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What is up guys? Gene Petty back at you with another episode of the All Access Podcast from Dent Repair. Now it's Shop Talk Sunday. Uh, this is gonna be a little shorter episode because. As you were gonna find out if I can move correctly, I still need to put a little bit of time into this nightmare of a car, and that's what I wanna talk about today.
So guys, this is episode 60. Uh, we are on our way and I'm keeping my promise to you to have a new episode out every single week, all year long. I don't wanna miss one.
Sunday, March 8th, one week post. Um, level up. [00:01:00] I've got some feedback, uh, from some of the students, uh, that have already gone back this week and put into play things that they learned at class that they're already working with and changing how they fix stents and everything. It's amazing. It, uh, it's amazing to hear that feedback guys, if you're listening and you are one of those students.
Thanks so much. Uh, we appreciate you guys coming out to support the class, uh, and we hope. Then in turn, we supported you and your journey, um, coming up one week from today. Actually, uh, me and Melissa are hopping on a plane and flying over to Milan for the DB Expo. Uh, also gonna get to hang out, uh, at the training with Bryce and Gettis, and hopefully Bryce might, we might talk about this repair.
Might be able to pick Bryce's brain a little bit. Um. Anyways, going over to Right for the [00:02:00] Kiko hoodie on this morning. Uh, go over and support, uh, Bryce with some Kiko products, uh, and make sure that he has all the tools he needs to help do the amazing repairs that he does. So, really excited for that. Uh, I've been studying up on my Italian with some Duolingo action.
Um. It's pretty cool. It, uh, more fun to learn than Spanish was, uh, back in high school. So, uh, we're getting there. I can like order a coffee. Uh, I can get a baguette. Uh, I can talk about my brother and sister, uh, and my kids. Um, anyways, it's, it's coming along. Uh, I'm not even sure how much Italian I'll need, but also me and Melissa.
Melissa and I are, uh, heading to back to Italy in September, uh, for our 25th anniversary. Uh, and this is just a good dry run study up, uh, get ready to go and stay there for a couple of weeks. [00:03:00] So really looking forward to all of that this week's show. What in the world? Drives us. What is wrong with us as PDR tax?
The, the level of obsession that it takes to do this at a high level is a little bit nuts. Uh, and it's certainly driving me nuts without a doubt. Like, uh, struggling with it this week. So lemme give you a little backstory on this car here. This car here. Still not using it backwards. This car here. So this is a, uh, 14 3 28 gt, which means it's like a little hatchback, not a standard sedan.
The lady's brother had the gate up, I believe, and backed into the top of the garage door, like up there. Not here, right? That would be too high, but [00:04:00] something like that. At home Crunch, the mac of this thing in the body shops wanted to put a gate on it. And that is absolutely a million percent justified. I would bo the No Stones for anybody who wanted to put a lift gate on this anyways, um, she happened to come in, uh, her and Shannon were talking and then she happened to come in, um, the week before class.
Yeah, it was a week before Level Up. And I looked at this thing and I'm like, man, this is pretty gnarly. But as I do, like, I look at it and I'm like, well, I think if we pull here and we go like this and we have a little bit of tension, I think this is gonna move and flow out. Um, I said, you know, this repair ma'am is always a no.
Like, it just doesn't make sense. I don't know if my shoulders have it in them. Uh, and quite frankly, it's so gnarly. I'm not sure how good it'll come out, but if you are able and willing. To [00:05:00] leave the car for a handful of days. Um, and we can use it in this advanced class we're doing. I'll give it a go for you.
Right. We'll see what we can do. So we walked through, uh, replacement costs that she had, was. Between 35 and 4,500 is where it was at. I think it was based on maybe used part versus new part, you know, something, something like that. And she said flat out, because it's a 14, right? I think the car's probably worth $8,000, $9,000.
She's not gonna spend half of the value on the car changing the trunk, right? But it was ugly. I said, well, here's the deal. If we can use this for class, um, we can make it a whole ton better for you. And let's see what we can do, right? She says, well, you know what? I'm going on vacation. I can actually leave it for a whole week.
I'm like, ah, even better, right? I can do a little better job for you. It'll be a trade off. So we agreed on, I'll just be perfectly [00:06:00] straightforward and honest here. Uh, agreed on a thousand bucks to make the tailgate, liftgate, trunk, whatever you wanna call this thing better. And mostly use it for the class, right?
I really thought we would, we would rough this in and then I could spend, you know, a handful of hours on it and it would be good. Well, since we're sitting here a week after class, uh, and I'm talking about this car on an episode of my show, you can only imagine that it did not. It goes so well, so, so you're not trying to just picture it.
Uh, here is what the car looked like. Uh, excuse the audio on it. I didn't have time to rip that out, uh, this morning. But here, like, check this out. This is just a quick pan back and forth. Uh, and then we can talk about the repair. Know what a dent light is. Alright, so sorry about the audio. Uh, turns out when I play video, [00:07:00] my recording system mutes my mic.
So here it is, nasty smash. On the back of this car, uh, you can see the far left side is a real hard pinch out. And then right where the green reflection is on the other side is a hard stretch out and the emblem is all smashed in. Both of those kinks out are actually stretched. Uh, slightly oil canning.
This thing was an absolute mess. Now, back to the show, dude. Huh, man. Wicked hod. Wicked hod dent here. So it turns out that, uh, none of my plan of attack, uh, my initial plan of attack worked like we threw pretty heavy tension on it. Um. Where did we go? Hmm. We may have gone like, excuse me. Oh, it's been a long week.
We may have gone like tab straps at the [00:08:00] upper body line, um, inside of the, the folds trying to pull and uh, I put a, uh, big dead center super tab right on the round L area. Uh, and we pulled hard laterally, right? And then had the perfect pull tower out, had the, um. Straps hooked up and started to pull, and this thing said, no.
I mean, like, it was not moving. Uh, right. I'm, we're doing a, I'm doing a demo or a lesson for the whole, uh, level Up class. Like a little bonus Advanced smash work is what the idea was supposed to be. Uh, and it turned out to be a bonus Taken Jean to school. Repair, however, right? It's an advanced class. We had ama some amazing technicians, some technicians with body backgrounds in the shop.
Um, after I sweated it out [00:09:00] for an hour and a half. 'cause I really thought the whole repair, not the whole repair, the whole rough out move and unfold and unlock was gonna take an hour and a half or two hours. Yeah. Wrong, wrong. Um. I struggled across the board. I'd moved my tension, uh, pulled here, pulled there, could not, I mean, it just didn't wanna move.
It was locked up. Uh, in hindsight, me and John were talking and, uh, the metal, 14 or 12, the metal 12 years ago, it's a lot heavier than the metal today. Uh, and also German steel, right? If this were a Toyota with similar damage, like again, we were, we were talking and we're like, man, we could have just. We would've like ripped the trunk apart, uh, as hard as we were pulling.
So anyways, after I sit, stood there and, and worked and sweated and, you know, literally and figuratively sweated, uh, how to, how to go after the repair, um, [00:10:00] we sort of paused and I'm like, man, I don't, I don't want these guys, uh, watching me struggle on a car all day. That's dumb. That's not what they're here for.
So we split up because there were a few guys in the class that just are not. They don't have any desire to be, uh, heavy smash guys. You know, they're like, I gotta work on, they wanna work on more technical skills. So we split it up. But a handful of guys stayed, uh, back with me, Matt, John, uh, Jeremy, like, and we started really dissecting this thing, right?
We had to for sure channel our inner Bryce Kelly, uh, to see what we can do here, right? So we end up going. Uh, Keith's big, giant yellow straps, right? The, the big super heavy ones with, uh, port of power, uh, outside, outside of the entire repair, right? The whole width of the hatch and full push with hydraulic pressure.
In [00:11:00] fact, so much hydraulic pressure that we couldn't loosen. Uh, we couldn't get the, the, um. Ram to retract. We were pushing so hard. Uh, and then the approach that ended up being successful, and this is absolutely the most complex panel I've ever worked on. Like, I guess to some level of success. I've tried dumber stuff than this, but to successfully move the metal, this is as, uh, difficult as I've ever worked on, as technically difficult.
Um, so. Uh, John, uh, our one student from Philly, uh, was a former body guy, like really had a good understanding of understanding of metal and shapes of metal and how it moves. And then Matt from, uh, Tennessee Valley Dent Repair right, had a whole different. Perspective on metal flow and metal movement. And I sort of fell somewhere in the middle [00:12:00] and I could sort of see both ways.
So we put our heads together and really worked through and began dissecting this repair into movable parts. Right. And, and by the end of the class, we had the driver's side of the, the buckle, uh, call it up and level, not smooth, just up and level and the passenger side up and level, right? We had to give that.
Emblem impact area, somewhere to go.
Then I came back in, right? And then this is where, this is where the obsession starts to come. Like the, I can't let it go. I can't quit. I have to have to get this thing figured out, right? I can't, I can't let this car beat me. I won't let this car beat me. Wrapped up the class, and I said, and here's a little extra added pressure for me.
I was like, oh, guys, I'll, I'll send you a video when it's done and we'll see where we get this thing to. Now, mind you, right, [00:13:00] I only promised drastic improvements, not anywhere near a real repair or full repair, but now, right. We're also vested in this thing that I, I feel that I feel absolutely compelled to make this as nice as possible, which is what I'm struggling with, which is why I'm here on a Sunday morning to talk to you guys before I get back on this and put some more time into it.
Um, so we come back in, uh, Monday, right? We're exhausted. Sunday, Monday, uh, start tearing this thing apart. Uh, it's got a cool spoiler that comes up at like, I think 60 miles an hour. It flips up and then it flips down. Thank goodness that whole cartridge comes out. So I've got access from underneath. I've got access from the top.
Uh, and we can get in. I ended up. I tried a bunch of stuff to get it to move, like the, I'm going the wrong way. The emblem, right? [00:14:00] Why is that so hard? The emblem right there and right above was just so kinked in, like, almost folded in, and actually the two spots, the two kinks out are actually stretched. Uh, there's a little bit of stretched metal, uh, in both of those anyways.
I'm using heat. Uh, we're applying some tension. Like what it ended up, what it ended up taking to get this thing to move was I went with Keith's green straps and I glued extra. Like normally I would glue like the front two inches, I probably glued almost four inches. Uh, and the reason I went with the straps is on this car, the, there's a little bit of a concave.
Below the body line. So we got a hard angle here, and then a deeper, harder angle back there. I'm normally a tab Strapp guy, uh, from Kiko. Uh, but I just couldn't get the adhesion right. I [00:15:00] kept wanting to break free because I couldn't mold around the shape. So I said, all right, let's go Keith's straps. Uh, and then I went with, uh, K Power.
I went with a gen one full size, uh, because I could slide those into the straps. I gave, I don't know what, maybe Danny will chime in if he listens to this. I don't know what the maximum power is on a K power on a full size. Uh, but I sent it like it was all I had cranking even with a ratchet. Uh, and thank goodness those straps were able to conform and just rip, I mean, not rip, but like, just pull and pull and pull.
Uh, and then I was able to come in with my trustee, uh, R four. Right. R four tip and my favorite phenolic tip, this little stubby from Anson. Uh, and I was able to get in with a, it was actually the good feel, double bend [00:16:00] from Dent Craft, uh, with that ridiculous amount of outward pressure. Get in and start.
Like, I couldn't really push, but I could get in one of the body lines around the emblem and sort of roll. Finally get that thing to give up. Like it's, it's about as hard as I've ever worked on a panel nearly, well, maybe not as hard as I've worked on a panel because I really worked my ass off on that cam auto door last year.
Uh, but that had surprisingly less pressure than this. Uh, that was like a challenge. This is like pressure because I wanna show it off, uh, to the guys so. Absolute obsession that it took to get this thing to unfold and the amount of different pulls. Um, I'll see if I can share on social some of the crazy pull setups we had at one point.
I think we had two mid-range [00:17:00] pulling up and down on the face of the lift gate with, yeah, with the hydraulic ram going this way. Then we even went as far as another Keith's, uh, edge straps grabbing onto the bottom of the trunk and coming down through a pulley onto the, uh, perfect pull to like help spread all of the south just to get it to unlock.
Um, this really has given me not a greater appreciation of Bryce because the dude's amazing, but a greater understanding of what. His trainings must look like and to, to watch some of his repairs and see the kinks, the hard kinks like this car had and how he takes and unfolds it. Um, Bryce, you got some stuff figured out.
Dude, that's, that's amazing stuff. Especially getting to have done it on here. [00:18:00] Um, unbelievable. Like just simply. Amazing what, what Bryce can do and how he can unfold metal and that understanding. Um, then, right, I got it to move. Now I've got it like back in shape, what in the world possesses us to come back and chase all the fine detail and we'll look this way and work and then look this way and work and then look this way and work and then flip to the other side and work the other way and try to get it to all smooth out.
I've said for years that I think Dent Wizard had or has something figured out with, um, personality traits. There is something that PDR texts must possess in their brain. Some sort of compulsion, a trait. [00:19:00] Insanity, something for us to sit down and not give up, like fight with this panel. Uh, like, and it's not a, I mean this one's particularly hard, which is why we're talking about it, but even this, you can't see it.
But we've got this wholesale hail truck over here that, uh, is a real as kicker that Mac is working on. Uh, and he just. He is like, well, I'm just gonna figure it out. Right? He's tearing the whole truck apart and he's learning and he is grinding through, uh, drop some comments. Send me some dms. How obsessed are you with dent repair?
What, what does that obsession feel like for you when you're going after a repair? 'cause I just, it's almost like a sickness for me. Like, I can't stop, I must. Like must fix car. That's like the only loop that's in my head is going after it and getting after it. So [00:20:00] here is where I'm at on this vehicle. Um, in fact, let me see.
I don't know if we can do this. It's probably gonna break the, uh, probably gonna break the recording, but we're gonna try it anyways. I wanna see if I can send you the. We're gonna do this. Gonna airdrop this and see if I can show you kind of where it's at now. Now this is, uh, this is rough. Like, well, not rough, a difficult repair.
So let's see how quickly we can do this. Here. Let's go to smash. No, what a hot light is. I, I mean, again.[00:21:00]
What is possessing me to continue working on this thing, right? This lady has received way more. Than what she asked for. I know when she comes in tomorrow to pick it up, she's gonna be completely stoked. How far do you go on these things? What is nor? Well, not normal because we're obviously all not normal because we do PDR and we obsess over this stuff.
And where do you draw the line? What makes sense? Now? There's a part of me, there's a big part of me that. My schedule would allow, I feel like I could take this as far as it needs taken. There's nothing, there's no longer anything on that panel that is scary at all. Like it's all just, I feel like you could grab about, other than being like the size of the [00:22:00] damage, you could grab any reasonably decent tech and be like, all right, put time in, go to town.
Let's see what this looks like. And actually, um. So we talked about Jay Ma, uh, on the last show that Superior PDR Taiwan and how they work in teams. This is the perfect kind of vehicle where that team would really shine. You know, we, we all tag teamed and got it started and then everybody went home and then gene's here to, uh, to finish.
I would love to be able to tap somebody else in to just put some wraps through. Um, all this cleanup work, right? Even going back to some of the advanced skills where I've really got to watch Bryce and Shane in the middle of these big smash repairs. It's boring, it's tedious. It's just literally in there just picking out, um, details and working through, like what does it take to, uh.[00:23:00]
Get this stuff done. What, what is wrong with our brains? That, that we obsess over this and go after it? Um, obviously I'm not gonna take this to a Bryce Kelly level repair, however, I learned so much. Um, so, so much about metal movement and really like a, do a ton of, do a ton of teaching. Um, 20, lemme start 24 years into the business.
I'm still learning how metal moves. Like, it's, that's the, I guess the exciting part and the challenge part is I get to see how this moves and see what's going on and, uh, learn, excuse me. Uh, continue to learn every day. Right? And every time I teach a class, I continue to learn, but what I can't figure out is what drives this ridiculous amount of obsession over these cars.
Um, I'm gonna put another hour or two into this thing and. We'll see [00:24:00] how good we get it. Uh, again, I promise it's not gonna be Bryce Kelly, uh, level. Amazing. Um, and I'm hoping to maybe sneak my meadows on when she comes to pick up just to see how stoked the customer is. And maybe I'll get roasted for showing you guys this repair and how imperfect it is.
Uh, but it's real. And part of this show is being here to talk about it and, and share real stuff. Um, I, I just wanted to get some thoughts out there about the obsession that it takes to, to do this stuff. And is it a blessing or a curse? Is it a benefit? I don't know. I don't know what the answer is, but, uh, that's pretty cool.
So wish me luck. Shoulders are tired. Oh, and we're putting a new ceiling. We're working on the studio remodel, which is another reason we're out here. Putting a drop ceiling in the acoustics are already so much better. I can't wait for the lighting to get better. I got some new, [00:25:00] uh, slot wall to put up.
We're gonna work on our background, um, and we'll put in a little store and have some tools for sale, uh, for the local PDR slash autobody community if they wanna grab some stuff. So excited that that build is underway. Italy in a week. Oh, let's talk about a couple of tools. So, first. I wanna give a shout out to, I think it's Thad Trees from Dent Proof.
Um, sent me this Sweet Epay paddle. So, uh, I think it was Thad's dad and I'm sorry I can't remember the name real quick. Uh, we were talking at MTE, uh, before that we talked in Vegas. Anyways, messaging on Instagram and we were talking about the stingers and like they can get beat up and I'm not super happy, um, that they are getting so beat up because I thought we had a hard, super solid wood.[00:26:00]
Um, but like it is what it is. It's, I've still got more, I still love them. I still love how it works. I just wish it was a bit more durable. So he said, Hey, we've got this EPA wood that my son's been making some paddles out of. I'd love to send you one. Um. So check this bad boy out. It is big, it's wide. Nice leather on this face.
Beautiful, beautiful craftsmanship. The old, uh, paracord handle. It's a little heavy. Um, but man, shout out dude. I love it. Thank you so much. Go check out Dent proof. Um, he just did a crazy hard repair on a Chevy Volt, maybe. Like quarter panel smash into the jam, into the door. Um, I think he shot most of it time lapse.
Uh, very great repair, dude. Uh, you killed it. That is awesome. Um, so thanks. Dent proof. Uh, oh, I gotta give another shout out [00:27:00] to Izzy. Izzy does PDR one of my a old a a i students. Uh, and he came over to, uh, dent Repair. Now when we switched and we still. Message pretty regularly. He made this cool lending hammer for me.
So polished ball-bearing tips, uh, that you can thread out, uh, and put in, right. There's the, let's see if we can do the, Izzy does PDR, uh, there we go. There's his logo. Izzy does PDR carbon fiber with a slightly oversized handle. Very comfortable. I don't think they're in production, but this is a super cool gift.
Um, Izzy, I appreciate it. Uh, and he also made me a Purple Heart knockdown, which is not on the counter in front of me to match my stinger. Uh, dude, much appreciated. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. So the Izzy does hammer. Izzy does PDR, uh, hammer. I think he eventied [00:28:00] up like did the welding. Pretty nice work, man.
And uh, it does strike the car pretty nice. I dig it. And I got this a while ago and, uh, I had to fix it. Sorry, Sean. So, uh, the zamer, right, the jean's signature tapper, uh, when it comes, it comes without a ball, right? So I, I modified it a little bit and I think you can get these from a one now, and when John does it, he just.
Taps like this, and he's got his finger on it. I just don't, I did not like how it felt on my hand so much like the stinger. And I think, uh, I think I saw these at MTE and I'm like, well, I have my zamer. Uh, I just tapped the bottom. All the difference in the world, putting the ball on the end of this. [00:29:00] This went from like, man, it's awkward in my hand.
I can't strike it. Nice. To perfect. Uh, and it is a nice, like stinger's my lightest. Then the zamer, I don't even know what he calls this thing, but it will forever be the zamer in my book and then up to the VIP paddle. So based on the weight of strike I'm looking for right, lightest, medium and hard 'cause it's metal on metal, which is nice.
And then if I need to move a little bit more material. These are, these are my go-to paddles. Uh, I'm so glad that I was able to thread that ball in there. Check those [email protected]. Uh, A one, um, chase Dolan from a couple episodes ago had his setup like that too. And, uh, I don't wanna say it changes the game, but it turned it into a paddle that I enjoy using.
Uh, instead of one that I was like, eh, I don't know. [00:30:00] A couple simple tools that I'm using on here, right, since we're doing a little bit of tool talk, um, that are underrated, uh, and they're not expensive. So this little nylon block with the groove cut in it from, I believe Dent Craft awesome. For right under here, right?
I've got the holes where the, um, license plate lights go and the handle, I'm able to get this on the metal and protect it. Very good stuff. Uh, I've got a whole selection of these things, like just buy them all. Uh, I probably should buy the SGA from Dent Slayer, uh, if those are out. Uh, and then like my VIP machined two by four and my VIP machined.
Not two by four, something by four, uh, with a magnet. These and some wood have been amazing. Uh, amazingly [00:31:00] helpful at getting solid leverage where my tool's not slipping, uh, and taking up some of the space in this repair. So like, add these to your arsenal. And I have been playing around with the new
black and gold tips. From, I think PDR outlet, Anson. Um, so peak black, uh, and gold, you know, good steeler, good Pittsburgh colors. Uh, anyways, great new set of tips. Uh, Christina sent some up to check out Christina. We're digging them. These things are fantastic and, and cleaning up some of these crowns. I got my peak boss tip using the 11 millimeter.
From Kiko. Look at the shine they put on the face of that, um, super flat profile, one of the flattest profile knockdowns. I've got, uh, in the box, uh, I've got [00:32:00] both sets. The, the stainless and the peak. Um, love the tip. So check those out. And I think that's it, right? You know, already showed you the old den craft double bend workhorse.
If you don't have that. You need it. I'm sure this made the 2025 like tools you gotta have in your box. So that thing is awesome guys. I gotta get the back work on, back to work on this car. Uh, I will have a new episode up for you next week. Um, I will be trying to think. So we leave Sunday night, fly overnight.
We land Monday, but that's ahead of time. Anyways, I will get you a new episode dropped. It'll show up, uh, for you Monday. Uh, and then hoping to, uh, record a show in Italy. Uh, and also me and Melissa. Melissa and I, whatever the right way is. I don't care. Uh, anyways, we are, uh, planning on vlogging, uh, the whole trip, uh, to see how that goes.
So [00:33:00] super excited. Keep an eye out. Uh, if you're going to the DB Expo, I'll see you over there. Uh, and if not, I'll see you when I see you. As always, go follow us at Dent Repair now, uh, give us more followers, um, and drop those comments. Guys, what, what is your level of obsession like, uh, because I'm pretty sure that mine is all the way off the charts, uh, crazy.
So wish me luck on this. Uh, I'll see if we can't share the video somewhere. Um. Maybe a secret link. I don't know. We'll see what it's like. Guys, thanks so much for listening. I will see you on the next episode.
