Last month's installment in our Paint & Body series walked you through stripping old paint off your project car. In the next couple of issues, we're going to get into what to do after you've discovered what the old paint was hiding.
If what you found isn't pretty, your first decision will boil down to the two Rs: repair or replace. If the damage is extensive (say, terminal cancer in the form of runaway rust) or parts are readily available, cheap, and easy to install, you'll probably spend less time and effort hanging new metal than trying to fix the rotten stuff. On the other hand, if your car is rare or obscure enough that replacement sheetmetal isn't available, all you're facing are a few dents and dings, or you don't think your welding skills are up to snuff, then repair is the route for you.
For some restorers, repair is always preferable to replacement because original sheetmetal fits better than repop no matter how good the reproduction is. Plus, there's value in retaining original sheetmetal. According to Richard Boone, "Almost any damage can be repaired if you have the proper equipment and time." Then again, Boone works for The Eastwood Co., maker and seller of just about every tool and repair material known to man.
He does have a point, however; there are techniques out there to remedy just about any sheetmetal malady you'll encounter when bringing a project car back to life. Read on to learn how to reshape dented and dinged panels to their original contours. As you're reading, keep this thought in mind: The best bodywork results come from knowledge and understanding of how sheetmetal can be shaped combined with the right hands-on techniques. The methods shown here appear straightforward enough, but don't expect to get a glass-smooth finish the first time you attempt these techniques. For that reason, all the bodywork experts we spoke to recommended practicing-a lot-on junk panels and fenders before knocking on your project car's sheetmetal.
Hello, Dolly
The most basic method of fixing dents is to beat on the metal until it's back into shape, and there's a huge assortment of hammers and small anvils, called dollies, that will do the trick. The technique only works, though, if you can reach both sides of the dented metal, as the dent will be sandwiched between the hammer blows and the dolly.
While the hammer-and-dolly method of metal repair is the most basic, it's also a technique that requires a tremendous amount of practice to get right. That's because inexperienced hands can do a lot of damage with a hammer and dolly, primarily by hitting the sheetmetal so hard, or so often, that the metal stretches, deforms, and warps.
Ken Sakamoto of Sunchaser Tools has spent years teaching hobbyists and professionals how to restore metal. He knows what he's talking about, having spent 17 years doing professional restoration work, followed by another 17 years selling bodywork tools. Among his students, contractors and carpenters are always the hardest to teach, he says, because whenever they have hammers in their hands, muscle memory demands they do one thing: swing like they're hitting a nail.
Instead, he teaches his students how to tap, not hit, the metal with the hammer while holding the dolly on the backside of the dent. The hammer taps push the raised metal down to conform to the shape of the dolly, a smoothing and leveling technique called hammer-on-dolly.
The weight of the hammer, the shape of the hammerhead, and the shape of the dolly are all carefully selected to fit the shape you want the metal in when the hammering is finished. For a rounded fender, use a dolly with a lot of radius on one side; for a flat quarter-panel or doorskin, pick a flatter dolly or the flatter side of the dolly. If you're hammering up against a seam and want to keep its straight line, use a hammer with a square, not round, head.
A second hammer/dolly technique is called hammer-off-dolly. As its name implies, the blows of the hammer aren't pushing the dent directly onto the dolly. The hammer lands around the dent's perimeter, while the dolly is in the dent's low center. By striking the metal, it and the dented area nearby move back close to original shape while minimizing the risk of stretching the metal in the dent.
If you're trying to hammer an area that's hard to reach with a dolly, such as the inside of a roof or the lower portion of a fender where access is only from the top, you can use a spoon, which is basically a flat dolly with a long handle attached to it. You may be able to straighten the metal in some of these areas simply by prying on it with the leverage of the spoon handle.
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