This Rear fender from my 1950 3/4-ton looked like a section out of a giant golf ball when I started on it Dennis. It is all hand hammered out without using fillers. There was a small tear at the running board attach point that was welded and a small amount of lead was used to fill a little down there but that was it.
http://www.pbase.com/dennygraham/image/114605010/large http://www.pbase.com/dennygraham/image/122303947/large I used a number of different tools to bring it back but a lot of the work was done using a slapper on the top side with it bucked on the back side with various dollies. A dent starts in the middle and the material is pulled into the center from the outside. When you bring the dent back out you want to start at the last point of damage and bring it in to the first part. In other words you don’t want to get behind the dent and hammer the center out first then try to smooth it. Start around the outer edges of the damage and bring it in to the center. You will usually have a little stretching at the point of impact and once you get close you can shrink that down using one of several methods. If you shrink it a little to much then a little hammer (or slapper) and dolly work will bring it back up to where it should be. This technique is demonstrated at several sites online and it helps to see the videos.
The Harbor Freight body tools are rather massive so if you decide to use them be careful. I would say that over hammering ranks up there amongst the most common mistakes that someone new to metal bumping makes. You will be surprised once you discover that most of your straightening only requires light tapping to bring it back up to where it belongs. When you get into the finish phase a slapper will spread the impact over a larger area than the hammer and it is much easer to get a smooth surface using one.
Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL
