- Hey this is Donnie Smith.
This lesson, we're gonna talk about dent repair.
Now before we just jump on this car and start
repairing this dent, it's important for any repair job
to wash it good with soap and water to remove
all the contaminants, the waxes and greases.
We've already done that, we used a power washer
to clean the car and now we're using
a wax and grease remover.
And this is just to assure that all the waxes
and greases, silicones, things like Armor Alls
that may have been sprayed around the vehicle are removed,
'cause this will eliminate many of the paint problems
that arise during a repair process.
This will also save on sandpaper cause it won't
be loading the sandpaper with these contaminants.
Now we have the repair area clean and we can begin repairs.
But before we do, we wanna take a look
at the damage and see what's wrong with it,
see where the indirect damage is and direct damage,
and determine what repair methods we're gonna use
to repair this damage.
Now when thinking about damage, it's a good idea
to think about water.
Because you know if something hits water it goes down,
and when it goes down it also pushes a wave up.
So you've got the low area and you've got the high area.
Think of damage the same way, because any time there's
a dent there's gonna be a low
and there's gonna be a high.
So whenever you look at this damage, you can see that
the center part of the dent is of course the direct damage,
but then if you look up here on the top,
you can see the crown, or eyebrow some people call it.
And you can see that that is pushed up.
That whole top of the fender is actually pushed up.
So if you tried just to pull out on the low,
or push down on the high that's not gonna work.
You've got to roll the metal, you've gotta push down
on that high while you're pushing out on the low.
Now, when you go to determining what repair method
you're gonna use, you may have some different types
of tools, you may have some high dollar tools,
a stud welder gun, other dent repair systems.
Where really what you wanna think
of is what is the easiest method?
If it's a hammer and dolly, you have access to both sides,
then use a hammer and dolly.
Just because you've got the highest piece of equipment
does not mean you have to use it every time.
Now on this particular repair, if you drop the liner,
you are able to get to the back side.
So if you can get to the back side,
this would definitely be a candidate for hammer and dolly.
Feeling back there to see if there's room to get a dolly,
which I determined that there is.
Another thing to remember is that whenever you're repairing
a dent to reverse what happened.
You wanna work from the outside in.
First in, last out.
So whatever happened first in an accident,
that's the last thing you wanna repair.
Also remember when working with thin metal,
it's thin, and you may be able to move
some of this with your hand some of the times.
Doesn't work every time, but I'm gonna reach back there
and keeping that in mind that I'm gonna
push down on that high, out on the low area,
use my hands to rough this out.
Now this ain't gonna be perfect,
it's just to rough out the damage,
to get the majority of the damage out.
I can see that there are still some highs and lows,
I can feel 'em.
I know it's hard to see on the video,
and even if you're doing this yourself it may be hard
to see this sometimes, but I've got a trick that'll
help you locate the lows.
If you get a block with some 80 grit on it,
you can cross sand the damaged area,
and what this'll do is that the highs
will immediately go to metal, of course,
'cause they're high, but the lows, you'll see
it doesn't sand it at all, and this will identify the lows.
Now you can see the two low areas very easy.
Now using the dolly, I'm going to reach behind this
panel with the dolly and I'm gonna push out
on those low areas.
Also, while I'm pushing out I'm gonna have to remember
where those high areas are so I can tap in on those.
Remember, we always wanna work in multiple directions.
Whatever tool you're using, just remember
to push out on the lows and in on the highs.
Also, when using a dolly, there's different
dollies, different shapes.
You want the shape of the dolly to fit the contour
of the part you're working on.
If this dolly was completely flat it wouldn't work
well with this repair.
Okay, now I am working on getting my dolly
located on the back of the metal where I want it to go.
It may take a little bit of time to get it exactly
where you want it, but I want it right on those low areas,
so that I can raise the low areas out.
Also while I'm raising low areas out, while I'm pushing on
them with the dolly, I wanna tap down on the high areas.
This will allow the low areas to come out while
the high areas are tapped in.
This is called the Hammer off Dolly technique,
because I'm not actually hammering on the dolly.
The dolly is pushing out on the low,
the hammer's pushing in on the highs.
There is also a Hammer on Dolly,
and that's where you are hitting the dolly.
Any time you hammer on dolly that stretches the metal.
You wanna save that for your final stages,
until you get the metal closer to where you want it.
Then you can do some hammer on dolly
for your final straightening.
So I'm gonna do a little bit more metal straightening,
and then I'm gonna use the block sander
with some 80 grit on it to continue blocking that out
to identify my highs and lows
and see how the progress is coming.
Now whenever you're block sanding with 80 grit
to identify highs and lows, it's always important
to cross sand.
By sanding in just one direction, you're not gonna find
all the highs and lows.
And this goes for if you're doing this
to identify highs and lows, or block sanding body filler.
Cross sanding always levels much better.
Now we're using this sander, and this basically takes
the place of what we used to use with thicker metals,
which is a body file.
However a body file will actually shave
the top layer of the metal which would help level it.
We don't wanna do that with thinner metals.
We wanna use methods that does not remove any metal.
So any method that you can use that does not remove metal
is always gonna be a better
choice with these thinner metals.
Now I'm feeling out the damage with my hand,
just seeing what all highs and lows that I feel.
A little tip for feeling damage,
because you'll have to do that often,
is to use the flat of your hand.
Often I see fingertips used, but that is not gonna
catch the highs and lows, you're gonna miss 'em.
So always use the flat of your hand to be able
to feel the damage.
Another trick that some technicians use is to use a rag,
they claim that they can feel it better,
it kinda eliminates the different textures.
You put a rag over your hand and go over the damage
and see if you can feel the highs and lows better.
Try both ways, whichever works best
is the method for you to use.
Now I feel a little bit of high, so here I identified
a high, so I'm just gonna tap that down
with the pick side of the hammer.
I'm just basically lowering that high area.
Now I'm going to re-block it, re-sand it with this
80 grit to make sure that it did remove the high area.
I feel of it, and I feel that that feels good.
It's not perfect, but with these thin metals,
if you try to get 'em just perfect,
try to metal finish 'em like they did older metals,
you're gonna weaken and thin the metal.
You wanna get it within 1/4 of an inch.
Anywhere between 1/8 and 1/4
is what most body filler suppliers recommend.
However, you don't wanna exceed 1/4 of an inch,
that's maximum after sanded.
You don't wanna exceed that amount.
This dent is well under that, it's probably
within 1/8 of an inch.
I'm noticing there's still a little bit of a crease
down here so I need to work that out.
I'm gonna get a hammer and dolly in there,
I'm gonna raise in on the low area
and I'm gonna tap this crease area in
so that we can roll this metal back
to where it's supposed to be.
As I'm pushing out with the dolly,
I'm tapping in on that high area.
Now I'm being real careful here not to hit the bumper cover.
It'd've been a better idea if I went ahead
and dropped the bumper cover.
I'll probably be blending into that.
Another trick you can do is put
a couple layers of masking tape.
I should've did that, I should've put masking tape
or went ahead and dropped the bumper.
Because the last thing you wanna do is sand
into an adjacent panel, especially if it's not one
that you're blending and cause damage
that you have to repair.
I'm still having problems with the low area right here,
so I'm working on that.
Now the problem with this area,
it's a little harder to get to 'cause there's a brace there.
I'm following the same techniques,
I'm gonna push out on that low area
and I'm tapping around the high areas.
When I hammer on dolly you can hear that ping,
it makes a different sound.
You can hammer on dolly some to help remove that damage,
but again remember that that stretches the metal
and try to reduce the amount that you do that.
Little bit of a high, I knocked that down.
Okay, I'm gonna use my block with 80 grit
to sand the damaged area some more
to see if I got the damage worked out enough
to apply the body filler.
And I sand it and I feel of it, and there's still
too much of a low there.
So I'm going to need to go back in there one more time
and use the dolly and hammer.
I'm going to use the pick because there's a high here.
I'm pushing out on that low and I'm going to hammer
on dolly a little bit, and sand it one more time
to see if that has it.
And that's what it takes, it just takes doing a little bit,
feeling of it, checking your progress
until you have the damage where you want it.
We got the metal straightened within 1/4 of an inch,
really within 1/8, but 1/4 after sanded
is the maximum amount of filler that most
body filler manufacturers recommend.
No more than 1/4 of an inch.
That's the maximum amount.
I know 3M, Evercoat, they all have that
on their technical data sheets.
So anything more than 1/4 of an inch
you really need to straighten it more than that.
You need to get it straighter.
Again, with these thinner metals you don't wanna try
to work it and work it, because you're gonna
work-harden the metal.
It'll become work-hardened, thin, brittle,
it may even crack on you.
It's almost impossible to get these thinner metals
to do the metal finishing techniques like they used to do
where they'd work the metal and file it down and get
it just perfect, prime it.
Now there is one exception to that, and that's PDR.
Paintless Dent Repair.
That's a total different set of techniques
than we went over in this video.
This video is straightening metal
like a body shop would perform.
Again, remember depending on the extent of damage,
like a fender, that would really go into consideration,
do we wanna repair that or replace it?
Now on 1/4 panel, those panels usually cost more.
And also, it's a weld on panel, so it's gonna take a lot
of labor to replace it.
So you can have a lot more damage in 1/4 panel
than you would a fender, and still repair it.
Many times in body shops and dealerships,
if there's even a couple of hours of damage on fenders,
they just go ahead and replace them,
which is R and R, Remove and Replace.
Anyway, I hope you learned something this lesson.
Thanks for watching, we'll see you in the next lesson.