My first thought was to see if Paintless Dent Repair could resolve the problem, however, I got a few quotes, all around the £500 mark, and none guaranteed that it wouldn't need to be filled and painted to be perfect afterwards. The whole point of getting this car was for me to do as much of the work myself so I decided to give this job a go.
The whole enterprise got a shot in the arm, when I offered to repair a scuff on a friend's Audi's bumper and received a lot of help from a very helpful member of the Jaguar Forum. This job taught me what products I'd need to use to get a good finish and also increased my confidence as it turned out very well.
Yesterday I began work on the Jag - first job was to knock the dent out as far as possible. This was easy as I had access to the back of the panel via the boot:
As you can see, the area nearest the wheel arch was the only bit I couldn't get to with my rubber mallet and block of wood so it would require more filling than the rest of it.
it took three cycles of filling and sanding back before the rough profile began to take shape:
I sprayed a coat of primer after the first two, to help me spot high points:
Finally, I began to be happy with the shape and finish, so rubbed it down with 180 grit, 400, 800 and 1200 and then put a couple of coats of high-build primer on, before flatting it back again:
I'm pretty happy with it now, but I came back to it a couple of hours later and can still feel a few imperfections and also one area where there's a tiny step between the filler and the metal so it'll need re-skimming and re-shaping for me to be satisfied with it....