The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Paint and Body Shop Dent or crease in front of door.( how do I get to it?)

The door on my 3800 1951 pickup has a crease that was caused when the door swung open at some point in its life. It is only about 11 inches long( verticle) and is the contour of the middle curve of the doors leading edge. Its an 1/8 of an inch at the worst place.The door opening edges and door gaps are perfect - go figure- the door shuts like new. Do I cut through the crease and weld the leading edges so it shrinks and pulls most of the crease out , or do I drill holes/ weld studs and use the slide hammer, or just put the bondo over it an prey like they used to do 30 years ago? My fear with the slide hammer - either by studs/ or hooks and holes -is that it will affect the door gaps which are dang near perfect.
LMD

I am not too sure exactly where it is. If it is not dented on the actual edge of the door and is away from the edge, you should be able to pull it. But if you pull too hard you have to hammer it back and maybe no way to get a dolly on the back? When it creased, it did stretch the metal. Shrinking stretched metal it not something you want to get involved in. If you can not get behind to knock it out before or after pulling you can cut out the dent/crease and weld a donor section in (best) or make one. Of course you have to go slow slow slow when welding and grinding. If you heat it up it WILL shrink/expand and wrinkle. Then you are screwed. So go real slow with spot welds and cool EACH one with air. If you don't take hours to do it, it will wrinkle. A little filler is OK.

this is what i would do. grind the paint out of the crease then get some 6 common nails and weld them in the crease about 1 " apart with the head out. put a straight edge between the nails start at the highest point of the crease and pull the nails with a claw hammer until it gets flush with the straight edge cut the nails off and grind flush will take very little filler and you can reuse the nails several times i have pulled many dents this way

I believe with leonard's way, which is slow and controlled, not like slide hammer, you may not pull too far out. Sounds like a good way. If you do, maybe tap back in a little? Don't know. I've seen people with a stick welder make the electrode, stick to the metal, slide some pipe or sockets on the electrode, put a locking pliers on the end of it and then you have a "slide hammer". Break it off and use it again and so on.

The '48 2 ton had a massive dent in the rear corner of the cab and a door crease but the reverse of yours. The door put a severe crease in the cowl when it was open too far.
I used weld studs to pull 90% of the cab dent and was about to do the cowl dent but got rained out today.
I don't use a slide hammer unless it is a small round dent. I put 4-6 studs 3/4" apart along a crease and clamp them hard into a wide welding clamp (they actually sell ones for that with a ring welded on for pulling) and pull the group with a come-along. That moves a whole section and avoids high spots you can get from slide hammering a single pin, and your hand on the come-along is a lot more controlled then slapping a slide hammer.
Also a stud welder is well worth buying because it doesn't over heat the metal like hand welding nails on. I got one from Harbor Freight for $99. Through the slide hammer away but the gun is as good as a $300 one.

That is actually where my dent is - in the cowl just in front of the door - not the door itself.( my bad ) Thats the reason I thought about cutting the length of the crease( 2 widths of the cutting blade is about the depth of the crease.I figure I woutld make a t jig and pull the two sides level.I am pretty much at home with my mig welder and I figure that would also get rid of the stretched metal
LMD

The metal may not have stretched considering how small the crease is. The door post edge of the cowl is very strong because of the hinge supports so a small upset would not have moved it. The metal may have been pulled from the front of the cowl and will move back if the crease is kicked out.
Another thought. If you cut and weld you are going to have to skim coat with body filler anyway. Wire brush it down to bare metal and fill it and be done with it. It is relatively small and the only thing that would crack it is if the door is forced open again and that would dent the metal anyway.

"The door on my 3800 1951 pickup has a crease" WOW you were way off on the explanation. Did MS legalize pot?

Nope just have three projects going at one time - and about a month to finish all of them.I won't do this again thats for sure.

Can you post a pic?

I have dealt with similar situation, deep crease, edges not moved due to reinforcement. I used a cutoff wheel and sliced right down middle of "valley" thus removing material to account for stretching. I managed to get a 4-40 stovebolt through the slice with a few washers on inside of door. Screwed into handle and gently pulled metal, slide along the valley, pull some more, etc.
Removed bolt, copper backer stitch MIG welded the slice shut.
It's not fast, lots of patience, but worked for me.
I really liked bartamos nail welding, very wise and inexpensive.

I can text or email photos from my phone. Everytime I try to post pictures I screw them up. I like Mikey,s idea. Sounds kinda like mine . I have made some metal T fixtures that I could slide into the slot about .035-.040 thick. bartamos has a good idea also . I am saving this spot to last.There are a few more to deal with but I intend on being through with body work other than blocking by this week end.
Again - sorry about my grammer- I am in overdrive and running wide open while I have the time .

The nail idea is Leonard, not me.

Thanks, guys.

This really helped with my plans for my '51 3100. But I think that I'd better practice on scrap sheet metal first until I'm confidant with my skill level.

Sorry, I nailed bartamos for the nail method, leonard gets the credit. Guess I was so giddy I read poorly.
Just glad folks share these ideas here.

Well I used both ideas -kinda. I made a cut the length of the crease and then stop drilled it to make sure it could not run. I then went to the center of the crease and used the T pullers, ( cut the nail in half and welded it into a T - made a bunch of them)then inserted them into the cut. I turned them so the T caught both sides,pulled level -with the hammer and a nice block, and slowly welded the slot up.Skipped around to keep from warping, and removed the T's as the slot got small. I finished up with about a 1/16 of filler and primed and sealed it -
Looks rather nice even if I did do it. A real body man would have done it in a couple of hours.I started at 7:00 Friday morning and its 1:16 Saturday morning .Thanks for all the help /ideas. Glad I don't do this for a living . I'd Be in trouble -lol.

Good Job, pics of the "T" thing? Nail things you used/made?

I can text them to you or e-mail them- I am pretty much doing this from my I-phone.Send me a number / or email address.

Wanted them on here for everyone to see the idea. I-phone to photobucket, photobucket link to here. or I-phone to your computer then to photobucket....