Just take your time and if you have something like a ford to practice on first it would be good.
Last edited by FriedGreenTmater; 02/26/20104:04 PM.
1953 Chevrolet 3600 Fried Green T'mater (Vern) In the Stovebolt Gallery Caution: Political Statement Man who runs in front of car gets tired, man who runs behind car gets exhausted.
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
I have really enjoyed learning about metal working. Here are a few sources of information that helped me a lot. The book The Key to Metal Bumping by Frank Sargent gives a nice explanation on the theory behind proper metal repair. It is an older book first published in 1939 so very appropriate for our vehicles.
And finally Ron Covell has some fantastic videos on the art and craft of metal working. His info can be found at http://www.covell.biz/ As Denny already pointed out (and I learned the hard way) sheet metal repair is more like gently and slowly coaxing the metal back to its original shape.
On thing I would add to what Denny said is to use a block of wood (a piece of a 2x4 will work) as a dolly. It will absorb more of the impact from the hammer blows and in my experience reduce some of those oil can effects someone new to metal working can create. Just my .02.
Before everything had to be computer-driven and laser guided, oil cans had a semi-flat bottom that was slightly convex. To oil something, you turned it over, put the tip where you wanted the oil, and pressed on the bottom with your thumb, causing the bottom to go "doink" and squirt oil where you wanted it. When you released your thumb, the bottom would go "doink" back to shape.
Where the metal panel will pop in and out causing an oil can effect. It is caused by stretched metal from improper sheet metal work.
Usually cured by my friend the torch or heat wrench.
Check out the body work videos on You Tube. There are a bunch and cover a wide range of repair. Check this one out. He uses a strange tool to bump the dents that seems to work great. Plus he uses a slapper.
The magic secret behind ultra smooth filler free repairs is the shrink disc. Which is shown the video links above. You can get them on ebay from a member named ewheel.
Last edited by sevt_chevelle; 03/03/201012:46 AM.
Currently working on custom metal and How to videos.
Oil canning comes from the metal being in an unnatural state,can be caused by shrunk or stretched metal.
In the cases of dents it caused by stretched metal unless any prior repairs were made then thats up in the air.
The dent is held in place because the that area is somewhat stretched and now tension exists on the metal holding the dent in place. Excessive amounts of hammer ON dolly will stretch the metal out leaving you hump of extra metal.
So you already have some amounts of stretched metal on your fender.
This is where heat comes into play, heat SHRINKS metal. Shrinking with a torch is hard to do and also shrinks metal that doesn't need to be shrunk. A shrinking disc generates heat through friction and ONLY shrinks the high spots or stretched metal.
The key is to use a combination of hammer and dolly techniques that will both raise the dented metal up and limit stretching.
you have two techniques and you use both of them but during different times, you must learn to read the dent and learn to use each method.
The other is Hammer ON dolly. the hammer and dolly hit in direct contact and thus stretch the metal out but because of this the metal expands and expands upward or raises up. This technique is used to pick up small areas of low spots, but use caution to avoid raising it too much. [IMG]http://inlinethumb33.webshots.com/41440/2800252890102553149S600x600Q85.jpg[/IMG]
A very good good dent repair video, he actually teaches you something and speaks!!
Last edited by sevt_chevelle; 03/03/20101:13 AM.
Currently working on custom metal and How to videos.
Every You-Tube video on body work might not fit your need, however there are hundreds there that will really help you learn the proper methods. I'm a visual learner and do better cooking a dish while watching a video than just reading a recipe.
Don't think it would be heavy enough unless it's a huge file.
1953 Chevrolet 3600 Fried Green T'mater (Vern) In the Stovebolt Gallery Caution: Political Statement Man who runs in front of car gets tired, man who runs behind car gets exhausted.
I've got some big old blacksmith ones from years ago. Every little village up here had a blacksmith shop for sailboat fittings, anchors, scallop dredges, etc..
A hammer because of the smaller surface area many times can cause damage simply because of size difference between hammer and dent.
Secondly, a hammer has a smaller "sweet spot" thus making it harder to hit the dolly directly.
A slapper because of the larger mass can move metal quicker and faster when needed. It can also finesse the metal because the larger area acts like a cushion sorta speak when doing real light taps.
