Crease and body-line dent repair

What makes a crease harder

A round ding pushes the metal in from one point. A crease drags across the panel, often from a shopping cart, a bike handlebar or a car sliding past, and leaves a long, sharp line. When that line crosses a factory body line, the metal has to be rebuilt to two shapes at once: the flat panel and the crisp edge the designers drew.

That's slow, careful work. It is also exactly what paintless repair is good at, because the factory paint and the factory body line both stay original.

How Alex works a crease

The crease is read under a light board, then worked from its ends toward the deepest point with rods behind the panel. High spots are tapped down as the low line comes up, so the panel doesn't over-correct. On a body line, the edge is restored first, then the flat areas around it.

You can see the result in the straight reflection lines afterwards. That's the test every repair has to pass before Alex calls it done.

Pricing a crease

Creases are priced from a photo because length, depth and location change the time a lot. Most land inside the $150 to $650 range. A short, soft crease in the middle of a door sits near the bottom. A long crease over a body line sits nearer the top.

When it can't be fully fixed without paint

If the crease has cracked the paint, or the metal is stretched so far that it can't hold its old shape, a body shop is the honest answer. Alex will tell you that from the photo.

Send it over

Photograph the crease from the side, low and along the panel, so the light catches it. Text it to (916) 585-2554 and you'll get a number back, usually within the hour, Monday to Saturday until 9pm.