Im teaching myself how to hammer and dolly to get the dents and welding warp out of the rear quarters on my 52 chevy 4 door. The problem is I have a spot about the size of a basketball that keeps poping in and out. I know this means the metal has stretched, but how do I get it to shrink back? I am having a hard time because the inner fender is limiting my access to the back of the pannel. I outlined the section. It is a very small distance fron in and out. How do I fix this?
anyone you know or do you have an oxyacetaline torch? heat the area until its a dull red, hammer the back quickly after heating, and quench it with a wet clean rag. usually works for me pretty darn good and gets ride of that oil can effect.
I didnt have a big torch bit I used my small propane torch and it worked awesome! I think thats my new favorite thing!!! That pannel kicked my *** for an hour today and I got it back hahahhaaha. BTW- Thanks!
You could try a shrinking hammer as well.Has serrations on the face to shrink the metal however I'm not sure it would work on a big area.More suited to little dents,like when you have an old battery running around in the trunk and it bangs a corner into a rear fender,leaving a little point.
You also could use a nail gun if one is available. Hit it around the outside and work your way to the inside of the stretched area and it will shrink it up.
Good sounds like you got it. just a suggestion for the future. If you avoid 90% corners when you patch you'll have less problems. Nice round corners tend not to pull and push as bad .
UHmmmmmmmmmmm....if that is a welded seam....it is not stretched, it is shrunk! You need to stretch it, not shrink it! Any time you weld, you've heated the metal to a point where it shrinks on the weld seam. You then have to hammer ON dolly, on the seam, to return it to the proper contour. You've got 2 problems. One is that you MIG welded it, and MIG welds are hard to stretch. They are less penatrating, and tend to be more brittle. Also the weld bead is high, and hard, not easy to flatten and stretch. You might get away with grinding the bead almost all the way down to the surface of the surrounding metal, and then hammer the seam ON dolly. Go slowly and watch carefully. The other problem is the panel is pretty flat. Hard even for someone with experience to correct a weld seam through the middle of it. As said, you shouldn't patch with sharp corners, more weld seam= more warpage. So this is not going to be easy for you to do perfectly. Resist the tempation to hammer on other than the weld seam, unless you KNOW there is a dent, or upset there. All the damage was done with the welding, and all the correcting should be done on the weld seam! It just upsets a flat panel very easily, and travels far. Also...an easier method for a beginner to tackle this problem, is to overstretch the seam, then use a shrinking disc to slowly return it back. I know it sounds like double the work, but I think for a beginner, it might be easier, cause it seems to be easier to "track" your high spots (overstretches) while using a disc.
Hey, Look's like you've jus' encountered a false stretch! That would be that metal in an outlying area (the weld) pulled metal into the welded area causing an increase in surface area (the floppy area) and thus a false stretch! Had you jus' started throughing shrinks in the floppy area without any hammer work in the area of the weld,you'd really have a mess on your hands by now! Had this been a hood, top panel or other low/no crowned panel, you'd have created hours of work for yourself or worse! Always remember, shrinking, be it done with a torch, disc or a pick hammer (= butchery) is done only after you have done any hammer and dolly/s**** work to any high or low areas of the panel and always after you've welded. Shrinks made in an area that jus' has misplaced metal, not metal that's actually stretched, will pull straight metal on the panel into the fray, and cause more damage/work, not fix it. Chopolds gave ya a really good way out of your troubles! S****ey Devils C.C. "Spending A Nation Into Generational Debt Is Not An Act Of Comp***ion!"
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