SAVE ON AUTO BODY REPAIR
August 26th 2009 13:56
SAVE ON AUTO BODY REPAIR
Ever return to your car parked in the shopping mall
parking lot only to find a nice round dent the size of
a basketball in your rear quarter panel?
Your first reaction is anger that the jerk who damaged
your car didn't leave a contact note. After fuming, your
next thought is to have the ugly welt repaired.
Theoretically, your auto insurance should cover hit
and run body damage but then there's those pesky
deductibles and the very real possibility that your greedy
insurance company will use this opportunity as an
excuse to raise your rates.
You could take your car in to an auto body repair shop,
but that's kinda pricey--US$250 or so--for something
that doesn't absolutely have to be repaired.
Yet still, that damn dent makes your nice car look shabby
and devalues it at trade-in time so you want to get it popped out.
We recently went through this same scenario. While thumbing
through a mail order tool catalog from Northern Tool and
Equipment Company (they also have retail stores) we spotted
a suction cup "heavy duty dent puller" for $17.99.
We doubted that the device would actually work as easily as
the catalog claimed, but we figured for US$17.99 it was worth a
try. And we'd been pleased with products we'd purchased from
this company in the past, so we ordered the dent puller......
When it came, we opened the box and immediately placed the
aluminum handled 4.92 inch suction cup over our basketball sized
dent on our little Prius. With positive suction applied, we did a quick
short pull and then pulled the easy to work suction release handle.
After removing the device we found the dent was gone. Good as new!
This repair job took all of 30 seconds!. And, we have a durable nice
little tool we can use again and again when needed.
You know, sometimes simple low-tech, low-cost tools work pretty
darn well and save you plenty of money over the years. Think of
good tools as an investment.
The trick of course is to store the tools away properly so you can
find them quickly when you need them.
Ever return to your car parked in the shopping mall
parking lot only to find a nice round dent the size of
a basketball in your rear quarter panel?
Your first reaction is anger that the jerk who damaged
your car didn't leave a contact note. After fuming, your
next thought is to have the ugly welt repaired.
Theoretically, your auto insurance should cover hit
and run body damage but then there's those pesky
deductibles and the very real possibility that your greedy
insurance company will use this opportunity as an
You could take your car in to an auto body repair shop,
but that's kinda pricey--US$250 or so--for something
that doesn't absolutely have to be repaired.
Yet still, that damn dent makes your nice car look shabby
and devalues it at trade-in time so you want to get it popped out.
We recently went through this same scenario. While thumbing
through a mail order tool catalog from Northern Tool and
Equipment Company (they also have retail stores) we spotted
a suction cup "heavy duty dent puller" for $17.99.
We doubted that the device would actually work as easily as
the catalog claimed, but we figured for US$17.99 it was worth a
try. And we'd been pleased with products we'd purchased from
this company in the past, so we ordered the dent puller......
When it came, we opened the box and immediately placed the
aluminum handled 4.92 inch suction cup over our basketball sized
dent on our little Prius. With positive suction applied, we did a quick
short pull and then pulled the easy to work suction release handle.
After removing the device we found the dent was gone. Good as new!
little tool we can use again and again when needed.
You know, sometimes simple low-tech, low-cost tools work pretty
darn well and save you plenty of money over the years. Think of
good tools as an investment.
The trick of course is to store the tools away properly so you can
find them quickly when you need them.
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