I have a few hail dents on my hood and I've heard for years that you can put a piece of dry ice on those dents and they will pop out. Is this fact or fiction??

 

If you do a google search under "repair dent with dry ice", enough sites pop up saying you can that it seems worth the try, particularly since dry ice is not expensive. What have you got to lose? It does make sense from a physics point of view because the dry ice, being so cold, causes the metal to contract.

But, as noted, be careful. Wear well-insulated gloves as holding dry ice in your hand can cause frostbite in no time. The temperature of dry ice is -109 degrees F. Also, make sure you're in a well-ventilated area as it's pure carbon dioxide and can decrease the percentage of oxygen in a small space as it evaporates (sublimate is the actual term).

Let us know if it works as I have a few small dents like that in the hood of my truck.

 

If you don't seriously injure or kill yourself, I might try it too!

Jaybird

 

If it doesn't work, you should consider the paintless dent repair approach. Those guys can work wonders with hail dents.

 

X2 - talk to some of the car dealerships and get a recommendation on who to use.