ticomba74

Help!!! Has anybody experienced problems with the "ease" in which the '04 TL front end gets dented? My wife pulled into a plast container in our garage (mistake 1, letting her drive) and the plastic front end now has two bad dimples. Should I try to push them out, use hot water, or spend the $350 that the dealership said it would cost to push it out? Any help would be appreciated.

dsc888

Are you referring to the hood or the fenders? The hood is softer this year I believe due to the TL being more "pedestrian friendly" per Honda Motors. It's so that less harm will occur to a pedestrian if he or she were to be hit by our car. As for the fenders, they should be harder steel...though the steel seems thinner than that of other luxury cars such as the G35.

You may want to look into paintless dent removal in your area especially since you have dimples. These guys can work out the dents in an hour or so and you would be hard pressed to tell anything even occurred. They massage the metal out slowly from behind the dent with special tools. Look them up in your local yellow pages.

dsc888

sandwiches

Can you do PDR on plastic?

AERODRUMS

TICOMBA74

Would you please describe exactly where on the front end your dimples are? With as much soft plastic as the TL has up front it seems relatively easy to form dents/dimples.

Keep us posted on “how” the repairs were performed, also the final cost………YA damm it, I have one pea size dimple in mine.


DAVE

leo221

campIIIMAF

on nearly all OEM unibody passenger cars and including nearly the entire OEM truck population manufactured today have plastic bumpers (front and rear facias) with 3~5mph styrofoam underneath. metal bumpers dissapeared in the early 80's due to vehicle weight reduction mandates.

If your lucky you may be able to bump it out. good luck.

ps: I installed tennis balls in our garage to prevent me and my wife from hitting objects. you should try it.

ticomba74

Wow!!! Thanks for all the replys guys. Again, a good experience with my dealer (Rick Case). Went by and showed them. One of the techs comes running out with hot water, throws it on a BOOM!!! They pop back out! There was a minor scratch near the tow hook, but I had planned to put a bra on the front end anyway (the scratch is only noticable under direct light). It was the plastic fender-sorry for not being more detailed in the explaination. I will do the tennis ball trick and take other precautions. The wife was sticking it in the third bay of our 3-car garage, usually reserved for my NSX (which I had for the day). Great site, great posts, great community. Thanks to all!!!

AERODRUMS

As I posted preveisly, I have a pea size dimple in the lower front. Thanks to the post Ticombia74 made, I tried the hot water trick and it has taken about 90% of the dimple out.
The photo I included was taken after the hot water treatment. I will try this treatment again. I would really like to see all of the dimple disappear ……………….somehow??? [IMG][/IMG]

DAVE