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dented b pillar
Posted: Wed May 20, 2009 6:41 pm
by col2560
any ideas how i can fix this dent? can i get to it from inside the car? or is it a double skin on the b pillar?
http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI.dll ... 0306223501
is the last pic on ebay ad.
Posted: Wed May 20, 2009 7:41 pm
by dstocks
It is double skinned, but thge inside skin has a hole or 2 in it from memory.
Posted: Wed May 20, 2009 8:16 pm
by col2560
thanks dwain. maybe i could cut and weld a new skin peice into the b pillar?? do you have a wreck that i could cut up??
did you read the ad? something about not idling when cold.
Posted: Wed May 20, 2009 8:33 pm
by Bennoz
Or drill through it & use a slide hammer to pop it back out.
Posted: Wed May 20, 2009 11:00 pm
by Ecnerual
farout thats quite dent
my previous car i had dents everywhere i just used a flat piece of wood and something heavy and hammered back into its original state but that was always on fendors or front bars so with this one it will be difficult as...
best option - becom best friends with a panel beater

Posted: Thu May 21, 2009 8:28 am
by I8A4RE
Ok firstly do what ben says then do what Ecnerual says with all the little dents left over. Then get some filler and apply to any dents you couldnt get out. Sand back and use hand to feel for any high or low areas. Mask off, primer sand and paint
Posted: Wed May 27, 2009 12:01 pm
by col2560
got to it from inside and used a long bar to lever the dents out, got it pretty good for a first try but i still have to massage it some more from the outside with a hammer and dolly. see pix
before;

after;

Posted: Thu May 28, 2009 8:10 am
by FTEvolution
mate, I think that will work out alright aye. Keep at it
Posted: Thu May 28, 2009 10:16 am
by col2560
in case you were wondering how this damage happened,,,, the previous owner punched it !!!! ouch!!
Posted: Thu May 28, 2009 11:08 am
by I8A4RE
What are all those little pin prick dents? They shouldnt be there

Posted: Thu May 28, 2009 11:28 am
by Bennoz
Agreed ^^
Unfortunately what you've done by hitting it out so hard is streched the metal. In order to get that back to shape it'll need to be heated....
Or bashed back in & bogged.
Posted: Thu May 28, 2009 12:24 pm
by col2560
the dents are from the round bar i used to lever the big dent out with. i intend to hammer the high spots back flat with a body hammer and dolly, then sand, bog, sand and paint prep. no worries !!!!!
the first big dent would have stretched the metal, no avoiding it. all i intended to do at this stage was to bring it roughly back to shape.
watch this space lol.
Posted: Thu May 28, 2009 2:11 pm
by I8A4RE
col2560 wrote:the dents are from the round bar i used to lever the big dent out with. .
hence why you should of done what ben and i said. Your causing more work for yourself and in the process actually making it worse
Posted: Fri May 29, 2009 12:52 pm
by DaveO
A body shop will be able to shrink that back into reasonably good shape for you with out costing you to much. just get them to go to metal finnish only as you will be finishing it. if you don't get it shrunk back the bog might pop out as the base metal flexes.
Posted: Fri May 29, 2009 6:34 pm
by mr-charisma
Have to agree with the rest of these guys.. should have tried using a suction plunger to try & get as much of the dent out as possible then drilled a pilot hole for a dent puller tool.. much less messy
I'm sure you could manage to get it looking just as good when it's finished the way you've done it, just a lot more mucking around.. and you might need to use more bog..
Always the way to go when using hammers (ball peen - for the love of god) is to do more hits with less pressure & if at all possible it can help to get someone on the outside of the car to exert pressure with a block of wood or something where you're hitting so you don't get as many little mountainous dents..
Posted: Wed Jun 10, 2009 6:21 pm
by col2560
Posted: Thu Jun 11, 2009 7:35 pm
by Bennoz
Thats come up pretty good!
Posted: Thu Jun 11, 2009 7:50 pm
by col2560
so far so good. getting the bumpers soda blasted today, i will post some pix when i get them back. a place in liverpool is doing them for $60 each.
Posted: Fri Jun 12, 2009 8:07 am
by I8A4RE
Looking good mate, just remember to make sure you fether the edges of the filler so that you cannot feel where it meets metal. Also get it primered and painted ASAP as filler will abosrb any moisture in the air and will expand then shrink and can crack.
But looking real good keep up the good work.
Posted: Mon Jun 15, 2009 4:09 pm
by col2560
finally got a warmish day so got it masked and sprayed, just primer and colour, no clear yet, i ran out of time and it starts to get cool about 3pm.
masked;
primered;
colour;
its been about 20 yrs since i sprayed metallic, it looks ok so far, not perfect, but about 95%. 1 trick i learned a while back is to leave the boot lid off so you can crawl through to drive it, don't have to re-mask around the door that way.