[Closed] Van dent repair

Anything is repairable, for a price but i imagine you can get access from the inner arch to pop that out as much as possible with hammers and dollies then body filler and a rear quarter spray job.

At a guess i'd factor in for a £200 - £300 job to repair that to a reasonable standard but it may be noticable

That would be very difficult to fix. The panel will want shrinking and its right next to the fuel tank so that would have to come out anyway.
You might find an old boy with time on his hands who would fix it but in this day and age its whip it off and put a new one on.

Ta. Yeah, it's really awkward. I've no idea how you'd get behind it and I think it's too deep to pull out.

It's not a panel you can replace either - that bit's basically the van.

Bump to see if anyone's got any ideas this morning...
Looking at it today, I'm not sure it's repairable.

The van will be stripped and all the spot welds that hold the panel on drilled out. Panel cut off and new one welded on.
It's that simple!

It's not a panel you can replace either - that bit's basically the van.

You'd be surprised what's replaceable by the right people.but that won't be cheap.

If it was me and it was an older vehicle I was repairing on the cheap to keep it looking respectable.

I'd be down the scrappy grinding a large chunk from the same area on a scrap van.

I'd then grind out the damage and spend a heap of time getting the panel sized right with plenty of cad work.

Then I'd use a few magnets and tack weld alternate edges in until it was fully welded.

I'd seam seal from the back or in the light cluster

I'd grind back my welds flat. Using a hammer and dolly I'd knock them below flush and might put a thin skin of P38 on to hide it.

That's would be on a vehicle I like and want to keep.

If it was simply to get I'd of the dent and I was feeling bodgy. I'd beat it roughly to shape the fiberglass it back to good shape 😉

That's an impressive video!

The dent isn't on a panel as such. It's the entire side of the van, running from the front wing, around the sliding door and to the back of the van, full height. I'm not sure I care enough to have that replaced!

All I want to do is what Troutie's suggesting - a 'rough' repair to keep it looking respectable. But I can't weld or use fiberglass filler.

EDIT I can whack things with a hammer though. I think I can get to the dent from the inside and whack some of it out. I'm not sure how to deal with the 'lip' that's formed as the dent was pushed inwards. Whack a bit out, whack the lip back, whack a bit out etc etc?

What Van is it ?

That damaged panel is what would be called on car, the rear quarter panel. The " correct " way of repairing to get it like new would be to replace the panel which may come as a complete side depending on the van.

What will happen in reality is they won't replace the entire side they will prob cut it in the middle of the sliding door then replace from there backwards. It's fine to do that, just saves a lot of time and you would be hard pressed to see the joints if done correctly.

Let me know what van it is and I can have a look at pictures online and explain bit more. I'm no expert but I trained as a panel beater and have seen many repairs in body shops but I've been out of the game for 9 years or so.

Got a bigger picture?
If it's a bodge hammer it to as good a shape as possible. TAKE THE LIGHT UNIT OUT FIRST!
Then screw some self tappers from the inside out andto help hold the buckets full of filler you will need.
It will take time, money and still look rubbish!

Hi simmy, thanks for that. it's a 2011 berlingo and it is a compete side panel. I'm guessing replacing it might cost a fair bit though.

OP posted as I was posting

In that case, I'd look at getting a repair done at a small independent body shop, looking at that I don't think you will get away with just hitting it as the spot welds may have split and it will need tacking back together.

The corner of the panel is going to be the most difficult part to get straight again as its the strongest part and will line up against the rear light so needs to be more or less straight.

I looked at a vivaro when I was looking for mine and it had had a hell of a whack up the back that you couldn't see unless you looked at the bumper which wasn't lined up so, if that can be made to look reasonable, yours should be easy to sort,

Hi simmy, thanks for that. it's a 2011 berlingo and it is a compete side panel. I'm guessing replacing it might cost a fair bit though.

Yeah, I reckon that could write the van off in insurance terms depending on it value.

The parts cost would be mainly the side panel but, like we have said, it's the complete side from Citreon which I'm guessing would be from the A pillar at the windscreen the entire side to the rear lights / door.

Even if they chop it at the side door like I said, they will charge you for the complete panel as the leftover part is useless to them ( unless they have a Berlingo with sill damage which they can use it for but they won't tell the other customer they have a part lying around.......)

It's then the labour which is quite a big job cutting it out, grinding clean, cutting new panel in etc.

Like I said, it's a long time since I was involved in body shops but I'd be guessing £500 for panel and prob 10 hours labour at God knows what they charge these days, then paint and other stuff on top.

I'm guessing the dent is self inflicted 😉 so just go with the suggestion of small independent body shop to get it something right if you have no experience of filling, hitting things in the correct place to get it straight etc.

It's tempting it give it a go but you could make it worse.

I work in a car body shop for the last 18 years and it would be a easy enough repair. We've got a smart repair system that you would weld pins on the back edge we're it meets the lamp to pull panel to correct length/shape and then the rest is pretty much a filler job. A lot cheaper than replacing. Only time we wouldn't bother repairing would be if the arches or sill are rusty. Then it wouldn't be worth it.

Cheers guys. I'll see what I can find locally. Don't suppose you're near Matlock are you pinder318?

Don't even know we're matlock is.lol I'm based on the wirral most of the decent sized independent bodyshops will have equivalent tools. Or could go old school and just weld a plate full length and pull but it's not as efficient.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=lLIGISmDSng quick vid of YouTube on how simple getting edge dents straight. This is the first bit to do on your panel down the edge that meets the light. Then the rest is just a standard repair job.