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Crease and body line
dent repair in Bellevue

A body line is structure. It fights coming back.

A crease is a dent with length: the metal has folded along a line rather than pushed in at a point. When that crease runs through a body line it is harder again, because a body line is a structural fold that the panel is stiffened by. The same size damage takes considerably longer here than in open metal, and it is the repair where the difference between an experienced technician and a new one shows most.

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  1. 1Send three photosThe whole panel, one at an angle and one up close.
  2. 2Get a preliminary rangeBy text, within the hour during business hours.
  3. 3Bring it to the Bellevue shop13421 NE 20th St. The final price is confirmed in person.
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Short answer

A crease is a dent with length: the metal has folded along a line rather than pushed in at a point. When that crease runs through a body line it is harder again, because a body line is a structural fold that the panel is stiffened by. The same size damage takes considerably longer here than in open metal, and it is the repair where the difference between an experienced technician and a new one shows most.

One we did in Bellevue

Before, and after, with the paint never touched

Crease before paintless dent repair at Dent Solutions NW in Bellevue
Before
The same panel after repair, factory paint intact
After

Two photographs, taken minutes apart. Nothing was filled, sanded or sprayed between them. The finish on the right is the one that left the factory. Corrected at our Bellevue shop, the same paintless dent repair we bring to Seattle and across the Eastside.

What actually decides it

What moves the number on this repair

01

Length is the problem, not depth

A round dent is one low point. A crease is a hundred of them in a row, and every one has to be brought up in the right order. Rushing that is how you get a wavy panel that reads worse than the crease did.

02

A body line has to end up dead straight

Your eye is extremely good at spotting a bent straight line and very poor at spotting a shallow curve. That is why a crease through a body line has to be finished properly or not attempted.

03

Sharp creases can be past saving

If the metal was folded hard enough to stretch, it cannot go back to exactly where it was without leaving a trace. We would rather tell you that from the photos than after we start.

04

This is where experience is the whole job

Steel comes up willingly, which is what makes it easy to ruin. Move it too fast or too far and you overstretch the metal, and overstretched steel leaves poke marks that never come back out.

Verified on Google

4.9 out of 5,
across 263 reviews

Not a testimonial slider we wrote ourselves. That is the live score on the Google Business Profile, and the link below goes straight to it so you can read all 263.

★★★★★
Absolutely great experience. The people are friendly and so helpful. They also did an amazing job. This dent showed up after someone hit my parked car and it had been bugging me for months but now you would not even be able to tell it was ever there. They were fast, accommodating and diligent.
Marion RichterGoogle review, 3 months ago
★★★★★
The team provided a fast and reasonable quote for the work I wanted to get done. On the day of the appointment, they greeted me kindly and gave me a timeframe for the job. The final result turned out great and the small dent is now gone.
Des MarksGoogle review, 2 months ago

What people mention most, across all 263

  • easy estimates15
  • attention to detail9
  • door ding removal7
  • friendly employees7
  • honest team4
  • fast scheduling4

Those counts are Google's own, pulled from the review text rather than chosen by us.

Asked before every drop off

Questions about this repair

Can a crease be fixed with paintless dent repair?

Often yes, and it takes longer than a round dent of the same size. What decides it is how sharp the fold is: a soft crease comes back well, and a hard fold that stretched the metal may not return completely. Photos tell us which one you have.

Why does a crease cost more than a normal dent?

Because it is worked as a long series of small deliberate pushes rather than one. A crease is many low points in a row, each brought up in order, and a body line has to finish dead straight or the eye catches it immediately.

What is a body line dent?

A dent that sits on or crosses one of the styling creases pressed into the panel. Those lines are structural, so they resist returning to shape and need more passes to bring true, which is why the same size dent costs more there than in open metal.

What are poke marks?

Small high spots left when metal has been pushed too hard or too fast and overstretched. They do not come back out with more work, which is why knowing where to stop matters more than knowing how to push.

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