What is the best way to remove a bad dent from the roof of my car?

Asked by majorrich (14741

) August 21st, 2014

I have an old Mercedes 240D that a tree fell on. It made a pretty bad dent on the roof near the corner of the sunroof, which means I can’t get to the underside of the metal to hammer it out. There is also a pretty good wrinkle right near the top of the windshield. Being as the car is a 1978, I am loathe to remove the headliner for fear of not being able to replace it. Money is in quite short supply so I am going to give it a go myself to see if I can do it. I am also considering doing a sunroof delete and just welding it up and then forgo any worry about leakage. But sunroofs are so cool and I bought all the gaskets. I will worry about the one near the sunroof, and get to the one near the windshield once I pull the windshield out. Thanks for your help.

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3 Answers

Get a heavy rubber suction cup like they sell at some home improvement stores, or try a rubber plumber’s helper. Have someone pull on the dent in different places while you bump the edges of the dent (the most creased) with a rubber mallet or your fist. It won’t remove heavy creases, but it might make it look a little better.

kritiper (25757

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Autozone and other automotive parts and supply stores sell dent pullers of various types for different kinds of dents and body work. Since you’re only interested in a one-off, you won’t be looking for the pneumatic and other mechanized versions, but there are a lot of relatively low-tech solutions – and you might even be able to talk to someone who has actually done the work before.

CWOTUS (26102

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