Wheel Arch Ding

[djb2]

Hi everyone.

I have a Mondeo tdci zetec which I have had for a few months and its growing on me.

I got the car with a dent on the drivers side rear wheel arch but I am hoping to fix it myself.

It has pushed in and I am hoping I may be able to pop it out. However I need to access behind it.

There appears to be a plastic archway protector in place and I am wondering if its possible to pull this forward without removing it enough to get something like a bit of wood or something to puch it forward and hopefully pop it out. This may ofcourse not work but I wanted to try...if it doesnt its a filler and paint job. Any thoughts? Thanks

:)

[jeebowhite]

There are other ways that could work equally as well. If you can heat the area with a hair dryer very well and then apply something like dry ice to it, or a compressed carton of air sprayed upside down, the shock of hot and cold should pull the dent out.

You can also get dent pullers which could work equally well, heck you can get these in the likes of 99p stores :p

[djb2]

Hey James.

I have read about the hairdryer and ice cold compressed air thing. I think before I do anything else I will try it.

I found an article on You Tube about it. I will wait until the weather improves though!

[jeebowhite]

Yeah do it when dryer as if the paint cracks you can see it and repair it before it'd encouraged to rust.

[djb2]

Im not sure how thick the metal is around the wheel arch.

Its on the appex of the arch. Its on the flat area of the arch (if that's a good enough description) very close to the edge but not involving the edge. The question of whether it will pop out perhaps with a little pushing when applying the heat cold technique i think will depend on the local stresses within the metal and the tension paths.....hey that sounds a bit rocket sciencey !

The annoying thing is the paint is completely intact so if I can just pop it back it would be job done so to speak.