tonight i was getting some stuff out of my trunk, and both of my hands were full, so i closed it with my elbow. well, my elbow dented the top of my trunk. i've had the car for a total of 6 days!!!! i'm beyond frustrated at myself. it's one of those things where you just wish you had an undo button.

the dent is so small (about the size of a quarter) but i know it's going to bug the heck out of me.

has anyone tried one of those DIY suction-cup dent pullers?

there is no paint damage, and i know that i could take it to a PDR, but it seems awfully expensive for something that only i will notice.

 

I posted this gripe about 2 months ago (hands full, use of elbow to close trunk) and I too was pissed to the extreme about the damage. Very thin metal.

I went to a dent a professional dent puller, who for $125 made it perfect again.

 

has anyone been able to successfully remove a small dent DIY?

i tried just using a regular old suction cup from a shower-rack, but while it did get a good suction, it wasn't enough to pull out the dent. i think it pulled on too wide an area. any other DIY ideas?

 

For the first 3 days of owning the car I was closing the trunk using my index finger on the top of the trunk. My cousin noticed a very tiny indentation where my finger kept closing the trunk. Its small enough for me not to worry about it. However, from that point on I started using the "trunk close handle" on the inside of the the top of the trunk. Never even knew it existed before. No problems since.

 

Give Dent Wizard a try.

http://www.dentwizard.com/

 

So much for me thinking about putting a trunk mount bike rack on the car.

 

If it is too small to pay PDR for it, then live with it. The suction puller thing will work but you will see the distortion in the paint reflection. PDR prides itself in being able to get the paint to be almost distortion free because of the technique and tools that they use (pushed out from behind).

 

I've had my car in to a paintless dent repair shop to work out a door ding the size of a grapefruit, and he got it almost perfect. He's getting the car back next week to work out a crease in the lower part of the drivers door caused by our baby stroller rubbing against it. The guy says it's very thin sheet metal in the TSX - 12ga to 14ga. He said neither would have happened in a German car. My wife doesn't like to drive the car anymore because it's "too fragile" and she does have a tendency to connect cars with solid objects frequently. I'm beginning to worry I'll be at the dent repair shop once per month. I wonder if the TL's and other models (perhaps the '06 TSX) are using slightly thicker guage to help the problem... hard to pin a warranty claim on thin skin, I'd assume, so perhaps it's not so much of a problem for Acura - unless they've recieved a lot of complaints.

 

It's thinner so that the TSX meets pedestrian safety ratings without resorting to expensive crush frames and stuff. My front 1/4 panel was dented when the techs tried to readjust the panel! LOL. PDR fixed it up nicely.

 

I've used these guys. They are highly trained and do an amazing job.

 

And as an 06 owner with a palm-sized trunk imperfection, I can promise you they didn't thicken the metal. Its truly a shame. I bent it just closing the trunk with my palm, not even with excessive force.

I remember when the Mercedes salesman showed me on the E320 how you could sit on the hood or push in on a side panel, have it dent inward, then it flexes right back to perfect shape, he did this in front of me to a showroom car. I think really poorly of Acura in this one area.

 

I too made an small dent at the edge of the trunk after I used my elbows cuz my hands were full. My solution was to install the tsx lip spoiler to cover it up. Came out to $85 dollars I believe shipped.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/PAINT...spagenameZWDVW