If you have small dents in your car that you want to get rid of, but you're not able to spend tons of money on professional repair, be aware that you're going to find a lot of myths out there that claim to fix dents immediately and with little money involved. Unfortunately, these tricks don't always work the way they're supposed to.

Don't Use Dry Ice

First, a safety warning: one myth says that by leaving the car in the hot sun and then placing dry ice on top of the dent, you can pop the dent out. That is not going to work, or rather, maybe you'd see some changes, but the part of the car that was dented isn't going to look like nothing ever happened to it. Plus, you can harm yourself if you have no idea how to handle dry ice. You can actually burn your skin if you don't wear thick gloves, and the carbon dioxide gas that it turns into can create breathing issues if you're using the dry ice in a confined space, like a closed garage.

Dents and Depressions Are Different

You also have to realize that dents and depressions are different. A shallow depression might pop back out rather easily, but a real dent has deformed the car material enough so that any improvised attempts to pop the dent out will still leave visible damage. If what you have are real dents, with crumpled metal and scratched paint, these dent repair tricks may not work at all for you.

Car Material Matters

Cars are made out of mainly steel, aluminum, and plastic. The type of material you're dealing with also affects how easy it is to get rid of the dent. Steel can be more flexible than aluminum, and it's often used in thicker amounts, especially in older cars. It can be harder to do something like paintless dent repair on an aluminum part, while it might be easier on a steel part. But again, the severity of the dent matters greatly here.

Heat Isn't a Cure-All

The dry ice myth mentions leaving the car in the sun, and there is another myth that focuses on popping the dent out after a day in the hot sun. First, heat from the sun does not make dents pop out on their own. Second, heat from the sun can heat up metal enough to burn you. Despite the image of the sun making the metal more flexible and malleable, it doesn't really help get rid of the dents on your car.

Contact a professional dent repair company and talk to them about prices. It may be possible to work on your car bit by bit so that you can pay smaller amounts over time.