Hi,

On Christmas Eve I was visiting my parents, and someone pushed in the metal on my hatch (right where the logo is), so it's now dented in about 1 inch, affecting an area about 8-inches across. There are no scrapes, scratches, paint chips, or anything else to indicate how it happened, and there were no witnesses to what happened.

The first place I've gone to get an estimate said it will cost about $450 to get the dent out because and the guy said he thought the hatch metal was aluminum and that he couldn't use the normal puller tools on it, which seems odd to me - aren't the Fit panels all steel?

There's no particular rush for me to fix this, because the hatch opens and closes fine, there's no structural damage, no rattles etc. It's below my insurance deductible, so there's no point in going through my insurance company either, but $450 also seems like a lot of money... In the last year I've had three flat tires, two bent rims, all four rims and tires stolen off the car in front of my house (which also damaged the right front body panel probably due to just sitting angled on two jacks), and someone in an SUV backed into it in a parking lot requiring three body panels to be replaced (fortunately I was there to witness that), so any more money I can avoid spending would be great...

Thanks in advance for any help!

 

It's definitely steel.

 

is the a crease where the dent starts to form in?

you might be able to take of the plastic from the inside and just pop it back out.

 

the fit is made of cheap *** steel it dents too easily....my only regret of getting it

 

Guy is trying to pull your chain you CAN work the metal just like the rest of the Honda family of cars. Find a body shop that knows what they are doing like not all dents need to be pulled they can be pushed from behind.

 

The dent seems to have started where the "Fit" text/logo is, like someone or something pushed on that (which might explain why the metal has no scratches). I've been thinking about trying to pop the plastic off on the inside and just push it out from behind, but I don't have any sort of driveway or garage and it's been really cold, wet, and snowy up here in Boston which makes working on it outside kind of tricky, especially when I don't know exactly what I'm doing.

 

Car weighs less than 2500 pounds, it's not going to be comparable to the Titanic's hull.

nray, most dealerships contract out "PDR" guys (paintless dent removal). If they don't actively employee one, I'm sure your local Honda dealer could refer you.

 

Yeah I think it was fishy that the guy said it was aluminum, though he did say he thought it could be popped out from behind... the reason I took it to the place I did for the estimate was because my girlfriend had some work done there on her Honda a few months ago when someone sideswiped her car in a hit-and-run in front of our apartment. The shop did a good job fixing that, but she didn't have to pay anything for it because a neighbor got the plates of the person who hit her car and that insurance company paid for the whole thing... so I don't really know how honest they are as a shop, or if he was just being vague because he didn't want to spend more than 60 seconds looking at it and coming up with a number.

 

Speaking from experience, don't try it. Without the proper tools and experience, you may manage to make it look worse, and possibly cause additional damage to the point where the dent cannot be removed without paint work. Ask me how I know.

Sheetmetal often stretches when dented, and requires skill/technique and purpose-made bodywork tools to be worked back into its original shape.

 

its thin metal. thats why its light and fuel efficient

 

Ferrous metal (steel). Use a magnet to check. The H medallion on mine sits on a plastic piece that covers the tag lights.