Type R Club of America

Hey all,

Does anyone know if there is any reinforcing in the rear C pillar area by the roof? I had a bike rack mishap and dented the panel and I'm curious if a dent guy could get it out. I've already removed the interior plastic trim and there unfortunately is metal paneling covering that area preventing easy viewing access to the back of the sheet metal.

im sure any Paintless Dent Repair specialist in your area could remove the dent easily.. you could try a suction type dent puller yourself that may work on that dent.

Thanks much for the reply.

The reason behind the post is that this is not the first dent I've got in the roof pillar area, and I know in some places there is metal reinforcement that prevents the PDR tools from getting behind the sheet metal. In any event, I'm definitely going to swing by my PDR guy to see if it's possible (he has sort of a weird schedule and is ~30mins away from me, so I was thinking to post up in case others here could "let me down easy" if this is a dent that wasn't gettable with PDR before having to spend 1.5 hours driving around during a work day).

ok I totally understand. ive seen the PDR guys at my good friends body shop pull off some AMAZING hail damage repair.. so I just stepped outside and looked at my 97 R that is currently completely stripped and there is definitely enough room for a good PDR guy to get in and make the repair.. may need to drop headliner.

Best wishes, I look forward to seeing updates.

Just (sort of) closing the loop on this one. I got my PDR guy to take a look and he said he should be able to take care of this one. He mentioned that he’d likely only need to use suction cups with adhesive to pull the dent out versus needing to get behind the panel and push the dent out. And as a bit of extra info for those curious, my dent dude mentioned that in order to use the suction cups and not cause paint damage, it’s important for the original paint to be intact (otherwise the adhesive used with the cups can pull up the paint further if it’s already been compromised/covered up with touch up paint.

So quick Clif’s Notes to improve outcomes of future PDR work, let the PDR guy work on a dent first before applying any touch up paint.

What caused that dent?

Stin1 wrote: ↑Wed Jul 04, 2018 1:33 pm What caused that dent?

original post says "bike rack mishap"

That is good news! I look forward to seeing the PDR results.

The dent actually came out pretty well, so again, hats off to the PDR experts... that trade is simply magic to me. In a few angles, I can tell where it's not quite 100% perfect (it's like 97.5% perfect), but I'm very pleased that it's taken a blemish easily spotted at 6ft, and turned it into a 6inch-er.