The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Paint and Body Shop Tailgate dent

I finally found a tailgate for my 59 apache in great condition with matching patina. Unfortunately Fed ex put a pretty big dent and a few smaller ones. Picture is attached. I am hoping someone can give me some tips on how to repair the dent without as little damage to the patina as possible. I was thinking about cutting the back to access the dent or trying to use a dent puller. The metal is pretty thick where the dent is.

Thanks

I assume that there's no access to the back side of that dent. If that's the case, you're pretty much out of luck. Unless you want to drill some holes on the inside of the gate and push the dent back out. I think it adds to the "character" of the patina.

BTW, I removed your previous nearly duplicate post. Please only post one thread on a subject. You can edit your post if you want to add more info. Thanks

A true truck wears it's scars as a badge.

I agree with klhansen you could drill and push to remove, but to me that's more work than it's worth

Now that's a new one. Never heard of anyone want to fix a dent and maintain the patina. Had to think about this one. hard too see the extent of the dent on those pics. Hard to know what is in your mind regarding what "fix" would be. Hard to know how much affect on patina is too much for you. Assuming you do not want to recreate patina with paint, here's my take.

1. Going in with metal or wooden pushers will take out deep parts. Once you start pushing and knocking to hard, you leave outward dents. All in all with this method it will never be smooth. If smooth is what you want instead of mostly smooth, this method won't work.

2. if no 1. is not going to give a result you are after, all the other methods leave holes or surfaces to be patched, bondo'ed, filled, ground, sanded, painted.

3. I had a 60-66 tail gate with no access. I cut out the dent, reshaped the dent and welded it back on. Grind bondo paint. (wasn't that a TV car show?)

4. The only "method" that does not require "working" the metal is..........attach a schrader valve to her and crank in 100 psi.

5. The best interim idea is what TandM suggests. Leave it alone and drive around with it for a week or two to see if it bugs you or ain't so bad.

Your first option would be to take the tailgate to a place that does paintless dent removal to see if they could anything .

Your second option is your own idea. Cut a panel from the inside, big enough to get a dolly behind the dent and massage it back into shape. Then weld the patch back in then try to re-patina the patch. At least the fix won’t be so obvious from the outside and in a few years the patch will patina itself.

I've tried paintless dent repair - the glue-on pullers on cab dents that had no rear access. I'm here to tell you it won't work on a tailgate that's thicker metal than a cab. I had no success with the glue-on pullers. I finally borrowed a spitznagel from a friend and used that. It took some serious whanging with the slide hammer to get the metal to move. I'd hate to try even that method on a tailgate. Too much work!

Dents are patina. Pretend that a farmer backed into a bull to get him back in his stall.

wondering if heating it up slightly with a torch, and using dry ice on it ?? any good YouTube videos out there? or find a local body shop, and someone who does it on the side for cash. Mike

As Carl said, leave it alone. Some have to work to add "patina":

If you get it hot enough to move metal with a torch, your patina will be "enhanced" by burn marks. And the dry ice won't really do much to remove that dent, either.

Wow, I had to Google that one

Spitznagel is a brand name, but is appropriate. I hadn't heard that either till my friend called the pin welder he had that, and I said "What????"

That dent doesn't look that bad. I'd leave it alone. My truck is a warrior, it has been in service since it was born in 1965. It's life is more leisurely now, but it still works. It has been a contractor's truck, a trucker's truck, and now my truck. It has all the scars from it's lifetime of working, and with a coat of wax, it shines really nice. If you saw my tailgate, you'd run away. it has seen better days, but still looks good. If I were to bring the truck back to factory-fresh condition, then all the dents would have to be fixed. I like the used look much better.

Lets see it on the truck. Like previously said, if it matches the patina, leave it alone. Once you start "fixing " it, the matched look will need "fixed" also....