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Dodge Super Bee Fender Dent Repair - Outfitting The Home Body ShopThe What's Needed And The How To Use It Of Dent Repair From the December, 2007 issue of Mopar Muscle By Randy Bolig Photography by Randy Bolig
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Take a walk around any car show-field or cruise night, and you will see beautifully restored cars everywhere. It's a given, people enjoy showing off their cars they have restored. But unlike the TV shows portray, making a rusted or banged-up wreck look like new does not happen in a week. what does it really take to make a car with less than perfect sheetmetal look like a show stopper? There are plenty of body shop tool companies out there that will sell you the tools you need, but they very seldom come with instructions on how to use them. we can't dedicate an entire issue to showing how to use all the tools required, but we can show you what it takes to properly remove a dent-in this case, a dent in a front fender. Countless articles have been written about how to replace a piece of metal that's rusty, but what if you just found a cherry fender at a swap meet that only needs a dent removed? We grabbed the Eastwood Restorations catalog to see what it would take to get the proper tools for such a repair, and what it might cost for said tools. If you're only going to fix one car in your lifetime, you may not want the expense of buying the tools we did, but maybe you and a friend have a couple of cars you will ultimately be working on. With that said, I have yet to meet a person that decides they are going to rebuild one car and stop there. It doesn't happen. So what does it take to do a simple dent repair on a fender? We already had a hand grinder, so we ordered a couple of sanding blocks and the requisite sandpaper, and one handy dent puller. In years gone by, holes were drilled into the dent in the fender, and a slide hammer with either a hook or a sheetmetal screw in the end of it was inserted into the hole, and the dent was pulled out. Once that was done, you both welded up and smoothed the holes, or some guys even left the holes and smeared body filler over the area. This dent puller we have is a lot better fix as it doesn't need a hole in the metal, and therefore, less work is required. Well, enough talking about the fix, let's get to showing you how to do it.  Before any work can begin,...  Before any work can begin, you need to assess the damage and decide the best course of action to repair it. Normally, a dent can be gently hammered out from the backside, and a hammer and dolly can be used to smooth the metal. In the case of our Super Bee fender, the dent was at the very front portion of the fender and inaccessible with a hammer-unless you want to completely remove the inner structure. We were going to have to do our repair from the outside.  The support we are using is...  The support we are using is designed for a multitude of uses; we got ours from harbor freight for $20.  The area being repaired needs...  The area being repaired needs to be clean of paint. A $20 orbital sander and some sandpaper is all that's required.  The dent puller from Eastwood...  The dent puller from Eastwood is a tool that spot welds a short pin to the metal. We got ours for $370. The welder can be used for a multitude of other things as well-metal shrinking, welding trim rivets to your car, and more.  We usually like to start at...  We usually like to start at the dent's lowest point and work our way out. Begin by welding the pins to the fender. It will take more than one pin to properly remove the dent.  Here you can see that four...  Here you can see that four pins have been welded to the dent's lowest point, and with the slide hammer included with the kit, slowly start to pull the dent out.  Don't try to remove the entire...  Don't try to remove the entire dent in one "pull." Work your way back and forth on all of the pins and slowly bring it out.  It took a few pins to get...  It took a few pins to get the majority of the dent out, but you can see there is still a dent where the blue paint is at the front of the fender, and two of the pins pulled off the fender. That is a result of the welder being applied too long, and the metal getting brittle. We'll weld the holes shut before we begin "smoothing."  To remove the pins, just grind...  To remove the pins, just grind them off.  We removed the pins before...  We removed the pins before we were done because we needed pins in locations very close to the old ones, and we couldn't work with them so close together. We had already removed the majority of the dent, and now it was time for some fine tuning.  Since we will only be finishing...  Since we will only be finishing the details of the dent repair, we can't use the slide hammer, as it's way too forceful. This little hand puller-supplied in the dent puller kit-gives you enough leverage to gently pull on a low spot, and then work the high spots with a hammer.  Like we said, the little puller...  Like we said, the little puller makes it easy to pull on the low spots and use a body hammer to lower (tap) the high spots, thus smoothing the metal.  The body hammer kit was $...  The body hammer kit was $25.  Fillers have been around for...  Fillers have been around for years, and if used properly, are a great tool. We like to use the Eastwood Metal 2 metal filler. This filler applies like typical plastic fillers, yet is made with fine aluminum particles, which helps make for a stronger repair.  It's also waterproof, so there...  It's also waterproof, so there is little chance of corrosion under the patch areas. A quart of this stuff is $26.  Our thin layer of Metal 2...  Our thin layer of Metal 2 Metal filler hardened like a rock, so after it dried overnight, we did an initial sand with the DA and 80- grit paper. Remember to only take off as much filler as required to smooth the body contour.  After sanding down our primary...  After sanding down our primary filler, we found there were a few spots of metal that were visible surrounded by filler.  These are high spots and need...  These are high spots and need to be lightly tapped down. If not, you will never get your fender completely straightened. You'll always see the "dimples."  Now we gave the repair area...  Now we gave the repair area a thin coating of Eurosoft Glazing putty. This is a final step to fill any pinholes and/or small imperfections before painting. This stuff costs $24 a quart. Again, we let it dry about three hours.  After the Eurosoft dries,...  After the Eurosoft dries, we gave the repair area a coating of Eastwood's Guide Coat.  After the application of the...  After the application of the guide coat, hand sanding can begin.  To make sure you get a good,...  To make sure you get a good, smooth surface without waves, sanding boards are a must. These we got from Eastwood are flexible and can form to the contour required.  Always make sure that your...  Always make sure that your board is flat against the surface you are working on. You can see we have a couple more high spots to tap down.  After sanding for a while,...  After sanding for a while, it becomes apparent where we need more filler. The guide coat makes spotting these areas a lot easier.  A minimal amount of filler...  A minimal amount of filler was needed to fill in the pits, and final sanding can begin after the filler dries.  To cover the repair, we used...  To cover the repair, we used Eastwood's self-etching primer that came in an Aerosol can. This easy to use primer etches and primes bare, rust-free metal in one step. Adheres to steel, aluminum, stainless steel, and galvanized steel and is compatible with virtually any paint or auto finish. The self-etching formula bonds better to bare metals, and covers repairs better than other aerosol primers. It is also a single-stage formula, which requires no catalyst, making it even easier to use. A 16 ounce aerosol can is $15.  After the primer dried, we...  After the primer dried, we gave the repair another sanding, this time using 220-grit. This will let us know if there are any small imperfections we still need to fix.  After the final coat of primer,...  After the final coat of primer, the dent is gone. This took the better part of a weekend to accomplish, but now you can do it yourself.
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