Scapes VS Dents - What costs more to repair typically?

greenbananas

Hi MSE, I've come to you all in the hope I might humbly ask a quick question to someone who is knowledgeable about car bodywork repair. I have three areas of damage to my 2010 VW S Polo - two of which are mid-size dents to the bodywork (one in the left rear passenger door, the other to the sill of the driver door, both with no paintwork damage), and 1 that is a scrape (3 15cm gouges about 0.5mm deep) to the right of the rear painted bumper.

Do dents typically cost more on average than scrapes to repair (entail more work)? I am rather clueless about these things.

Many thanks!

jk0

Funnily enough dents are easier. You can get them done invisibly in your drive for about £60 each.

I had some builders repairing my roof some years ago. One morning they dropped a ladder on my car getting it off their van. I was so upset, as my car was nearly new.

I looked in Thomson local for dent removal, and called the guy out. I was amazed by the result. You cannot tell there was a dent there from any angle.

bigjl

Scrapes are definitely harder to repair as they involve painting.

Though it depends what you mean by dents, if you mean minor stuff like car parks dents then they are fairly easy for a SMART repairer to sort out.

Of the dent goes over a swage line then they are a lot harder to repair and may well need prepping and painting.

greenbananas

@jk0 Thank you for the fast reply. I definitely wouldn't have put my money on dents being cheaper! I was imagining that they would have had to be got at from behind the dent to knock out, but from a bit of Googling, I see that suction cups seem to be the preferred method. Glad you got a result with your roof - hope you got a contribution to the cost from the builders!

@bigjl Thank you, I now know what a swage line is. The dent in the door does slightly go over a shallow one, but the dent itself is also fairly shallow. Definitely going to get it done by a proper professional. And as I said to jk0, I wouldn't have guessed scrapes were worse but I'm grateful to know now!

Cheers

TadleyBaggie

Dent repairers are quite cunning, I opened a car door into the door of my other car. This caused a 4 inch sharp crease but did not damage the paint. The dent repairer was able to get a long tool down the window opening and push the crease out with some deft manipulation.

AdrianC

If a dent has hard edges, or the paint is broken, or it goes over a swage line (a crease, a fold) on the bodywork - then it's much, much harder.

If it's just a simple indentation, then it's easy.