Removing a dent from trunk

[hairpin]

Had this dent from PO. Brought it to a dent guy who said at least $1000 to remove it. Sounds like bs and not spending $1k to remove this.

Anyone have experience taking a dent out of the tailgate? Any experience/tips/cautions trying to remove the interior trim/window regulator assay to access the metal from the inside?

 

[WeakSauz]

I'm no bodywork expert. But you could likely find a straight decklid and have it repainted, much less than $1k.

Given that that dent is in a crease, and there is flaked paint near the dent, i'm not sure how "repairable" it is without extensive body filler and a re-spray. And at that point, you'd probably rather have a straight dentless decklid from a donor

 

[Kanoe]

That dent is in a tough spot. I have one up there too so have looked into this a few times.

It’s easy to get the rear tail gate stripped down, plastic and metal interior panels Come off easily. With the window rolled up you have a shot at it. The problem is that there is a reinforcement strength member across the tailgate near that crease on the top. It’s like 6 inches top to bottom (rough guess from memory) and for me it blocks all access to that region.

My dent is on the right side and closer to the license plate. Yours being on the far left you may get lucky and find a hole or space to get in there. I really wouldn’t count on it though. But like I said in an hour you can have it apart to see for yourself.

Let us know.

 

[Devbot]

If anything a smart step might be the old duster trick. Put a heat gun to the dent until it's hot as hell, flip a can of air duster upside down and blast it. Sometimes the metal will contract and everything will pop back into shape. Though that looks like a tough and strong spot, and I suspect it should be worked from the inside. You COULD try some dent pulling kits, but in my experience they're very easy to make things worse. When the dent is on a radius of any sorts, or contains any shapes within, it becomes a hassle in a hurry. If you want to commit to this, and don't have them already, get some proper autobody hammers/dollies

When it comes to bodywork I highly suggest leaving it to the pros - it's something you and others have to see frequently and if done poorly it's almost worse than having the dent in the first place. "A half-assed job is worse than no work at all." Any place would be more than happy to assess the work and tell you if it can be repaired or to shoot for a new panel, they just tend to vary on price so I recommend getting a few quotes. I've been quoted $350 and $550 for the same job by separate businesses, and ironically almost went with the $550 guy because he was into Toyotas himself and actually knew exactly how to do it right. In the end I suspected he only charged higher because he was a small (but highly rated) local shop whereas the cheaper option was part of a chain and didn't give me the time of day

Or you could always try to salvage one from a pick n pull and get it painted to match, but that probably crossed your mind

 

[dmppdx]

I would recommend contacting a few paintless dent repair services and see what they have to say. They may be able to get that out for a few hundred. Since the paint is missing in one sport, you would have to do some touch up, so it wouldn't be perfect, but might be fairly good, particularly for the price.

An actual repair requiring paint would likely be close to 1k if you want a decent job. Gold paint in notorious for fading, so it would be tough to match the color of the original paint. Any repainting is going to require a fair amount of blending into the quarter panel and bumper and even then, it might not match that well since its an older car and the paint will be significantly different than when it was new.

My mom had a 95'ish Corolla back in the day that was gold, and might have been the exact same color as your 4runner. It had some paint work done when it was only a few years old. Initially it looked good, but 7 or 8 years later it looked like crap since the new and old paints faded at different rates and it was very noticeable even though they did blend it in.

 

[19963.4lsr5]

If the brace wouldn’t be in the way you could rub out the dent with a 2x4.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Endlessblockades]

I have one in the same spot. Came with it. Smaller than yours, but I'm going to leave it as more dents are coming......

 

[Sarki]

I’ll second the suggestion of finding a used tailgate.
Since time is on your side as it’s not a critical repair, start your search now and with some patience you’ll probably be able to find one in your color......homerun!