Can we talk about how everyone uses way too much body filler on dents that could be pulled?

I swear I see it every week at our shop in Portland. Some kid brings in a door with a dent that's maybe half an inch deep and they start slapping on filler like it's spackle. Take 20 minutes with a slide hammer and a dent puller and you can get that thing 95 percent straight. Then you only need a THIN skim coat to finish it off. But NO, people just pile it on thick and then complain about cracking or shrinking 6 months later. I had a customer last year whose fender I fixed in 2 hours with a pull and a skim coat. The other shop quoted them 4 hours and a whole tub of filler. Makes me crazy. Has anyone else noticed this getting worse or is it just the rookies in my area?

2 comments

2 Comments

loganburns1mo ago

Had a buddy of mine try fixing a dent on his classic Mustang and he went through half a tube of filler before asking me to look at it. I showed him how to pull it from the backside with a stud welder and a dent puller, and it came out way cleaner than that thick mess he made. He just didn't know you could do it that way, and his YouTube videos all taught him the filler route. Now he's all about pulling first and skimming second, but it took wrecking one panel for him to learn the hard way. Makes you wonder how many people get taught by guys who just want to sell them filler instead of spending the time doing it right.

kevin_schmidt971mo agoTop Commenter

Respectfully, filler's fine if you know how to use it right lol.