Some idiot backed into my truck and put a large(1'X1') dent on the rear quarter panel. As near as I can tell the original paint is not damaged. Can they simply "pop" the metal out and be done with it? I personally don't think so but I'd like to know more.

 

You can try. The sheet metal is very thin. I'd get behind it and try to push it out from behind.

 

Look up paintless dent repair in your area, check the process out on YouTube. They do some pretty cool things with a suction cup and access to the back of the panel.

 

Similar to what happened to me, except the dent was larger. Lady (whom I work with) tried to back out of a parking space without looking and put a nice gash in my paint and a 2"-3" dent in my passenger side, rear quarter panel. She was very nice about it, but her idiot husband was not so much. I won't get into that story again, but needless to say, paint and repair was estimated at about $800 (they had to repaint the whole panel after the repair) and ended up being almost spot-on.

With a smaller dent like yours, you may be able to get out of it with paintless dent-repair. If you want it done quickly, and are willing to pay, there are many shops out there (at least, there are in my area) that will do it reliably.

Let us know how it goes.

 

There are places that specialize in paintless dent repair, although it looks easy, I've tried it and haven't been very successful doing it - it always looked like a DIY repair. There are a some criteria that those shops apply to determine whether they can or cannot do a paintless repair, and among them are things like whether there are any creases in the dent and how much metal stretch is in the dent. A crease will always require some hammering and heat to fully smooth and too much stretch won't let that area stay flat without using heat to pull it back to size and the hammering and heat will destroy the finish.

 

Mine had the huge dent in the panel behind the driver's door (96 club cab.) I pulled the interior apart and pushed it out with a shovel handle. It's hardly noticeable.

You might be able to get your dent pulled with a suction handle like they use for moving windshields. Harbor Freight sells them for not to much money, or visit a glass shop and see if they'd let you use one for a few minutes. The paint surface needs to be perfectly clean, of course, for maximum suction. Home Depot or Loew's sells suction operated grab bars, I think. Really strong suction cups.

 

Do you think I could do some simple suction cup techniques with this one? (not being serious)
IMG-20120624-01470.jpg

 

If Chuck Norris had been there, the truck would be in multiple pieces...