Glad to see a PDR forum....training advice wanted.

[goodtohave]

Hey everyone...I have been tinting for over ten years and most recently worked for one of the big tint manufacturers taking as a rep and doing some training. I have decided to get back out on my own and am thinking of doing some PDR as well. After visiting MANY tint shops in the past year as a rep I can count on one hand the number of GOOD tinters I met. I am guessing that PDR is like tint. Mainly self taught and takes tons of practice but I am up for it. Any suggestions on schools? Ideally I would like to spend a week with someone with experience and possibly exchange for tint training. Even after 10 years of tinitng I learned a lot of tricks over the past year of meeting and tinting with a lot of people. Anyone who thinks there is nothing left to learn is a : We tinters tend to keep secrets to ourselves...except on this board of course!

[goodtohave]

Oops...WORKING as a rep..not taking

[Guest SixPack]

I would skip the school. Just pay an experienced tech for a few weekends of training - $50-$100 per hour I would guess). The rest you have to learn on your own. If you can make it from that, then you will succeed. Work on a hood from a body shop for a month or two. Then try a door. Do the 'free dent repair' at hole in the wall, buy here pay here, dealerships. After a year of that, if you havnt given up, you should do ok. The only real problems you will have is accessing dents. Technique is an individual thing. You cannot duplicate another techs tecnique 100%. Try the big dents ALOT, you will learn the most from them.

Basically jump into the deepend. You will either learn to swim, or you will die. Thats the way I did it.

[Guest kccartint]

Do yourself a favor and get good quality tools. I makes a big difference and will make you more confortable doing your repairs. Just like tinting pdr is not for everyone and you will know withing weeks. If your serious than make sure you commit 100% or you will not be sucessfull in pdr. The best thing you can do to start is buy a nice trainning set and get a feel for your light source and the tools. Like said before get yourself a couple of panels from a body shop and practice, practice, practice. PDR is not like tint. There are to many different variables when fixing a dent. You will booger up lots of dents but dont get discouraged. Be hard on yourself when practicing to. Dont just give yourself small easy dents. What the crap out of the panel and do some creases. The better you get at the hard stuff the easier the little stuff is. In pdr slow is fast and fast is fu..ed up.

Here are a few good links for tools.

www.dentcrafttools.com

www.pdrtools.com

www.pdq.com

www.ultradent.com