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Posted: **22 May 2010 23:12**

I'm planning to repaint my car in the near future. However, the car is afflicted with a rash of door dings on both sides. There must be 20 or 30 in all. Most are minor but have to be fixed before paint. A painter who estimated the work said he would drill them and pull them out. Is this the best way to go? And then do you fill the drill holes with bondo or weld them?

nick
'79 TR7

Posted: **22 May 2010 23:31**

That's the worst way to repair dents.
Over here we call that the cheap American way, gives a real mess [:p]

Better to use a special slide hamer/welder that is tack welded very lightly to the panel that needs to be reshaped.
Gives a much better finish ...

The tiny spots you see is were the tool was welded to the panels.

1980 TR7 DHC (my first car, currently being restored)
1981 TR7 FHC Sprint (better known as 't Kreng)
[url="http://www.tr7beans.blogspot.com/"]My Weblog[/url]</center>

Posted: **22 May 2010 23:33**

Hi nick,

drilling holes in dents to pull them out is a bit dated, you can do it that way but i think thats asking for trouble in the long run. there are machines (which he really should be using, considering it's his job) which weld a stud to the dent, then using a slide hammer you pull the dents out. All you have to do after is grind the stud off and make good. It might be worth calling one of the many "dent specialists", i hear they have a magic curtain, once it's pulled round the affected area, miricles are performed! be careful though, there are a few cowboys who've jumped on the band wagon and can make a real mess of things, best to stick to the well known companies.

Here's an example of a dent pulling stud welder thingy.......

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Sealey-SR20-Stud- ... 30fe74ddcf

Posted: **22 May 2010 23:37**

Sounds like you need a bigger garage! [:)]

There are people who specialise in small dent repair using techniques that don't damage the paint. In NZ we have several mobile service franchises that do this so I'd be surprised if there were none in the US.

This look clever http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k77HO-Lv7ZY

Or DIY http://www.dentmagictools.com/

If you are about to do a repaint then it may be cheaper to just get the doors skimmed but the less bog you have to paint over the less chance of a bad finish. Drilling them is one method of pulling another is to weld a ring to the exterior as a temporary pull mount. Either way they will need a bit of bog to fill in the scars.

The map: http://tinyurl.com/wedgemap . The blog: http://www.forum.triumphtr7.com/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=8548

Posted: **23 May 2010 15:46**

A paintless dent remover looked at my car last year but he was pretty spendy since he charged by the dent and I have at least 20 to remove. It may be cost effective if I was not planning to paint.

Beans, in those pics you posted it looks like the drilling, in that example, is done to give the bonding material better adheasion not to pull the dent out.

It may be cost effective to buy a welder/dent puller, grinder, and some Bondo if this is something that is within the capabilies of someone with no body work experience. What do you think?

nick
'79 TR7

Posted: **23 May 2010 16:41**

<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Originally posted by nick

... Beans, in those pics you posted it looks like the drilling, in that example, is done to give the bonding material better adheasion not to pull the dent out ... <hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">
No, there were very clear signs that the holes were used to pull out various grades of dents [B)]

<center>

1980 TR7 DHC (my first car, currently being restored)
1981 TR7 FHC Sprint (better known as 't Kreng)
[url="http://www.tr7beans.blogspot.com/"]My Weblog[/url]</center>

Posted: **23 May 2010 16:45**

It partly depends were the dents are and how deep. I had a few of dents on the swage line on the passenger door (which gets most of the action for other cars drivers door.) As the swag line had the paint worn down to the primer from polishing over the years, I skim coated the dents and spray painted with spray can (generic gloss black) taping off below the red reflective tape.) Used 5 or six cans). Power buffed it with rubbing compound and it turned out great. No one can tell and even when I point it out you can only tell by the slightly different surface (texture) of the thermo plastic acrylic (original paint) and the spray can paint. Being spurred on by this success I did the front edge (to fill in a dent). There the paint looked charcoal reguardless of the brand I used. The difference was the door is a vertical surface and the leading edge is a horizontal surface.

If your going to get the whole car painted anyways and the dents are on the swage line (where they tend to be) I would just get them skim coated if they're not deep. As Beans said don't use the old drill and pull method. If done that way the holes should be welded and ground so you may as well get the welded pin method. If your body man doesn't have that equipment I would tend to move on to a more modern place.

TR7 Spider - 1978 Spifire - 1976 Spitfire - 1988 Tercel 4X4 - Kali on Integra - 1991 Integra

Posted: **23 May 2010 21:45**

Harbor Freight sells some real crap products but now and again you can hit on a bargin. I would never buy anything from them that I planned to use for rough duty, but for a one shot deal sometimes I take a chance. This looks like quite a deal.

http://www.harborfreight.com/dent-repai ... -3223.html

nick
'79 TR7

Posted: **23 May 2010 21:55**

This looks more like the tool we used on my car ...

No need to weld studs first, and releasing the weld is a simple twist of the handle.
Worked very quick indeed [:)]

<center>

1980 TR7 DHC (my first car, currently being restored)
1981 TR7 FHC Sprint (better known as 't Kreng)
[url="http://www.tr7beans.blogspot.com/"]My Weblog[/url]</center>

Posted: **24 May 2010 03:27**

<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Originally posted by Beans

This looks more like the tool we used on my car ...

No need to weld studs first, and releasing the weld is a simple twist of the handle.
Worked very quick indeed [:)]

<center>

1980 TR7 DHC (my first car, currently being restored)
1981 TR7 FHC Sprint (better known as 't Kreng)
[url="http://www.tr7beans.blogspot.com/"]My Weblog[/url]</center>
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">

Yikes. 750GBP. That's about what my entire car is worth. That's a bit spendy for my budget.

nick
'79 TR7

Posted: **24 May 2010 09:38**

That's what friends (in the body work business) are for [:)]

<center>

1980 TR7 DHC (my first car, currently being restored)
1981 TR7 FHC Sprint (better known as 't Kreng)
[url="http://www.tr7beans.blogspot.com/"]My Weblog[/url]</center>

Posted: **24 May 2010 16:19**

Eastwood in the US sell stud welding gear, but I agree that if
you have groups of small door dings it may be easier to just skim coat the lot.

1975 TR7 ACL764U

Posted: **24 May 2010 18:36**

Eastwood also sells a paintless dent repair kit. you take your door card off and attack the dents from behind....it's not rocket science but with some practice you could be massaging all those dents out on your own with good results.

Posted: **24 May 2010 19:31**

<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Originally posted by Rblackadar

Eastwood also sells a paintless dent repair kit. you take your door card off and attack the dents from behind....it's not rocket science but with some practice you could be massaging all those dents out on your own with good results.
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">

Since the car needs a paint job, I want to do the easiest dent removal process. By the time I figure out how to manipulate those tools I'll probably have made the dents worse.[:p]

nick
'79 TR7

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