Well this weekend I unwittingly watched a Mitsubishi Pajero leave a little beauty of a dent on my bonnet and then drive off!

I was sat in a pub beer garden Saturday afternoon having some lunch with a group of mates, with the coop parallel parked up the street. My mate pointed out the Pajero that was parked in front of the coupe had moved right up close to my bonnet so that his presumed wife could open the boot. We had a joke that it looked like he was right up against my car, and I almost went for a wander past just to check. But I didn’t as the woman looked to be directing how much room the Pajero had front and back.

Anyway, 15 mins later I went to a shop to get a bottle of water, when I returned to my car my mates were gathered around my bonnet admiring a nice little crease that the Pajero’s bull bar obviously left! As my mates were around I felt compelled to control my emotions and act mature about the situation, but could still feel myself shaking and twitching now and again!

So what’s a man to do?! I knew the colour and model of the Pajero, and the last 3 letters of the registration, so reported it at the police station anyway. The police officer said it was unlikely they would catch/trace the Pajero, which I was expecting, so said I would probably end up having to get the dent repaired myself! Bummer!

Has anyone else had a dent right on the front of the bonnet and had it successfully removed?! You can’t get to the dent from the underside so it’s going to have to be sucked out somehow!

So my hatred for 4x4’s has increased by 10005% this weekend – there won’t even be a scratch on his bull-bar!!

Sorry to hear about that. Not an easy fix either.

The front edge of the bonnet is double skinned, so the only way of dealing with it is:

1. knock the dent down, fill it + re-paint the front edge, or re-spray the bonett.

2. New Bonett

That is annoying.is it a big pub you were at? Maybe the people are regulars and you will spot them parked in There next week?

Or, you can do what I did, which is to drill out the double skin at the back of the bonnet, and then bash the dent out from underneath using an old tent peg and a rubber mallet.

Didn't come up perfect, but was better than it was before. I then built up the minor dent left so it was proud of the surrounding bonnet with spray on fine filler. Then sanded down flat. Respray and relaquer and all that goes with it and then sorted

Oh, and used primer sprayed into the hole I had drilled, and then filled it with fibre glass filler, and sprayed it to protect from rust.

Didn't come up too bad at all. YMMV, depends on how bad a ding it is, mine wasn't too bad in the first place, but was just enough to leave the top and bottom edges of the dent a bit proud of the bonnet level (a big thwack from behind dropped it back down).

Ah bummer, so there's no easy fix then!

Broadley - I was over in the Lake District for the weekend so not local to me at all! There were loads of people milling about but guess nobody noticed anything as it'll have been a low speed impact!

any CCTV cameras?

Oh another one ! sorry to hear about this mate, a decent 2nd bonnet should only cost you £80-120, good luck

Nope, no CCTV cameras! It was in a little village called Pooley Bridge - so not a lot about really!

So just have to hope someone saw it happen and think to ring the police!

Could do without it at the moment TBH as have a full service looming, and need to get my alarm sorted ASAP! Oh well!

Sorry to hear that mate.

Yes, sorry to hear what's happened

I'd be fuming

There are ways of removing dents from double skinned panels that a competent body shop will be doing as a routine repair.

yeah drill a hole put in a self tapper and use a slide hammer to pull it out

They use a special glue now instead of drilling a hole, then a special un-bonding chemical to remove the glue after the dent is pulled. You can buy your own kit and do it but might be cheaper getting it done professionally I don't know.

Well i'll leave it until November then contact some dent removal companies and see what they suggest! I have a service and an alarm to sort out first!

Oh, and thanks for everyones help!! Much appreciated!

Darlo_Nick wrote

The list never ends does it