Those who believe that the work provided by a PDR technician is the same as that offered by a body shop are mistaken.
“The job of the former is to remove dents from vehicles without damaging or altering their original painting.” It is a handmade technique, known in the United States as PDR (Paintless Dent Repair / Removal), which, in addition to preserving the originality of the car, is faster and more economical. In the traditional body shop, the repair goes through several stages, first aligning or replacing the part, preparation, painting and finally polishing, as explained by Herivelto Malosti, CEO at US Dent Master and owner of Aral Latam, a company based in Curitiba (PR), specialized in recovery of cars hit by hailstorms, the only South American project in the segment with ISO 9001 Quality Certification. Focused on the industrial part, the company serves factories, assemblers, ports, concessionaires and rental companies and prioritizes transparency in all stages of the service. “Customers involved in our repair processes, such as logistics and quality directors, have online access to our data system to monitor the entire execution and evolution of the process,” says Malosti.
The businessman says that he worked in car assemblers / factories in several countries, as a PDR technician and as a manager of groups whose vehicles were damaged by hailstorms, and these “were completely recovered by hand without any change in their originality”. Malosti usually says that he knows the good professional by “hammering”. The Technician PDR, however, involves the repair of various types of damage, for example: dented door knocks, a very common problem worldwide, according to the expert.
Malosti's career began in the 1990s, when he trained at The Dent Wizard, an American company dedicated to automotive repair. From then on, he specialized in the segment and in a few years he was traveling the world, fixing cars damaged by hail. In his journey he acquired a lot of experience, passing through more than 20 countries in Europe, South America, United States, Australia, South Africa.
With his experience, he ended up becoming an authority on the subject and, due to the great demand for learning, he decided to professionalize his teaching method. Thus, he started to share his expertise as a technical master hammer through digital training.
“In the course, I use a methodology and a simple language to facilitate the understanding of concepts, techniques and processes. Depending on the student's dedication, in two months he is already able to perform the service professionally ”, explains Malosti, who also has a YouTube channel where he teaches free techniques and tips for the improvement of professionals in the field or admirers of the art. For Malosti, “being a hammer artist is more than a possibility, it is living, challenging yourself and going further and further”.