The PDR Trainee Blues

October 9, 2005

This is my first post in the PDR forum so I'll introduce myself and say, Hi Guys, I've been a pro polisher/refinisher for a little over 20 years so I've been cutting orange-peel and scratches out of paint for long enough. The ultimate goal of a professional polisher is the ability to see right into the orange-peel or highs and lows of paint finishes and wet-sand the highs out, then start the multi-stage machine compound process that will eventually create the glass-like 'superfinish'. So in looking at it from my perspective, "orange-peel" actually resembles thousands of 'very small dents' on a single panel so I thought I'd be a shoe-in for PDR, right? Well I gotta hand it to you PDR techs out there that are happily making a living out there doin' this stuff because I just tried to solo my first two dents after a one week basic training session... and it's no walk in the park! There is one guy here in Toronto who is sought out by most of the dealers to do their PDR, and it's truly incredible to see the results of his work.. it's absolutely flawless, you can't see any sign of distortion whatsoever, even when I've done a superfinish polish on the same area, it just comes out like a mirror. How the &*^% does he do that?? There's gotta be more to this than pushes and knock-downs... or some of these techs are truly "artists that manipulate metal!" If this sounds like you... you're blessed! :lol2

October 9, 2005

The headaches eventually go away, at least for me they did. It takes months of practice, dont expect to learn PDR in a week. Been at it 7 years and the guys that trained me were doing it for 10, back when they trained me.

Mr paladin · October 9, 2005

some of these techs are truly "artists that manipulate metal!"
[*]325075

Yes I believe they are, I have no desire to learn :thumb

October 9, 2005

Thanks for the "hang in there" replies, it's always a little discouraging at the beginning of any training process, especially ones like custom tint or PDR where the ability to be successful comes from the "artistic ability" to be good at what you do in the auto cosmetic field... not just bolting a cool looking part on a car and printing out an invoice.

November 1, 2005

you have it or you don't, or you can take the time to learn it.

still have my pdr tools and only work on my own cars here and there did'nt have much sucess selling the service as I was doing so many things to stay busy in the first place.

detailing window tinting sprayed in bedliners paint repair & touch ups glass repair gold plating and pdr all mobile one would sell the other.

I learned with a video then a week later went to a one day training thats all I had time to give to training, then went out and did dent repair it was usually when I was there detailing or tinting that they had a dent to do. it paid for the tools and now all I do is tinting.

my kidd needs some work on his car and I will be doing that right before he gets it custom painted.

don't give up so soon you'll get it. :beer