Most of what makes a car easier to live with has nothing to do with the car. It is a pool noodle, a penny, a laundry basket. Here are the fixes that quietly solve the small daily irritations of owning a vehicle.
Boiling Water And A Plunger Can Pop A Shallow Dent
Shallow dents in a panel are annoying out of all proportion to the damage they represent, and body shops charge accordingly. If the metal is only pushed in and the paint has not cracked, heat and suction will often do the job. Boil a kettle, pour the water steadily over the dent so the panel warms and becomes slightly more flexible, then use a clean plunger to pull. On modern cars with plastic bumper covers this works particularly well. The result is rarely perfect and you will usually still see a faint outline, but it takes the dent from obvious to barely noticeable for the price of nothing at all.