Terrified of The Dent

[domeier]

So here's the deal: If it's broke, I can fix it. Anything engine, trans, anything mechanical, anything electric, I can troubleshoot it, and I can fix it. I'm a good wrench, and I know what I'm doing. Except...

Except body work. I'm scared to death of body work. Oh, and upholstery too, but that's not my current problem.

My current problem, is this:

The Dent.

My dear, lovely wife backed my Camaro out of the garage a few years ago, and she nailed my dear, lovely truck. With my dear, lovely Camaro. You know what I said? I said, "Oh. I'm so sorry." Because that's what you say. It's just how it is. Get used to it. "I'm sorry. It's my fault." Oh well.

I want to fix The Dent, but I'm a-skeered. It looks awful - but what if I try to fix it and make it worse??? I tried to fix a dent once, when I was 16, and I screwed it up. I made it worse. That memory haunts me; Sometimes I wake up screaming in a cold sweat dreaming about that experience. I can't take another one - I'm not strong enough!

So.

So, who's fixed a dent? Wait. Must rephrase that. Who was scared to death of body work, and then learned how not to be scared to death of body work?

How did you learn to fix your dent? Where did you find the courage? How did you overcome your natural and innate fear of bent, crunched metal?

I hate The Dent. I hate it, I despise it, I loathe it. But I don't have any money, so I have to live with it or fix it. So far I've lived with it, but I feel so... so dirty. I feel used, and just... dirty. Oh, how I hate The Dent.

Help me. Oh please... HELP ME!

[srvivor71]

I can't help you with the body work issues but I sure can commiserate. I have pretty much the same story... I was 17 and tried to fix a big, wrinkly quarter panel dent with bondo on a 66 Impala SS beater that was my first car. I thought it would be easy and, after it was done, I'd be riding in style. I thoroughly read the instructions on the can, but I guess that just wasn't enough schooling to come out with the great results I expected. It was a total mess and I've left body to others ever since. I look forward to seeing the responses you get here, but I still don't think I'm going to try to tackle the big nasty scratch on my truck.

[67mater]

can you weld (both skill and access to MIG)? I knew nothing when i started so I can empathize with your fears. Where I may be different is my parts started pretty crappy so I felt I had nothing to loose. It looks to me you can buy a stud gun and pull the dents out if you are patient and methodical. At least close enough to skimm some bondo on and get it painted. You might try getting a hold of a rusted out fender and try pulling and hammering on the dents. This will build knowledge and experience, which will give you solice as you tear into that beautiful paint for real!

[bigguy69]

You should be able to get behind those dents and knock them out some. Maybe Somebody with real body work experience will chime In.
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[AirSpeed]

The only way to break your fear of body work is just do it! I never did body work in my life and I painted my entire truck without help, i even had to make all my own body working tools and paint it in my basement woodshop. It turned out great and even impressed several body guys who thought it was a professional paint job. I had a lot of dents to deal with, I wish they would have been as easy as the one on your truck! I found it harder to work on the big flat areas than the rounded areas. I told myself if mine turned out bad I would hide the truck and sell it in shame, now I am proud of what I was able to do!
You should have no problem fixing that dent, just sand it down to bare steel, tap it out from the inside, you should be able to get to it without removing the gas tank and seat. You could drill some holes and pull it with a pulled but I wouldn't unless you have a way to weld up the holes. Make sure you clean out the seam between the rocker and the cab so it doesn't rust later. Use your hand to feel if it's smooth and the right shape, your hand will feel things your eyes can't see.
Just do it, your not going to do anything that can't be fixed later if you
decide you can't do it, that's such an easy dent that you should have no
problem fixing it. Body work isn't really the black magic I thought it was before I started doing it. Good luck!
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[domeier]

Oh, I forgot: I can't do body, upholstery, and I most positively can't weld. Welding is mystical ju-ju magic. I've even had some lessons from a master, and I still can't weld. I think you have to be born with that talent. Or sell your soul or something like that.

Here's the matching dent on the Camaro. I fixed that problem by selling the car. Still have the same wife, though, so I'm real careful where I park!

I'm going to do it. Gonna fix that dent if it KILLS me. I'll take photos and give updates as it gets better... or worse. I guess I'll start on youtube and see all the videos of "how easy it is."

Wish me luck.

Paul

[chevypoint]

As stated above remove the seat, jack and possible the gas tank to get to the back side of the rocker. Get a Hammer and dolly(small block of wood will work). Hammer slowly on the back side with dolly on the outside. TAKE YOUR TIME, Do not try to knock it out in one blow. Take small hits working from the deepest part of the dent outward,.A circular pattern works well. Keep checking your progress by running your hand over the dent. You can feel it better than you can see it. When you have it close you can apply your body filler. The door will most likely need a slide hammer (puller) of some sort. It will be hard to get a hammer between the inner and outer door. With the slide hammer you will again work from the deepest part of the dent out. These are not that bad of a dents to repair. Just take your time. If you mess it up a new cab corner is about $30.

"If someone else can do it, so can you." Quote from my body shop instructor on the first day of class.

[AirSpeed]

I'm glad you taught her a lesson! Selling her car was the correct way to handle the situation! When my wife ran her new car into a roadside reflector I fixed the car and "corrected" her (shining reference) just kidding. You can fix it! MIG welding is easy too! You should buy one, mine has paid for itself 20 times since I bought it. Good luck!
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[steverino66]

I can appreciate your terror - I got ahead of mine by hammering/filling/sanding on a crappy old Toyota truck that I couldn't possibly make any uglier than it was.
Practice on an old junk fender or door before attacking your important stuff. I bought some cheap body hammer & dollies at a local tool sale. Watch the swap meets for deals, pick up some sanding blocks and paper, maybe buy a good body work book.

[hugger6933]

Not to make light of your situation but that looks like a 2to 3 hour dent. You will need to find if you don't have a grinder[ I prefer the 5inch pistol type high speed] to grind the paint area. You will need to grind the dent and about four inches past. All of this I'm gonna do is after the hammer and dolly that was mentioned above. I can't recall the side right now in my mind but I think some of that you won't be able to access for the floor where it meets the cab. Find a friend with or some one who has a stud puller and borrow or rent it. Put the studs in the gun press on the metal and pull the trigger ,somewhere between 1/2 to 1 second only. Start off doing that with the studs in the deepest part of the dent working your way outwards. I would put on several studs at once so as to "walk" the dent out as you pull.
After that and you get your shape back I'd get some short strand fiberstrand and mix as directed on the can. Wipe the area to gain shape . After the shape has been regained by the fiberstrandfill and grind, move on to the body filler stage. After working the fiberstrand you will start to get the feeling

[hugger6933]

Like I was saying after the fiberstrand you will be getting the feeling of how this stuff works and is supposed to go. Once you have your fist coat of filler on I would sand that with 36-40 grit breifly to start getting close . Once you start getting close move up to 80 grit then work it untill you cannot feel the "edges" anymore. Once you get to that stage [maybe a little before] you can move on to a sanding block. It will help you make your work a little less noticeable . That block helps knock off the higher spots so the filler can be more uniformed in shape. Once it is blocked out with the 80 grit your in the short rows now [old farming saying for being almost done]. move up to 180-220 grit on the block to smooth out the sanding scratches in the filler. Once done with that move on to high build primer. 2-3 coats sand with 220grit this would be a good time to put a product called guide coat on [it is a powder or spray that is a contrasting color to your primer so you can see the high and low spots] .Two more coats of high build then wet block sand with 400 grit. Then you will be ready for base coat, but that is a whole other post I think. You can do it.good luck. Jim

[ItsRandy]

Originally Posted by domeier

Here's the matching dent on the Camaro. I fixed that problem by selling the car. Still have the same wife, though, so I'm real careful where I park!

I tried selling my wife, but when guys find out she puts dents in the vehicles... you're stuck with her.

About your dent. I was inexperienced at body work when I started the body work on my truck (still not very experienced, now that I think about it). Have you ever seen the movie "Risky Business", sometimes you have to say WTF. What is the worst thing that can happen? You have to remove the filler and start over? It's not like the bondo police will come and block Monday night football (or Dancing with the stars...if you're into that) or impound your remote control. If I can do it...anyone can and when you get the dent fixed after being "a-skeered" of it at first..."PRICELESS".

Then you can become "a-skeered" of painting.

[domeier]

I should maybe put in a kind word for the wife here. She cried when she told me I needed to come out and "um... look at the cars." (I cried later, when there was no one around to accuse me of bein' a sissy.)

As far as wives go, the worst thing this one's ever done was crunch the cars together; and there are certainly much worse things that wives, (and husbands, now that I think about it,) have done. Some wives I know have done things like the mailman, the UPS guy, and that silver-tongued devil who drives the frozen-meat-for-sale truck. Speaking of which... Have you ever eaten a steak from the frozen-meat-for-sale truck? Pure horse. I think. Or maybe cat. Or maybe it isn't meat at all?

I digress. Sorry.

Seriously, she's a good wife. She puts up with me, and that's a lot to ask for. She just needs a wider driveway. About six lanes ought to do it.

Thanks for all the good advice on marriage - and on dent pullin' too. I'll get started later this week. I don't think I can work a hammer in that space, so will be looking into renting/buying a stud puller.

One more question: I'd like to keep the grinding/sanding/destroying to as small an area as possible. I guess there's no way to mask off an area for grinding? I guess I just answered my own question?

[steverino66]

Originally Posted by domeier

I guess there's no way to mask off an area for grinding? I guess I just answered my own question?

Not necessary - just work carefully while grinding. The grinder will destroy any masking it hits anyway and you'll have to feather remaining paint edges around repair area by sanding. Good luck.

[chevy_mike]

A stud gun and good stud slide hammer is a wonderful thing. Here are a few pics of what I did.

Dents in the cab corner


The upper dent only needs a skim coat to be finished


Bottom corner still needs a little more work but you can see it's way better than it was


BTW, this was my first attempt at real body work. Good luck.

[blgsguy]

I read thru and it looks like everyone has covered and touched all the bases. I think a stud gun and puller is the best way to attack that. I have a right angle die grinder with little paint removing discs that i use to remove the paint, then weld a stud in the deepest area, give that a pull,,and u get the idea. I had a similiar dent on the side of my truck as your door has, wasnt sure how to take care of the body line, but as soon as i pulled it, the body line came close, I hit it on the top of the body line with a hammer. I get everything as close as I can, check to make sure the metal still feels tight,,not oil canny. That only happens when you stretch the metal too far, then you have to heat it to shrink it. And the nail gun works good for that too, minus a nail. before I spread any mud, I like to take my air grinder, with a 36 grit disc, and put a few deep scratches in the metal for the mud to adhere and hang on to... and that takes alittle finesse,, cuz u dont want to remove alot of metal,, not trying to grind,, just scratch the surface, so i hit the trigger and let off and contact the metal. I have alot of friends that do body and paint, and from watching them,, ive learned alot and do alot .

[Robznob11]

Im not trying to be mean but you want to start on the out side edge of the dent and work towards the center. you have to work the dent out the same way it went in and the metal will go into shap on its own. be sure to hammer off dolly meaning your dolly should not be directly behind your hammer. if you hammer on dolly you will hear a ping instead of a thud and you will stretch the metal and cause more headache and oilcanning. and you dont always have to hammer the dent out you can push out with the dolly and hammer on the outside of the panel and get results also you shoud be pushing on the center of the dent with good pressure and working in a circular motion from the outside edge to the center of the dent. taps work better than blows

[blgsguy]

You arent being mean,, we all have our different ways of doing bodywork. It is an artform, in my opinion. I know a couple of guys that metal finish, and that is something I dont have patience for, but it sure is nice when they are done.

[domeier]

I've learned an encyclopedia from all the replies. Thanks, dudes!

Haven't started on it yet, I've been working on my rv this week, getting it ready for craigslist.

[kell490]

It's not that hard just labor I pulled a bunch of dents and filled them I used a stud welder from Harbor Freight the welding gun works great for $99. The only thing is the slid hammer doesn't hold the pin well. What I did was buy a T-handle puller from TCP global then I use a hammer and pull with the T handle to work the dents out. Check out Youtube a bunch of body work videos there from pros how to do this. I also used good body filler from evercoat called Rage. That stuff is really smooth it's very easy to sand. Once you work as much of the dent out then use the filler you will get it back to new. Then it's just epoxy primer or DTM 2k primer over that and paint. If your truck is a base/clear paint job then you have to use that method to re paint the area and clear coat the whole panel. Just sand out the old paint go about 25% bigger then the dent then start your body work. When you get the metal close leave it little low the final finish will be done with the body filler, and then the 2k and block sand down smooth to match. Ill give you the order of what to do and you can look at some youtube videos.
1. Sand out old area of dent to metal %25-30 bigger then dent.
2. Work dent out either with hammer and dolly or dent puller cant get both at HF.
3. Sand again with 80 grit and clean area.
4. Mix body filler don't get Bondo at autozone use good stuff from auto paint supply like Rage. Fill in higher then needed sand down.
5. Sand down using different directions and shape back to match before dent.
6. fill and sand again until %99 correct.
7. Spray 2k primer filler over dent cover all metal you can get a Direct to metal 2k primer filler. You will have to get a gun with a larger tip any cheap gun works.
8. Sand with 220 then 400 spray again with 2k sand in cross pattern.
9. You can reduce down the primer and seal it in at this point.
10. You need a gun to spray the paint if it's single stage a 1.4 tip will work if 2 stage might want to get a kit with 2 guns.
11. Now you have to cut and buff the paint you sand it down with really fine sand paper wet sanding then buff with a buffer.

That gives you an idea what your in for If you don't have access to any tools the cost will be about 400-500 including paint maybe $300 if you only buy a few tools. You could also just take it to a body shop and have it fixed for $600 not all shops will be the same price but you should be able to find someone. I left out some things your probably not going to save money to just pull one dent out and re-paint your self, but what you could do is maybe pull the dent and fill it your self when you get to the primer stage take to to a body shop. Some shops won't deal with you they don't like it when you pull the dent it might not look right and you blame them, or it's just not cost effective since they won't have enough labor hours into just gun time. Lot of shops out there will look for the ones who rent out there paint booths they usually will work with the DIY guys.

[hugger6933]

kell 490 is direct on point. Very good info and write up. The only problem about going to a shop to rent a booth if you are in an area that is under the watchful eye of the EPA and rule 6H, you CANNOT have anyone in your shop spray any material that is to be atomized [witch is everything!] without a certification. Those that do allow it are running a huge risk of fines[possibly 50k]. Now since I have been to the 6H classes and learned a bunch of the rules[I also had to take these classes so I could continue to purchase paint and supplies] the goverment is talking of eliminating the EPA due to cost restriants. Just some thoughts, not all areas are being forced into compliance, yet.

[hugger6933]

Now, I did not mean to scare anyone you as a hobbyist will still be allowed to buy a certain amout of materails per year[ about enough to do 2 cars] and will not have to have papers on all of your paint guns and other rules.