: Soon to start the face lift(restoration implies more skill than I possess) of my 1950 8N. The old girl runs like a charm, but has taken her share of lumps in previous lives. Since decent sheet metal is hard to come by, and I don't want to make a career out of body work, help is needed!
: I have only basic shop tools and less experiance. Given this sad stste of affairs, what are the methods of poping out(or minimizing) dents, and filling small holes? Yes, I have heard of bondo, but would like use as little as possidle. Any ideas/experiances will be greatly appreciated.: Thanks for Playin'
: Steve Steve:
A key point in taking out dents is that you want to remove them in reverse of the order in which they were created. Huh? Let's see if I can explain this. Basically, it means you don't just start whacking away at the dent's highest point first. To illustrate, take your finger and poke it against the seat of an upholstered chair. If you poke gently, the "dent" your finger makes is small and localized. As you press harder, the "dent" spreads further from your finger. That's the same thing that happens with dents in metal. So what you want to do is work on the outermost, least severe parts of the dent first (the damage that occurred last), moving in toward the original point of impact so that the last part of the dent you remove is the first part that occurred (even though this occurrence took only a fraction of a second). By working in this "reverse" order, you minimize metal stretching. Fight the temptation to whang away at the worst part of the dent first. Also, always have a solid surface on the other side of the dent you're removing. Lacking body dollies, you could use a chunk of metal, a second hammer face, even a piece of hardwood. You just don't want to start pounding on a dent with nothing behind it, because it will stretch the metal. Now, to get at these dents, it's almost always preferable, and sometimes essential, to remove the damaged item (e.g., fender, hood, whatever). Otherwise it's much harder to get at the convex side of the dent so you can remove it. You can also get relatively inexpensive dent pullers that involve drilling into the dent, inserting a screw attached to a slide hammer, and pulling the dent out. But then you have more holes to fill. Expert metal workers (of which I am not one) can take out dents so perfectly that no body filler is needed. I always need to do some final dressing up with a thin layer of filler -- but you don't want to go more than 1/8th of an inch thick. If you need thicker, you need to do more metal working. As for filling small holes -- what created the holes, and how small are they? If we're talking about drilled holes (such as where a bracket was bolted to a fender), body filler almost always cracks so you can see the outline of the hole. You can dent the hole into the metal and fill over with filler, but the best way is to weld or braze the hole shut, then grind it off flush with the other metal. Minimal body filler should then be required. If we're talking about rust, then you need to cut out the bad metal and weld or braze in good metal if you want a long-term repair. Although I do most of my work with a wire-feed or oxy-acetylene welder, I've had some brazing success with a torch that uses Mapp gas and oxygen. These units only cost about $35 and are handy for heating up rusted nuts and bolts as well as for light-duty brazing. To work body filler, you can do wonders with a cheese-grater (Surform) rasp or two plus a flat rubber sanding block. I've found that a sheet of sandpaper wrapped around a chunk of radiator hose also works well for certain contours. Try to work the filler after it sets up but before it becomes too hard. It grates best when it feels sort of rubbery. You'll find that the metal in your 8N is much more forgiving than the high-tensile steel in late model cars. Once you start working on it, you'll have a good time. Good luck with your project.
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