Any advice on removing dents HERE? Lucky day comes to an end with a BANG

[bsrosell]

Again, thanks for all the comments and suggestions. My body shop experience is generallly limited to welding in floor panels and patching areas in the "won't be seen but want them sealed up" areas..... I'm getting NOS front fenders for example.... mine are just bad enough that I don't trust myself to do the car justice, and by the time I pay a pro to do it right, I can almost justify the expense of nice new fenders and NO BODYWORK!. Thus, I am leaning towards SN-60's advice; leaving it alone and letting a body shop do it with the proper equipment. The more I look at it and consider buying tools to try some of the suggested techniques, the more I think about it, the more I think I'm better off leaving this one to someone with the right equipment AND the know-how. (now, I hope I can find that person locally! Any Mpls/St.Paul guys who are really impressed with any body shops around here?) Seems a lot of them are full of kids trained in replacing a 2010 car's fender or putting a little bondo and paint on, but not the real skillful things you need on OLD cars..... I did all my Model-A Ford work myself but didn't have these types of issues to deal with, just simple bondo and a few welded cracks.
Oh, for a trailer and a pickup with hitch..... Every once in a while I miss the farm... and wish Dad lived closer AND still had a decent trailer, but those days are gone.

[bsrosell]

oh, forgot to reply Jeff; fortunately, my trunk is like new.... all the water damage was up in the firewall/floor area for some reason. Trunk is rust free and solid..... and of course right where the gas pump would have to land :- ) (photos pre-accident of course, was nice and straight....)

Before spending a lot of time on trying to pull out the damage, Id check for rust on the ends of this panel where it attaches to the fenders/trunk sidewalls on each end first. There was enough rust on this car's floors that would be worth going over with a pick hammer looking for thin spots. It would be worth making sure its worth fixing. Cary's Fabricating makes a excellent reproduction of this box panel should yours be found rusted out.

[bsrosell]

Update:
friend from work who MAKES frames and is converting a 53 Stude and has a shop I'd give my right arm for, offered to come out and help me try to pull that dent. He has the heavy duty "grips" made for this purpose and slide-hammer, and will probably first try to use my Engine Hoist (and probably chain down the body or something ..)
He thinks we can do it, so will give it a try. I showed my body shop guy, he just shook his head, didn't get warm fuzzies that they'd lovingly work it back into shape, probably just cut and weld like surgeons... (at similar cost).
By the way, I finally finished that blasted pump and got it out of my shop (here it is), by my Model A), now I can get back to Stude stuff!

The double metal is too heavy for a stud welder. I would get a clamp, as mentioned above and chain it to an engine hoist. Start putting some moderate upward lift to the clamp (don't try to pick up the entire car!) while tapping the bulged out portion with a flat body hammer and maybe use a stud welder on the single panel area. You may have to use some judiciuos heat from an acetylene torch or even drill out the spot welds-you can buy a special drill bit for that- to finish reshaping the panels. Use plug welds to reweld the spot weld areas once you've got it straight. Takes time, patience and finesse. I used to work in a body shop and that's how we would fix something like that, except we'd do it on a specially equipped frame rack.

[nvonada]

That pump is very cool. The model A is very nice too.

Nathan

[jimmijim8]

If you gotta ask how, ask the body man you spoke of or just have a whack at it yourself. Put your resources to work. Put some thought into a plan. You might even become more talented. cheers jimmijim

[bsrosell]

yep, looks like it is going down that way (try it myself with my buddy's help and combined tools).
The body guy just said "it's smashed!" and went back to talking to his other customer. Yes, I plan to find another body shop to handle my Golden Hawk; wasn't thrilled with what they did or charged for my Model-A anyway, considering I brought that in all complete down to having wet-sanded it, and they still didn't do what I asked (like spray color UNDER the body,and body was off the frame primarily for that purpose).
Re; trying it myself, your own quote is what often holds me back: "do it right the first time".. Hard to do that when it often takes experience of doing it and finding out the WRONG way, before you get good enough to do it right. And on a hobby car, you often only get one chance to "do it", so on something where trying the WRONG way can ruin it and make it difficult or impossible (or very expensive) to undo the damage, tempting to take it to a pro. School of hard knocks can be expensive on non-replacable items. :- ) But in this case, we're going to give it a try and two heads are always better than one.

If you gotta ask how, ask the body man you spoke of or just have a whack at it yourself. Put your resources to work. Put some thought into a plan. You might even become more talented. cheers jimmijim

[bsrosell]

thanks Nathan.
Did the 'A in high school (80's), and then my shop blew down on it in 2000; spent 7 years re-restoring it, every nut and bolt. Just drove it 3 hours up to my dad's farm for the winter this weekend for storage (oh, I hope the Bounce sheets do the trick one more winter and keep those mice out! Have had good luck with the cars so far, but worry every winter....)

That pump is very cool. The model A is very nice too.

Nathan

[Mrs K Corbin]

I welded a nut to the back of a pair of Vise Grips for my slide hammer.... Now if I can just find the thing....

Thanks guys, Sunday's always make me grateful (for more reasons than one!), and thinking over again how much more important my son is than a car; not that he was really in any danger, that big pump really could only go IN (towards the car) as the door caught it, but a good reminder none-the-less of how unintended and innocent ACCIDENTS happen all the time, he's 16 and driving now too, (heaven help me when the other four kids get their licences !!) and I'm just grateful for the gift of a great son and a good reminder to treasure him and the other kids more than 'stuff'. He did forgive me for my childish tirade by the way, good kid! :-) Now on to the minor annoyance in the great scheme of things, the dent:
I know what a slide-hammer is; but the only one I'm familar with I saw in a body shop years ago when I worked on my Model-A Ford in high school. The body-shop guy would WELD (spot-weld?) the thing (perhaps via an attachment?) to a door panel that had a ding, whack the slide hammer out and pull the dent out without actually cutting any metal (and reduce the body work to minor crease instead of big dent).
Is that what you are talking about here? I'm scratching my head trying to envision attaching a slide-hammer to a vise grip though. DID consider welding something to the deepest valley, buying an auto-body slide-hammer and trying that way, with a jack & 2x4 lifting up right underneath it and pushing up tightly enough to barely start lifting car off the ground but not denting the UNDERSIDE too :-)
Is that the same type of slide hammer? I guess I should go to Eastman or TP Tools website and look up 'slide hammers', maybe there are different options available than what I've seen.

[Bordeaux Daytona]

This is probably too late but I saw an ad for this puller in a magazine the other day and it said that it was $39.95.

http://www.lasvegastool.com/easy-puller

[Mrs K Corbin]

Dang! Knew I should have patented that thing!!!! Kicking myself....