The basic condition for professional work is to use professional tools!

As they say: "Practice makes the master"

Well, this already clichéd phrase turns out to be especially true for dent repair technicians. Being a craft profession, practice - which is given by the time spent in the profession and the experience of the work performed during that time - is essential for someone to become a good dent repair specialist.

However, the work performed can only be of a high standard if we have the right quality tools, equipment, and machines to perform the dent repair tasks. But if you could put the best driver in the world in a street car, he wouldn't have a chance to win any car race. You might not even be able to reach the finish line, as the car would not be able to withstand the stress. If you put a trained concert pianist behind a rickety old Viennese mechanical piano, it won't be a breathtaking concert with a virtuoso Liszt interpretation either! The same is true for dent and ice damage repair. This profession is also a kind of art, which requires a lot of endurance, practice, patience, and last but not least, excellent perception from its practitioner, the dent technician. This is based, among other things, on the availability and professional use of high-quality tools.

Repairing dents basically means smoothing them back into the plane of the body sheet, which can be done using pressure or pulling technology. Adequate access to the negative side of the dent, i.e. the back, plays a big role in the pressure technique. This is where the dent repair technician's knowledge of the vehicle's structure and professional experience plays a major role. However, to perform the operation precisely, you must have a wide range of suitable hand tools. With sticks, hooks, stems, and rods of various lengths, thicknesses, and designs. There are no suitable terms for these tools in the Hungarian language. (English: Rods, Brace Tools, Whale Tails, Flat Bars, Shaved Tools, Wire Rods, Changeable Tip Tools, Door Hooks, Razor tools, Snake tools, Adjustable Indexable Handle Tools, etc.)

The main indicators of the quality of dent repair tools are the material and the workmanship. To make a brilliant gem, you need a tool that has enough hardness to be able to polish the diamond into a brilliant one. Dent repair tools must also be made of durable, properly hardened, spring steel with sufficient carbon content, which can withstand the increased load of use for a long time. They are flexible enough to be inserted into the tightest of places, but strong enough to overcome the resistance of the tension in the dents without deformation. All of this is provided with an elaborate handle so that the technician's hands are not unnecessarily burdened with the appropriate power lever-load lever load. Not all manufactured tools can meet these expectations. Most of the tools used today come from the USA, which is the Mecca and cradle of paintless dent repair at the same time. Here are the best dent repair tool companies in the world. Such as Dentcraft, Blehm, ATP Tool, A1-Tools.

Recently, other countries have also started making dent repair tools. An example is the Russian AV Tools, which is represented on the market with quite high-quality devices. Turkish-made tools are also suitable for a little more, but they can compete with their American relatives only in terms of prices. Due to the growing demand, China also appeared on the market. However, the quality of these tools is still far behind the market-leading brands. But it is indicative that in the field of additional and electronic devices for indentation technology, they are already present in the trade with high-quality, competitive products.

The other used dent repair technology is pulling out the dents in the plate plane. This can be done with hot or cold adhesive technology.

Cold gluing is done with a rubber-like Cola Fria adhesive. This technology makes it possible to highlight larger, homogeneous dents. However, the use of cold glue is not suitable for exact dent repair, it is not possible to achieve a 100% result. Many dent repair technicians are reluctant to use it, as a lot of corrections are required after a rough repair.

Hot gluing is a significantly more efficient technology. We can work with an adhesive material with various properties, which in terms of tensile strength adapts in various ways to the temperature fluctuations and humidity of the seasonal changes. Of course, using the right adhesive is by no means enough. In order to be successful, we have to use so-called dummies and dolls of various sizes and designs, which we attach to the corresponding points of the dents with hot glue. After solidification, the dolls are pulled up with tongs or a threaded tensioning bridge, or lifted out with a weight hammer, sometimes tearing them from the surface. By forcing the operation outward into the plate plane, the depth of the dent. Quality is also of great importance in the case of dolls. The workmanship, material quality, and tensile strength are all important factors. The best-known manufacturers are, for example, the German Laka-Tools, Würth, or Keco from Oklahoma, which has been on the market for 50 years. Of course, manufacturers from the Far East have also appeared on the dent repair dummies market. In the past, poor and rough quality, heads breaking off due to the brittle material, and the imprecise surface were a serious problem. However, in recent times, you can also find quite good quality Chinese glue dolls in the trade. The application of the technology requires a lot of attention and concentration in order not to overstretch the plate with the operation, thus avoiding plate stretching and a lot of unnecessary subsequent straightening.

In addition to the tools mentioned so far, a well-equipped and sufficiently prepared dent repair workshop needs many other tools and technical accessories. It is important to have hammers, rebound tools, support tools, and stands made of various materials with a wide range of sizes, weights, and designs.

The basic condition of a successful repair is the complete fixing of the dents, so the most basic task is to make the dent fully visible, which requires a high-quality, light-projecting, suitable brightness, practical handling, well-adjustable fixing lamp. The appearance and spread of LED lighting technology also gave a big boost to the dent repair industry. The USA also plays a leading role in the field of fixing lamps. However, manufacturers from other countries are also successfully represented on the market here. The Ukrainian Dnepro Dent Tools also manufactures world-class lamps, and the Turkish-made fixation lighting devices, which are marketed in Europe by the French Rexa, are also of very highquality.

In addition to mechanical dent repair, it is also worth mentioning the repair method using an electric Hot-Box, which works on the inductive principle. This is a brand new innovation associated with Switzerland-based Betag Innovation. The device developed by Betag is able to move the dent in the direction of the plane by inductance-based heating of the body plate. However, it is only convex, or at most on a flat surface, as it further deepens the dents located on the concave plate. The Hot-Box is a great step forward in the rapid repair of dents, but this technology also has its limits. As with cold gluing, it is not suitable for producing 100% results. It is only suitable for highlighting minor dents. Its use also entails dangers, as in case of inattention, we can burn the varnish,leaving a permanent mark, or make the plate surface wavy.

Summarizing all, we can say that equipping a PDR paintless dent repair workshop with quality tools is quite an expensive task. And then we haven't even talked about the basic equipment of a repair shop, from the hydraulic lift to the wrench sets and the vise. Including tool sets for upholstery removal. However, if we want to produce effective quality work, we have to make these investments, since without them we cannot perform at an appropriate professional level and only limit our own possibilities.