in the toaster is at only one temprature, but it bend because the two metals don't have the same thermal expension, when bent enough, it make your toast pop out by activating the release mecanism.
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ex-g35-owner 10:03PM (5/29/2007)
whether or not this process works, I have to say that vid looks pretty fake.
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ex-g35-owner 10:06PM (5/29/2007)
oh and canned air dusters are not liquid CO2.
It is something like Freon
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Barney 12:12AM (5/30/2007)
"It is something like Freon"
Freon has been a banned substance for over a decade.