How to Use a Suction Style Car Dent Puller

There are many different styles of car dent pullers that use a suction cup design to pull the dents out of your car’s body panels. However, of these many different designs, the differences are mostly aesthetic. The two main types of suction cup style dent pullers are those that encompass nothing more than the suction cup and the handle and those that have the suction cup between two handles or pads on either end of a rod with the suction cup in the middle. The first kind of car dent puller is mainly for pulling deeper or larger diameter dents from body panels. The other type is made for more controlled dent pulling of smaller dents. The following paragraphs will describe the basics on how to use both.

Step 1 - Clean Dented Body Panel

Using a quality car cleaner, thoroughly clean the dented body panel. Clean the whole panel thoroughly and rinse well to remove all traces of the soap. Dry the panel thoroughly using a chamois.

Step 2 - Affix Dent Puller to Body Panel

With the dented body panel thoroughly clean and completely dry, firmly press the dent puller against the dented body panel according to the list below. Press firmly and squeeze the handles together or pump the suction pump to firmly attach the car dent puller to the dented body panel. Refer to your particular car dent puller style for how to create the vacuum necessary.

• For small dents place the suction cup directly in the middle of the dent.
• For larger dents, you will need to pull the dent out in steps. Work your way across the dent from one side to the other.

Step 3 - Pull the Dent-Large Style Cup

Clear an area around the car body panel with the dent or dents that you will be pulling. This is done to ensure that if you don’t apply enough suction to the body panel, or the vacuum is not complete due to body panel distortion, you won’t crash into anything and hurt yourself. Pull firmly, applying even outward pressure upon the dent. If the cup lets loose, try moving towards the side of the dent and pulling it in stages.

Step 3 - Pull the Dent-Precision Cup Style

Most versions of this type of car dent puller have a much smaller suction cup mounted on a screw mounted on a rod between two feet. The feet rest on undamaged section of the body panel and provide the surface against which the pulling motion will be generated. To pull the dent, you will need to tighten the screw that the suction cup is at the end of. This will provide a steadily increasing amount of force, balanced by the feet on either side of the dent.

Properly using a suction cup style car dent puller isn’t difficult. Just follow the simple steps provided above and your car will be as close to dent free as possible without sending it to a body shop for a week.