ok, her's the prob, someone shot thru my drivers door many years ago, and the bullets didn't go thru the p*** door. There are 2 severely raised humps about 4 inches long and at least a half inch high, and about half an inch wide. the door is not damaged outside of this area. I do not have access to a torch, so what should I do? Cut em out, "lance" the wound and flatten it and weld it back? Don't wanna just beat em in and bondo em, would do more damage trying to hammer em back down. What is your suggestion....To
Can you afford a propane torch? The kind used for soldering plumbing? They work for doing lead too, and probabaly will get the steel hot enough to do a fair job of shrinking it.
I looked at the disc, but I don't know if that will do what I want, this "bulge" is about the size of your pinky, with no other damage around it.
How bout a crash course in shrinking this area with a torch. Never worked with shrinking metal with heat
First, grab a junk door and ding it with a ball peen hammer similar to the ding in the "good" door. Then heat the ding, dull red is enough, tap around the perimiter a few times with a hammer and either quench with a wet rag or hit it with a blast of compressed air. Repeat as neaded. At some point you will be at the hammer and dolly stage and you want to hammer "off-dolly" to shrink the metal. Practice!
If I understand your description the shrinking disc probably won't work. If you can get an Oxy/Acetylene torch with a #2 tip or smaller I can help. I wouldn't use a propane torch because by the time you get the area you need to shrink cherry red the surrounding area will be so hot you will have caused more warpage. Propane torches work fine for leading because you are not trying to heat the panel cherry red. First get yourself a dolly that closely matches the contour of the panel where the dent is, you will also need a body hammer with a very flat face. Have those items ready and light your torch, dial in a neutral flame. To get that flame dial your acetylene in at about 4psi and your oxygen in at about 6psi (with the valve at the torch flowing) with that done first crack the acetylene open just a little and ignite it turn the acetylene up until the heavy black smoke goes away and there is just a small hint of smoke coming off the flame. Now open the oxygen slowly until the inner cone of the flame is about 3/8ths of an inch long and has a rounded tip and almost white in color, if the tip has a sharp point then you added to much oxygen. The outer portion of the flame should be a bluish-orange color. With the flame set use it to heat the dented area about the size of a dime cherry red and then hold the dolly firmly against the back side of the panel and tap gently on the dent from the front making sure that the face of the hammer is striking the metal as flat as possible. The idea here is to bring the stretched area down without stretching the area around the dent by hammering on dolly. As you begin to strike the metal it should sound hollow, once you begin to here a higher pitched "TINK" the sound of metal on metal stop striking with the hammer and quench the area and see how you did. Usually with a little pick and filing you can get a close to metal finished panel. That is ***uming the dent is not any larger than I am imagining it. Remember that Acetylene is extremely dangerous when it is released above 15psi so back out your adjusting screw before you open the valve on the bottle.
i would follow Brxter's advice. he is right on the money. i've been doing body work for a living for a little over 10 yrs. it also sounds like Brxter is going to WYO Tech. good luck
Sometimes if you are careful you can do it without heat. Just make sure the dolly is held firmly on the backside and take easy swings with a good snap on or eastwood type body hammer. the key word here is easy, tappity tap tap. Good luck.
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It sounds like a severe stretch. My shrinking disc would make short work of this. First you hammer and dolly the area as smooth as possible until you have a wider but lower bulge then apply the disc as many times as it takes to shrink it back down. In one of my albums I show how much you can shrink while being in total control...I think I used the disc 50 times on one severely over-stretched spot to get it back down. Here is my shrinking disc album: http://allshops.org/cgi-bin/community/communityalbums.cgi?action=openalbum&albumid=9980121727059 And here is my drastic shrinking album: http://allshops.org/cgi-bin/community/communityalbums.cgi?action=openalbum&albumid=9980124046566 This work would have been nearly impossible with a torch. If you do plan to shrink using a torch, heat the metal to no hotter than blue for shrinking. The metal will stay more workable than if it gets to red. John www.ghiaspecialties.com
Lots of good tech here. You did not say how old your car is. The old soft metal works much easier than the newer harder and thinner stuff.I would start by working it cold. Find a heavy metal shape to back the panel up inside and use a shrinking hammer or slappin file over the raised part to bring it down. The toothy hammer or file will allow you to shrink the metal as you tap it flat. Repeated light taps should bring it down quickly. I have smoothed some horribly large bullet holes in the old ford bodies over the years and find this repair can be fun and easy. Steve
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