Okay, I know ther is some metal working wizards out there, please help! I have a dent in the roof of my 37 truck cab about the size of a large watermellon. How do I pop this out? Do I start on the edges and work in, or in the center? Truthfully I was thinking of trying to push it up with a 2x4 and a jack. I'd really like some advice before I "F" it up worse than it already is. thanks...
Get it wet and stick a toilet plunger on it and pull like hell. Metal has memory and it already wants to go back in shape. Try it.
Hey, 'bout how deep is this "watermelon" sized dent? Any other damage around this dent? Is the roof double paneled? I'd start this repair by using a 2X4 and a 2lb. hammer and tapping around the outer perimiter ot the damage. Don't hit the metal with the hammer, only hammer on the wood block. What you're trying to do is see how much metal will spring back, with just light ham- mering. Probably some hammer and dolly work will be required to return this panel to its original shape, but start with the wooden block. S****eyDevils C.c.
Pimpin-paint, I would say the dent is at least 1"deep in the center. The roof is single panel, and pretty stout metal. Maybe I'll try to cut the wood to try to match the contour of the roof. The plunger idea sounds OK too, but I'd hate to have someone see me standing on the roof with a plunger! They might think I've lost it. LOL
I've popped out roof dents by laying on my back on the seat and gently pushing with my foot. It won't take any creases out but it might just get it back to shape.
there is no way to give a definite answer without seeing the dent. more often than not someone will get a big hammer and pound a dent back to where it used to be and in doing so will add more damage and fix nothing. dents are about stretched metal. beating it where it is not stretched rarely fixes anything. are ther creases? that would be a good place to plan your attack. you need to figure what caused it and where it started and work backwards from there. any metal without a crease in it will go back into the original shape if you work the stretched area correctly. maybe push it up from the inside and hammer and dolly on the creases. ... again.. no pic so I am just guessing.
Hmm, our '50 GMC 100 has one that size (roughly, no pic so I'm guessing) but it's in the curve abbove the windshield (on one side, not lined up with the center windshield post). I have heard the pull / bring it out in the same way it went in. Any pointers on how to tell? We got it after it had been sitting for 34 years so we have no idea how it got there (yeah somehing hit it, but when or from which direction we don't know). All the gl*** is still good so I expect the windshield frame didn't move much (if at all). Not sure if this qualifies as a hijack or not, sorry if it is.
once you get it fixed i would put some reinforcement on the inside of the roof to stop it from happening again.
Take the seat out then stand in the car and push up with your back in the dent. I have seen many roof dents taken out most of the way with this method. Of course then you have to finish with hammer and dolly.
This article might help. There are links to several more articles as well: http://metalshapers.org/101/jkelly/index.html I now use a ballpeen hammer instead of a bullseye pick to raise small low spots, then smooth with hammer and dolly, shrink, and repeat as often as necessary to get the contours right. Once you realize that the metal is more forgiving than you think, you can keep working it without fear of damage until it is done, provided you use tools that do not mark or damage the surface a lot, and that you use the best shrinking and metal finishing methods. John www.ghiaspecialties.com
I feel like I need to toss in my 2 cents here... When I was young - awhile back - I worked with an old frame & body guy. He used to get a wreck in and just sit and look at it - sometimes for two cups of coffee. Once he was done he went to the tool box, loaded up the cart and did'nt go back until lunch. One day I asked him "whats with the sit and stare you do to these cars?" He said; "Ya gotta fix what happen'd last first... Then werk yer way out from there." Work out that dent from the outside in using some of the advice from these other guys who also know what they are doing.
Another bit of an example...... Woody popped our '31 roof several ways using a little bit of the advice given by the guys on here. It worked great.....just take your time, and grit your teeth some Sandy
Try the "use your back" or the "feet" method in the center of the dent first. See if the majority of it will pop back upward without hammer blows. If it does, then you will only need to worry about the crease around the outer edge. Take your friend holding that 2x4 and have him place it about one inch inside the edge of the crease. Then you take your heavy s****, place it right on the ridge of the crease, and hammer the top of the s****, trying to push the crease inward towards the center of the circle/dent. Have the friend pushing up firm but not hard, and you hammer down/inward firm but not hard. The s**** will keep you from making dings. Work your way around the circle, probably a couple times around. After most of the crease is out, your friend can relax and you can work your way around the circle again with the s**** and hammer. Sneak up on the crease and you can possibly get most of it out and need hardly any filler at all. The key is to not use so much force that you are stretching and making more dents. Go slow and easy and you will reach nirvana, Gr***hopper.
No, a special made bodyworking s****. About 2x6 face, 3/8" thick, slightly curved, with a handle. The ones I use are ancient, but I bet any good supply store where you get your hammers has them as well.
Here's some at Eastwood, not that I am actually endorsing Eastwood. http://eastwood.resultspage.com/search?p=Q&ts=custom&w=body+s****
Yep, you work it out backwards. Think of it like this: when you hold a piece of paper from the bottom in one hand, it curves, and that keeps it from flopping over so you can read it. The only part that is actually "creased" is right under your thumb, and the rest of the paper is just following the point of tension. I don't how your dent happened, but something impacted the roof and then stopped. The place where it stopped is the place where the object encountered the most friction, or resistance, or whatever you want to call it. That point has the greatest amount of creasing, probably. If you relax the metal at that point, the rest of the metal will likely pop back because it is likely that it just got pushed down, not actually bent, and that the crease is actually holding it in that state. A picture would really help. How electronically challenged can you really be if you're posting on an internet message board?
Alchemy, yes, now I understand, thank you. I don't have any of those, but I'm sure I can come up with something.
Heres a little tip from an old tin bender . Get a heavy cloth or leather bag and fill it with wet sand then whack it as hard as you can right in center from below . The bag will conform to the shape of the top and you wont stretch the metal . Then if you have any creases around the edges use the bag like a dolly and work them down with lots of light taps with a light hammer that has a smooth flat head . using a steel dolly is a good quick way to stretch the metal and make a small problem much worse
I should have mentioned you only need the bag to be about the size of a softball maybe 4 or 5 lbs when full of sand . www.imcarcrazy.com thats me
All good advice, sounds like the one thing to remember is take it slow and easy. .....Stickylifter, I finally got a digital camera so I'm slowly winning the battle of my electronic disfunction!
It is very hard to take a dent out of a roof without stretching the metal and causing it to want to oil can. I found the best way is to take the dent up higher than the over all roof then shrink it back using a shrinking disc. This will take the stress out of the roof and all will be good. The shrinking disc is easy to use if you take your time. Believe me if I can use it,you can too.--TV
Hey, one of the best finishing s****s i've ever used was made from an old leaf spring. Find one of the smallest leafs in a stack of springs, grind the one end to sorta a tounge shape. Now grind the sides and do a nice blend. What you're lookin for is not to have any sharp ninety degree edges on the bottom of the s****. You can bend the other end of the spring into a step, for a handle, or leave it long for leverage, and use the spring/s**** as a prying tool, and to get behind posts and rails. These s****s are very usefull for tapping down ridges, those half moon shaped ridges in roof panels, ya know the kind you made as a kid, jumpin' on the roof of someones car,. The s**** is used as followed: Locate the ridge and place the s**** smooth side to the ridge, holding the s**** kinda lousely letting it kinda float but not flop as you strike it with a hammer. Go slowly at first tapping from one end of the ridge to the other. Stop often, and feel the damage and what progress you've made. If you are carefull, you can use this method to straighten ninty percent of the damage on a roof, providing the panel wasn't majorly stretched or torn, or that some ***** didn't rough it out with a BFH! S****ey Devils C.C.
OK, I put a board across the seat pedistal, layed on it, and pushed most of it out with my size 10 1/2's. There is some oil-canning on one end of the metal. The worst part is now you can really see where someone once tried to pound it out with a ball peen hammer.There's about a dozen "***s" sticking up now. Is this where a shrinking disc comes to play?? thanks
For small high spots, push from below with a dolly that matches the contours you want and use a body hammer or ******* (you can make one from flat bar as well) to smooth the area as much as you can before running a shrinking disc over it. Small lumps or bumps can be removed with a shrinking disc alone, but usually it is better practice to use a hammer and dolly first so as to not over shrink. Even if you over shrink, you can always stretch with hammer on dolly or simply a ballpeen hammer from below followed by smoothing with hammer and dolly. A good way to get some practice is to put lumps and dents in an old fender or part that is s**** and fix them. Do it in the same place over and over to get a feel for what the metal can handle. John www.ghiaspecialties.com
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