How do you fix Dings? (not Dents)

[Avion C-11]

I've seen a lot of threads here on how to fix big dents but none on fixing smaller dings. I'm talking about the little door dings, rock dings, bug dings, knocking on the back door dings and so forth. Now that I have started to polish my camper I am seeing them all over the place.

I have seen the "dent removal with heat" thread and that process does work on some of the shallower dings but I have not had success with it on the bigger ones.

In the pic below you can see one like I am talking about. The ding is in the lower panel to the right (of the photo) in the section that is polished.

What do you all do with those?

[Inland RV Center, In]

Originally Posted by Avion C-11

I've seen a lot of threads here on how to fix big dents but none on fixing smaller dings. I'm talking about the little door dings, rock dings, bug dings, knocking on the back door dings and so forth. Now that I have started to polish my camper I am seeing them all over the place.

I have seen the "dent removal with heat" thread and that process does work on some of the shallower dings but I have not had success with it on the bigger ones.

In the pic below you can see one like I am talking about. The ding is in the lower panel to the right (of the photo) in the section that is polished.

What do you all do with those?

If my memory still serves me correctly, that exterior metal is "anodized".

An anodized finish, is a forced oxidation of the material.

To polish that metal, you must first polish through the anodize, or sand it off.

If the sun has not removed the dings, after apparently a long exposure to it, then it will be impossible to remove any that remain, since that metal is not tempered stress releaved.

Stretched aluminum, in your case, will not shrink.

Andy

[Avion C-11]

Thanks for the reply Andy.

Are AS trailers aluminum tempered?

[Inland RV Center, In]

Originally Posted by Avion C-11

Thanks for the reply Andy.

Are AS trailers aluminum tempered?

Prior to the 82 1/2 year models, Airstream used 2024 T 3 aluminum, which was tempered stress relieved.

Airstream has never used anodized aluminum in production.

Avion, Streamline and Silverstreak, all used anodized aluminum, in production.

Andy