Easy Dent Removal?

[ARCHINSTL]

While looking for dry ice sources in STL, I discovered two allegedly valid and easy ways to remove small dents.
The first involved touching a chunk of dry ice to the center of a dent and repeating until the dent disappeared.
The second involved heating the area with a hairdryer for a minute or so and then inverting an aerosol can of "airduster" for keyboards (so the CO2 came out as a liquid) and then spraying the dent - and it gradually "came out" with a slight "pop."
Anyone ever heard of either of these methods?
If valid, it would seem to be a way to cheaply and painlessly remove small dents without having to sand, fill, sand, and repaint. Goldie has some small hail dents from her life in Nashville, so these methods are tempting.
Tom M.

[4wdchico]

So, this is touted to not destroy old auto paint jobs where the treatment is applied?

[Petros]

it might work. But the problem I see is when you get a dent the metal is stretch beyoud the elastic limit (or it would pop back on its own), to make it go away you have to unstretch the metal that has yielded and is now longer than it was before the dent was made. when you force a dent out (like the "as seen on TV" Popsident) with one of those suction cup devices, you will have distrotion from the stretched metal, so I do not see how one of those would work at all.

With differential heating/cooling you could yield the metal, the question is could you force it back into its orginal shape? Seems doubtful, but it might be worth a try. I have a dent in my roof that might be a perfect candidate since I can not get behind it to try and pop it out.

[takza]

I've heard of the dry ice method, but haven't tried it.

I have something like this...from HarbourFreight....

http://www.amazon.com/Ding-King-Dent-Re ... B0007N56L8

Worked...but it didn't fully pull the dents out...and almost always pulled the original factory finish off.

The old body guys could shrink metal..they sell a shrinking hammer...but you need rear access...then repaint. They could do some amazing things with sheetmetal...originally they made fenders by hand from start.

[Neu]

I've used the Keyboard duster method on my 97 Accord. It worked, and only SLIGHTLY damaged the paint. It wasn't noticeable until you got a few inches away.

I'd say the quick temp changes will definitely damage the paint on our cars a little, but if it's a small dent that bothers you I say do it.