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I did PDR for 3yrs. Its not as easy as it looks. My boss got hood and door from junk yard and I trained in shop for 6mos before touching a car. The biggest thing about PDR is to not break the paint repairing the dent.
In PDR, using special dent tools (that are expensive) you push the dented metal from the back into its original place without breaking the paint. Metal has memory and as long as the metal hasn’t been stretched and dent is too deep then PDR will probably work.
There are a lot of tricks to doing it correctly. Best way to learn is from another tech or school and practice practice practice on junk metal.
I repaired/replaced front bumper cover from 94 Civic that I got at local pull-a-part. The replacement had small crack I repaired with fiberglass body filler (its stronger than those bumper repair kits). Sanded whole thing smooth with 220, painted it red to match. Wet sanded w/800 to remove any high spots prevent orange peel, then clear coated. Looks like new. Can’t tell it was originally black either.
As far as your hood and those rust bubbles. It’s been my experience that those tiny rust bubbles are frequently a lot bigger under the paint. Remove the hood, sand very lightly down to bare metal, keep area as small as possible and feather your edges. Prime bare metal, rough entire hood with green pad, and shoot entire hood, wet sand and clear coat. (Taking hood off car will make this alot quicker, easier and don’t have to worry about over spray) GOOD LUCK
You are 100% correct. Do the job right the first time and yes you get faster with experience. I may not be 100% ‘BY THE BOOK’ guy, but am close. Over time I learned some short cuts to be more efficient, but quality never suffers. When I get frustrated with a repair, I take a break, come back fresh. It helps so much.
Cut corners and your work will eventually suffer as well as your reputation. Good luck finding work if that happens.