Paintless Dent Repair vs Traditional Body Shop: What’s the Difference?

Posted January 21st 2026

If your vehicle was hit by hail, you’ll typically hear two paths: paintless dent repair (PDR) or traditional body repair(filler/bondo, sanding, repainting). The right answer depends on the damage — but for most hail dents, PDR is the most factory-preserving option because it restores the panel without repainting.

Here’s the practical difference, and how to choose the best outcome for your vehicle.

What is Paintless Dent Repair (PDR)?

PDR is a specialized technique where technicians restore dents by precisely reshaping the metal from behind the panel using purpose-built tools. The objective is to return the panel to its original form while preserving the factory finish.

PDR is ideal for:

• Hail dents on hoods, roofs, and trunk lids
• Door dings and minor creases
• Damage where the paint remains intact

What is Traditional Body Repair?

Traditional repair typically involves:

• sanding
• filler/body compound
• paint and blending

This approach is often used when the damage is beyond what can be restored through metal shaping alone, such as:

• paint that is cracked or missing
• impact damage with sharp distortion
• areas where the metal is significantly stretched

If the paint is broken, you still have better options than “standard body shop repair”

When paint is damaged, refinishing may be required — but that doesn’t mean you should default to a conventional, filler-forward workflow.

At Rocky Mountain Hail, we’re hail specialists. When damage goes beyond pure PDR, we use a hail-first approach: restore as much of the panel as possible through advanced metal repair, then refinish only what’s truly necessary. In many cases, that produces a cleaner final result than conventional body repair methods because it minimizes unnecessary filler and preserves more of the vehicle’s original structure and finish.

Does hail repair “go on CARFAX”?

At Rocky Mountain Hail, we do not report repairs to CARFAX.

It’s also worth knowing that CARFAX reports are built from information submitted by many third-party sources (for example, government/DMV records, some insurance-related data streams, and participating service/repair facilities), so what appears can vary by situation.

Our recommendation

If your paint is intact, start with a PDR inspection — it’s typically the least invasive, most factory-correct approach.

If your paint is broken, you still don’t have to settle for a conventional “body shop default.” A hail-specialist process that prioritizes metal restoration first often delivers a better end result.

Rocky Mountain Hail serves the Denver Metro area (roughly 30 miles from our shop), with a broader Front Rangefootprint from Cheyenne down to Pueblo.