How I removed a dent in the front end cap

[TG Twinkie]

My Argosy 26 has had a beach ball size dent in the front end cap ever since I bought it.
I was successful in removing the dent using an inner tube, a piece of plywood and a home made fitting for the shop vac hose.
I placed the inner tube centered over the dent, then placed the plywood on the inner tube. Connected the shop vac hose to the fitting and turned on the vac.
The inner tube had about 5 pound of air, making it flexible and able to make a good seal with the plywood and coach skin.
NOTE: There were no creases in the dent.
I am not sure what the atmospheric pressure is at 4,200ft elevation. I know it is less than at sea level. I am guessing it is about 12.5 pounds per square inch. It's not the vacuum that restores the metal to it's original shape, it is the pressure from behind.
Isn't physics GREAT!
Sorry! the pics are not in order. Look at the last 2 first. Those are the before.

http://s1166.photobucket.com/user/do...Dent%20Removal

[Wingeezer]

Great Idea!

I think you can buy a gadget that is somewhat similar from princess Auto - it uses a large rubber suction cup and uses a compressed air hose and venturi device to draw a vacuum inside the cup.

I had a dent on top of the front cap of our trailer when we bought it used. I didn't know about it when we bought the trailer as it wasn't visible from the ground, so no big deal really.

I would expect it was caused by someone being up top and kneeling on the end cap - not a good thing to do.


I could have just left it as it was not readily visible but decided to have a try just to see if I could. It pulled out quite easily with a large suction cup (6-8" diam?) used for auto dent pulling - it worked fine but did leave the very slightest trace of a crease around the edges of the dent.

Brian.

[ALUMINUMINUM]

Wow!

I always thought I was a pretty good Hillbilly Engineer, but I am humbled by your innovation.

NICE WORK!

[RankAm]

I had a sizable dent in my front 13-panel endcap (on a 1956 Flying Cloud). After removing the interior skins, I used a partially deflated basketball (pushing from the inside) with good results. See here.

Hank

[perryg114]

Very clever idea there. Good job.

Perry

[DryFly]

Great idea TGT! I'll keep that one in my tool kit

[Tn Traveler]

A fantastic solution with outstanding result.

[Hittenstiehl]

OK TG can you explain it again. I looked at the pictures and it came out great and we have a very similar dent. But I'm just not understanding your sequence.

Inner tube first, then wood, then blow up the inner tube, are you inside or outside.

[Gneiss Guy]

I love it! It sounds like something my dad would have devised. Simple, cheap and effective.

[TG Twinkie]

Working from the outside.
Put 5'#'s or so of air in the inner tube. The tube in the pic is for a 15" tire. It is inflated enough to make it round and spongy.
Place the tube so that it encircles the dent.
Lay the plywood on the tube.
Connect the vacuum cleaner hose to the fitting in the plywood.
Press down on the plywood enough to get the tube to squash some.
Turn on the vac.
Picture the tube as the white filling of an Oreo cookie. The coach skin being one side of the cookie and the plywood the other side of the cookie.
I used a 16 gallon Craftsman vac with a clean filter. It has significant suction capabilities.
To test the setup. I laid the tube on the concrete floor of my shop (not smooth by any means). Laid the plywood flat on top of the tube. Connected the vac hose and turned it on.
The plywood sucked down, squashing the tube some. With the vac running I tried lifting the plywood off. It would not budge.
Thought to myself. "This might just work" and it did.
Hope this helps.

[Hittenstiehl]

Thx for the further information. So the suction is enough to lift out or suck up the dent. Thx

[Grosspoluter]

WOW
Very cool
It's posts like yours that I love to see!
Wish pictures loaded on this forum easier
I'm going to try this, when I get some spare time
Thanks again!

[TG Twinkie]

Under normal circumstance the atmospheric pressure is equal on both sides of the outer skin.
When you create a negative pressure on the outside of the skin with the tube, plywood and shop vac.
The atmospheric pressure is reduced, but the pressure on the inside of the skin is still the same. It is that ~ 14 pounds per square inch that actually causes the dent to push or pop out.
The higher in altitude you are the lower the atmospheric pressure. Therefor less push.
I live at 4,200ft in elevation. This method worked fine.

[Sodbust1]

Originally Posted by Hittenstiehl

OK TG can you explain it again. I looked at the pictures and it came out great and we have a very similar dent. But I'm just not understanding your sequence.

Inner tube first, then wood, then blow up the inner tube, are you inside or outside.

I asked the same question..I felt he stuffed the inner tube into the roof area from the inside... When my friend TG wrote back I had to slap myself in the head as its so simple.. I have a dent on the rear cap of our Overlander I am going to rig up and try this same trick..

Thanks my friend TG for such a simple fix..

Sodbust

[nevans]

That is a wonderful solution posted by TG Twinkle.

I pulled a dent in the rear end cap this weekend, but I purchased a dent puller much like Wingeezer described after seeing a post on pinterest about a similar successful project. I was able to pull the dent, but of course the gouges made by branches, etc are still there.

I also attempted to pull a dent from the left rear corner. The line of the curve now follows its original arc, but I have several creases that could not be removed due to the nature of the original damage, and the compound curve of the corner panel.

Neil

[JerryMcMunn]

What is the black fitting that lines the hole in the plywood? If you made it, what is the material?

[Mollysdad]

Genius!
I'm thinking a small inner tube for a garden tractor or small trailer (10") would be perfect.
I know there are dent specialists who do this for a living.
Seal, vacuum, pop. It's not perfect because some dents are stressed, but the cave in will come out.

[TG Twinkie]

It is actually the lid of a plastic bottle. I cut a hole in it that fit tightly on the vac hose. All that is necessary is to get a good seal between the plywood and the vac hose.

[nvestysly]

I didn't see this thread the first time around. Now that the thread was resurrected today it came up on my RADAR screen.

Definitely an interesting solution. I'll certainly try to remember this situation for future reference. I like the idea of using the negative and positive pressure to pop out the dent. I have a few dents (much smaller than yours) and some of them have creases. Regardless, I think I might try this type of "fix" to see what happens.

The end cap for your Argosy is made of steel and for that reason I don't think there are any (or not many) ribs under the end caps.

[Brad H]

I have to thank TGT for the idea! I tried this out yesterday and couldn't believe how easy it worked. I happened to be cleaning the trailer and came across a basket of beach stuff that had a cheap swimming tube from Family Dollar in it so I thought, what the hell, might as well try it. So I filled it until it was almost full but still flexible. Then I seen the old piece of countertop that I cut out for my kitchen sink in the house, perfect! It's nice and heavy so it gave me a good seal.
I looked around to see what I could make a hose fitting out of with no luck. Ended up taking a spade bit and drilling a 5/8" hole in the center of it and figured I would use my hand to seal around it while holding the shop vac hose. Little did I know that the hose sealed itself just fine on the flat surface with the suction. I think it took all of .0001 seconds from putting the hose over the hole until I heard the "thump" of the dent popping up. Very cool!

I apologize for the sideway pics, they weren't that way when I uploaded them.