Testing by Luke Munnell and Scott Tsuneishi
Of all the celebrity deaths of 2009, Billy Mays' hit us the hardest. He may not have pioneered the moonwalk (Jacko), the electric guitar (Les Paul), or ways for a man to dance dirty with a woman without looking like he's wishing she was a man (Crazy Swayze), but he did make an honest buck from hustling. Semi-honest? OK, we'll give you that. Say what you will about the Jupiter Jack and Big City Slider Station never catching on, but OxiClean and the Tool Band-It will always have a place in our garage.
This month we test one fly-by-late-night-infomercial product Billy is most known for: the Ding King. Billed as "The Secret Tool Body Shops Use", once Billy and the Ding King hit the screen, the home body repair scene would never be the same.
The Claim: DIY Dent Removal Tools Really Work.
Tired of his '95 Civic DX refracting light like a scruffy black disco ball in bright sun, and too, um . . . "frugal" to pony up for proper bodywork and paint, when Senior Editor Scott Tsuneishi spotted the Ding King on the shelves of the local auto parts store, he snatched it up and prepared to wage war on bent metal.
The process of dent pulling with the Ding King is supposedly simple: find a dent, clean it with the included mystery solvent (comprised entirely of water, rubbing alcohol, and coloring), affix the "puller" to the dent with the supplied hot glue, slip the Ding King over the threads of the puller, and tighten with the supplied thumb screw until the dent is pulled out. Here's our first attempt:
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