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Dents in ali panels
rayward - 19/4/05 at 06:05 PM

Hi all,

i've got a few dents in the ali panels on the locost i'm rebuilding, anybody know of some websites with a step by step guide on the correct way to repaire them??.

I k now i'll probably end up replacin git anyway but would just like to have a go first.

Ray

chunkielad - 19/4/05 at 06:14 PM

You could try a shrinking hammer from Frost auto restoration. It turns as hit hit with it hence shrinking the metal and straightening it out.

SeaBass - 19/4/05 at 06:20 PM

It also puts nice marks on the panels which are designed to be skimmed and painted over...

Cheers

dave dickson - 19/4/05 at 07:42 PM

This is bit of an art-form to do well. Takes LOTS of practice to get right. (and no, I still cant do it right! :p )

The Haynes bodywork repair manual covers this in some basic detail. Its quite a good book actually, lots of usefull stuff in there.

chunkielad - 19/4/05 at 08:55 PM

quote:
Originally posted by SeaBass
It also puts nice marks on the panels which are designed to be skimmed and painted over...

Cheers


Couldn't you do it from the inside?
Alternatively, the guys I've seen on TV doing Ali repairs have a whole set of tools including flat files, arched files, little 'hitting sticks' (sorry don't know name) asnd it all seems a bit of a specialist job. If you weren't painting it, I'd leave it or replace.