Thread: so whats the conventional way of repairing dents on wings and body?

i mean dents from hail damage or anything else. whats the conventional way of fixing the dents and whats the minimal cost?
Lets say you have one dent on a wing, about the size of a baseball.

I know its not a specific question but i'm only looking for a general answer. more than likely from someone in aviation.

The reason i'm asking is because i've PDR'd couple of small planes. both from a hitting a bird on the edge of the wing. one dent was minor and the other was a little bigger than a baseball and I was just wondering if there is big market for working on planes.

Small dent from hail damage or something similar are taken out by using the heat and dry ice method. Anything larger will require the airframe or airfoil to be reskinned. That is not an option. Any A&P, A&P w/IA or repair station that is wanting keep their certificates wouldn't dare doing it any other way.

Many times small damage is simply left alone because it is not cost effective to repair it unless there is a structural reason to do so.

I should have mentioned before that the procedure mentioned before is for Aluminum. The process and procedure for doing a repair on fiberglass, composite, acrylic or fabric are unique to each material.

Most aircraft paint shops will bondo in small dents and such. The only place that you are not supposed to repair dents with bondo on aircraft are the control surfaces. Those have to be re-skinned.