Primarily Petroliana Shop Talk Forums Shop Talk Petroliana Forums General Petroliana Discussion Dents in side skins

While working on my current project, G&B 96C, I worked out a dent in the side skin, now I've got an "oilcan" bulge. Applying heat to shrink the metal doesn't seem to work on this one. I'm not opposed to bondo, but I do want to work out as much of the bulge that I can. Any sheetmetal guys out there got any ideas?

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If you love your freedom, thank a vet. If you love anything else, thank a trucker!

Apply heat about the size of a quarter ant hammer on the dolly from the edges of your hot spot to the middle you may need more than one shrink spot

ward

Try some heat the size of a cherry,get it red hot and quench it with a water soaked rag.That will tighten the metal so you can hammer and dolly it around, then give it a skim coat of mud.

Jeff,
lay it on concrete, park your trash[ED] TRUCK on it overnite !!
LOL

Shrinking dollies and hammers are very helpful. Work fast hit it with water in the end. Wear gloves. Good luck..........Dan

Thanks guys. Maybe quenching the spot is what I'm missing.


To you, my gas geek brother, Dick Bennett. Any time that I post a new thread on this forum, two thoughts cross my mind.... This is like feeding the monkeys at the zoo. You just dont know what kind of response that you will get.... And. Somewhere, there is a circus leader, wondering where his clowns are... Heheheheheheheh


Thanks guys. I'm off to light the torch



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If you love your freedom, thank a vet. If you love anything else, thank a trucker!

Remember to use only cherry red heat. Any hotter and you can lose all temper in the metal and IT WILL crack and split. (Made this mistake on the first body panel I worked on):} Also, if you need to protect surrounding metal, build a heat dam. Can use wet cloth or go to body shop and buy material to build the dam. If I am doing a very small section of panel, I use cloth. Make sure bucket of water close by. Good luck.

I'm also currently working on a G&B 96, I just dealt with the EXACT same thing this past weekend, not only on the side skins but the doors too. My reply would be exactly verbatum as Petroholic's. All the other info above is good too!
I love this site!!

Neal

Thunder ~ how big is the dent? Some times you can apply heat to a small dent like a hail dent and it will back it out. You have to go in a circular motion around the dent. It works about 50% of the time.
I would not just apply bondo to to it becaus the dent can pop in to opposite direction and the bondo will eventually pop out.

Another way that will sound counter intuitive is to heat the dent right in the center cherry red. Then take a pick hammer and push it farther in. Let it cool, then take a shrinking hammer and dolly and and work the dent back out. Then you can grind or file the ruffness out and you wont need any bondo. I am an ex-Auto Bodyman and this works great on large panels like quarters or hoods.
Good luck

Thanks PJ. But even with the heat, I haven't had any real luck. I was thinking about cutting it down the middle, as wide as needed, straightening it, then welding the cut. Sort of like re-alingning window & door posts when chopping a top. What do you think?

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If you love your freedom, thank a vet. If you love anything else, thank a trucker!

Thunder, I would not do that unless it is a last resort.
Just heat the dent up red. Then take a pick hammer and push the metal in to make the dent deeper while it is still cherry red. I know this sounds nuts but it does work. Push it until you cant push any farther and it cools down a bit. Then let it cool completely. After that take your hammer and dolly and (preferably a shrinking hammer) and start working it back into position. What you have is a stretching condition and you have to shrink it back into position.
When you heat cold roll steel it goes every where. The heat relaxes the grain in the metal and changes the direction of the grain. Cold roll is created by rolling steel and forcing the material in a flat sheet. You dont make large weldments out of it because you cannot control it. Hot rolled steel is used for this type of manufacturing. After that you normalize it in a furnace and that relieves all of the internal stresses.
If you dont want to try it yourself I would take it to a good bodyshop and let them do it before I tried to do a lance job on it.