steel vs. aluminum: paintless dent removal repairability

With the increased use of aluminum in today’s cars designed to decrease fuel consumption requirements, repair-ability should be a major concern in choosing not only the right company but right tech when dealing with new high-tech aluminum and high strength steel. Not to worry! Aluminum can be repaired by a tech with lots of experience and proper training, that fully understands the differences in working aluminum verses steel. Don't be mislead by a fast talking company because if they do things improperly, not only will the paint crack, but they will ruin an otherwise fixable panel by further stretching the aluminum, then bringing it to the point where it will start cracking from work hardening. At this point, it will become non repairable with Paintless Dent Repair or even by a collision repair shop using conventional paint and body methods. At this point in time there are very few shops like ours, in my personal experience, that have properly-trained techs that are able to appropriately handle aluminum welding and paintless dent repair on aluminum.

 What makes aluminum hard to repair?

 Here are a few basics:

Aluminum acts like a spring is why normal Paintless Repair process do not work this is what gives it its strength. So in most cases Aluminum needs to be preloaded when removing crowns and kinks. When pushing a tech needs to hold the push longer to give more time for the aluminum to react. When a tech is working anything other than a small soft ding he should be using lots of heat as this will cause the aluminum to expand so it will be easier to push. Also using metal tips are not recommended in most repairs as it  causes more damage.  One of the other things that most techs do not under stand is they need to use heaver hammers because they give more of a forceful and smoother transfer of energy instead of giving a bouncing action.