Technical pounding out a floor dent

Hello,

I have large dent in the floor of my 57 ford wagon. I have a few hammers a dolly that looks like a comma. When I get home I will post pics of what I have but what should I use tool wise to flatten out this bulge of a dent? I have a book from the 40's that deals with body work, again I will post a pic.

Thank you,

Mike

 

I like to use cut 2x4 for straightening floor pans. Depending on how big and deep decides how big the hammer I use to beat the dent out with the 2x4....

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Depending on location you might be able to pop it back with a well placed size 12

 

A floor jack and block of wood can make a nice dolly

 

Depends on which direction the dent is. A floor jack likely caused it in the first place. If so, a block of wood and a bfh is your friend. Do not hammer "on dolly" or you will thin and stretch the metal, making it worse.

 

Got pictures?

 

I will post pics when I get home from work tonight. But the dent is right under where the front seat sits and the dent is up into the cabin. So a 2x4 will be my friend, plus a RBFH used just hard enough to take the dent out and not do anymore damage.

 

Does it matter if I am going to cut out a section and weld in a new piece? Should I pound before or after I weld?

 

I don’t weld in new metal until the surrounding metal is straightened.
Welding causes stress/distortion. Removing stresses before welding means any additional stress is from the weld

 

Sorry for the late pics but here they are. The one of the hammers are what I have at this point for hammer/dolly work which I assume I would use to 'finish' smoothing out the metal. The floor pics is of the area that needs to be flattened, how the %#@$%%$# the PO did this I am not asking. But there is inner rocker just forward of this area so that helps. I am thinking of using a 2x4, like was suggested, and putting my scissor jack underneath for a flat piece to hammer against. Sound good? This area is all solid and any metal that gets cut out is well forward.

 

2x4 on end, smack with hammer, shape as best as you can. This will relieve any pressure on the surrounding metal before you cut it out.

The better the metal shape is the less problems you'll have when you cut out the panel....

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Did you ever think about shrinking that lump to start with? Just a thought.

 

Body work is new to me and I don’t know how to shrink metal yet. I will have to you tube it so what is entailed.

 

I would not cut out perfectly good metal that can be straightened. Get someone local to look at that has a idea of what they are doing and show you some tips and tricks. Forming metal is not difficult but get some experience before hacking out your floor. Can you weld the new piece back in? If you can weld then pounding metal into what you want is almost second nature. Have someone local look at it before you ruin what you have.

 

If you want us to see what you have there, once you upload the attachment hit Full Size before you post it.

 

Don't make a small job Big just so you have something to do.

 

all dents are kind of the same. hit only where the metal is stretched. I would get a floor jack and a piece of steel, or wood if you don't have any under the dent with light pressure, then I'd smack the high spots.

 

If you have the $$ invest in this book. Its a great guide to figure out what is required to get that old iron back in shape. True some will say you dont need this for a simple floor repair, but it teaches you the methods needed to repair that dent and just about any other on your car. A cheap lesson in the long run.

 

I'm no expert, but what I've learned is that dents are best handled like swedish employment law - last in, first out.
If you hit the deepest center of the dent (i.e. where the metal started to deform = first in) you don't really reduce the size of the dent, you rather make a new dent going the other direction inside the original dent. Tempting to attack the big deformation first, but might not be the best way - could be causing more problems later.
As I learned, you usually start with the edges of the dent (the metal last pulled in towards the deepest center), where the metal has barely deformed, you go around the dent and slowly tap the metal back to original level moving in a spiral towards the center until the dent is all gone.

Being a floor may affect how good result you are looking for, so I suppose there's plenty of room for taking shortcuts.

 

Pist-n-broke: the outline is of the replacement pan I have. I called a club member who used to make car bodies over and he suggested to cut only what is bad. So I won't be cutting anywhere near the dent. Also, when I upload photos on my computer it gives them to me in MB sizes and I don't to oversize them and make them huge on the screen. I will try to make them larger for people to see though.

Lone Star, I have that book and will be rereading it to make sure I get it right. Well attempt to at least.

G-son, Thank you for the reminder, I had forgotten about that.

Mike

 

the dent in the photo was all formed in one big bang. probably ran over something.
I'd start with the small one.
as stated above, the Key to Metal Bumping should be purchased by anyone with a set of hammers and dollies.
probably some good videos out as well.