Dent Puller

[Zeppelinium]

This dent has been bugging me for about 10 years. I got fired up at the Restoration Rally by UWE for using suction cups to pull out dents. I happended to see some 4-1/2" suction cups ($5) at Harbor Freight a couple days ago, so I thought I'd give it a try. It was a bit of a challenge to get the cup to adhere--I think a smaller diameter might adhere better but it might not have the "pull" to pop a dent out.



Not perfect, but much improved. Now, if only I had access to the inside of the dome skin, I know I could roll the skin to an almost perfectly smooth finish.

I tried the suction cup on a dent in the dome of the Overlander, but the shape of the dent prevented the suction cup from getting a purchase. I think I'm going to build a vacuum box to fit the section of the dome and see if that will pull out the dent. I really don't want to have to go at it from the inside--that would require cutting the interior plastic dome.

I used wooden blocks to fix dents in the Caravel banana skin, but even though the skin was much improved, the blocks left a number of small welts. (There is a longer thread about this posted in 2006.)





I did the same technique on a banana skin dent in the Overlander down at the Restoration rally, but I finished the job with Kip's roller. The skin turned out to be almost perfectly smooth. We gotta get Kip to make us a bunch of those rollers!



Zep

[Becky B.]

Looks great! I've seen a lot of dented banana skin--the roller really did a great job of smoothing it out--can't even tell it was ever dented. Nice!

[bwaysteve]

Not having Kip's metal work expertise I found a 2 in bed frame roller at HD and put a 3/4 in. pipe on the end and rolled out the dent.Luckily I have the skins off.Not perfect but looks 80% better considering there was a gash in the dent that was not removable.Kip still needs to produce these rollers.

[JLGT5107]

Do you have a picture of the roller? I'm in the process of fixing some dents on my GT. This was done from inside.

[purman]

I have one of those pullers for my rear dent, I'm having the same problem with getting it to stick. did you use water? or something. When I did get it to stick it just popped back. Is it better to try when it is warm?

[Aerowood]

You guys are going to force me to make more aren't you

Kip

[JSTOTT]

Nice roller idea. I wish I had one of those about 3 months ago when everything was apart. Those banana skins turned out nice.

Russ

[Shacksman]

Originally Posted by purman

I have one of those pullers for my rear dent, I'm having the same problem with getting it to stick. did you use water? or something. When I did get it to stick it just popped back. Is it better to try when it is warm?

Try pushing it on and then duct tape it down.

[Zeppelinium]

Originally Posted by purman

I have one of those pullers for my rear dent, I'm having the same problem with getting it to stick. did you use water? or something. When I did get it to stick it just popped back. Is it better to try when it is warm?

Yes, I used water. The skin was HOT from the afternoon sun, but that was random luck, if, indeed, it had anything to do with getting the dent out.

I have actually heard it is better to do when it's cold. Some say that dry ice will shrink the skin and force the dent to pop out. The theory is that the skin is stretched a little when it deforms into a dent and the cold shrinks it back for long enough to pop the dent out--once it's out it's now overcented in the "out" rather than the "in" position. I'd sure like some feedback on this. I'm thinking it has to work only for small dents.

UWE recommended to put the suction cup on and while pulling, lightly tap the edge of the dent with a dead blow hammer, like copper or a bead-filled hammer. I used a 2-lb rubber mallet. I'm not sure it did anything, because the dent came out almost immediately. Maybe it helped do something with the curl at the edge of the dent to ensure it wouldn't fold back in. Don't know.

Zep

[purman]

thanks I will have to give it a try, I might try the dry ice idea. I will let you know how it works out..

[JLGT5107]

I have one of these type rollerers used for flastic laminate. I think I try sanding a curve into it. Its a hard rubber roller

[Distantdrummer]

Here is a link to Zep's former thread that he mentioned in the 1st post up above.

[http://www.airforums.com/forums/f476/banana-skin-dents-repair-24690.html]

Dent Puller 2006 http://www.airforums.com/forums/f476...air-24690.html

[wmarsha]

when a smooth rounded panel is fab'd by the factory, it is a "low crown" panel. When a panel has a highly defined lip, edge, or detail, it has a "high crown" component. So, when a smooth rounded panel is dented, it now has high crown components at the edges of the dent. The actual center of the dent is not deformed, just the edges. so, if/when pulling a dent, you wish to have enough pull to overcome whatever force caused the dent in the first place-pull in the opposite direction, and do not attempt to cause deformation at/over the edges of the dent. Now, the "over deformation" is actually at the edges of the original dent. Very light application of force in the opposite direction of the dent removal force can/will "shrink" the pronounced high crown of the dent edges, smoothing out the entire blemish such that only a highly trained eye will even notice.

Okay that is the theory, practice on scrap, zepp until you can wield a mallet of choice with aplomb. easy goes it, you are on aluminum, not steel. small amounts of heat may also help the metal to remember its orig shape. too much and you will expand the metal requiring more heat with even more cold damp rag application which will shrink the metal even more. The british used to hand form aluminum auto bodies-it wasn't done much in the USA, but Healys and perhaps some MG's as well as Jaguar's had aluminum in their skins. Aluminum can be worked, it is just painstaking time consuming labor-which of course, all A/S owners have, especially those whose name begins with Z. Ya know, I'll bet if a guy did a search on the internet on aluminum metal working there'd be something out there.