Got hail? Need a PDR tech?

[PDR tech]

[QUOTE=Phil V]I have a bodyshop type pick bar that is close to 3 feet long with a lightly curved end on it with a relatively pointed tip. Its good to "massaging" out dents but not in the category of paintless dent removal. I'm not familiar with the "S" hook. How is that used ? Don't the PDR rod tools have a rounded end on them so as not to cause dimples in the metal ?


The S hook is merely a leverage tool by hanging it from the frame and sliding the tool in (no buns please). Leverage and lighting are key. During practice I would recomend a sharper type tool. You should visit PDRvideo.com and buy a beginner DVD. Can you become a tech after watching it? NO Can you get started without spending a lot of money? Yes. Good luck with it and let me help. Pete

[Spindrift]

DANG! Lightning just knocked out power and have to start this reply all over. I was just surfing the web looking for work and came across this thread, then realized it wasn't an ad looking for help and was about to close it and saw P Timkeys name. I was thinking, you guys were pretty rough on him, but remembered some jerks on our PDR forums were the same way when AB guys wandered on asking questions. Part of why I don't use the PDR forums any more. I have known Peter from them for many years and just bumped into him for the first time last summer working a storm in Charlotte. I can tell you all, he's a pretty selfless guy. Very willing to share and help others out.

I did body and paint work for 15 years and painted yachts on Cape Cod back in the day. I only wish I'd discovered PDR back then. I got out of painting when it killed my brother, lung cancer. My other brother quit body work too and became a mechanic and I took up PDR.

Bottom line, PDR is now the preferred method of repair for hail by almost every insurance company. No, it's not something you learn in a year or two. Like Peter, I've been doing it for 12 years, and still find many dents a challenge. Making this short cuz lightning is threatening me again. But as bidy shops used to feel threatened by us, they mostly realize we can and do work together well. We help body shops make a lot of money during a hail event, as we do too. It's a good working relationship. Last summer in Maine I was billing $4,000 a day, and the body shop was getting HALF of it, PLUS all the R&I. If you want to see what kind of stuff we do, you're welcome to peruse my before and after pix. I haven't updated my site in years though, since I started doing hail full time. I only work 3 or 4 months a year now. Anyway, feel free to check it out at NO ADVERTISING I'm just outside of Boston, and like Peter, care about keeping a good name for the PDR industry as a whole. So if anyone needs a hail tech to help out in a storm, I'd also be glad to either come work with you, and believe me, Peter and I will cut out the brokers as middle men who suck up the profits for doing nothing, and if we don't work with you personally, will help you find an independent tech who KNOWS what he's doing and get you guys together for free.

Alrighty. Good luck. Hope this was a help. I'm getting ready to head out any day now to work, my radar shows big storms moving through GT coming this way right now. PETER! Hope to see you again brother! Charlotte was fun!