One of the most costly aspects of building your dream hot rod is going to be the body and paint portion. Each year, thousands of guys jump head first into sheetmetal work because they don’t want to be held hostage by the high price of body restoration. For a lot of guys, bodywork marks the final adventure in the DIY frontier, and with a company like Eastwood, regular guys can afford to get more involved both to save money and to have fun.
Older cars like our 1968 Chevy Nova project car have a nasty habit of picking up dozens or even hundreds of dents in their lifetime. These can range from improperly repaired collisions, to simple shopping cart dings. If your aim is to restore your ride to like-new condition (or better), you’ll have to address these dents well before body filler, primer, or paint gets near those flanks. In the past few issues, we’ve shown you how to replace a doorskin that was beyond repair, we’ve illustrated the proper technique for making small patch panels to fix rust areas, and we’ve even taken on the monumental task of replacing an entire quarter-panel. All those are useful skills, but perhaps the most common (and easy) sheemetal job you’ll run into is repairing the common small dent.
We’re going to concentrate...
We’re going to concentrate on removing this single dent just above the fender lip on the driver-side quarter-panel. At a leisurely pace, total time spent on something like this will be between one and two hours.
While you may be tempted to just mud over those many door dings, lay on the filler primer thick, and blast everything flat with a D/A sander, bitter disappointment will overwhelm you as you put the final buff on the clearcoat. Your pride and joy will have enough waves on its surface to make you seasick. To avoid this, it’s imperative that you make the right moves at the right time during the restoration process.
During the course of our Nova’s restoration at Outlaw Motorsports in Riverside, California, we’ve documented those moves for you with the help of Outlaw’s proprietor, Ron Aschtgen. This month, we’ll explore the use of a stud welder and slide hammer kit from Eastwood, as well as a seven-piece hammer and dolly set, also from Eastwood. Tools like these are absolutely essential for a proper resto, and together are used for the lion’s share of metalworking tasks in any ground-up body and paint project.
Prior to starting, Outlaw...
Prior to starting, Outlaw Motorsports removed all the paint, much of it with a grinder. This was done to get a true picture of what shape the underlying metal was in. Throughout the Nova, we found many dents and dings that had been mudded over and needed fixing. This dent was too deep for hammer and dolly work alone, so it was prepped for the spot welder with a grinder and a 36-grit abrasive disc.
So how’d it all turn out? After seeing the Nova’s body undergo a transformation over the last several months, the curiosity has got to be killing you. As this is written, we are putting the final touches on our Eastwood paintjob, and let us tell you this: All the hard work of leveling the body has resulted in a perfectly flat, wave-free finish. This proves that using the right tools and techniques does pay off, and at a fraction of the cost of having a body shop hold your car hostage!
Check out the Eastwood Uni-Spotter Deluxe 9000 kit in action at Outlaw Motorsports! We shot and edited a very cool video showing the Eastwood stud welder, slide hammer, and grinder being used on Project Nova. Just go to www.PopularHotRodding.com and click on the “More Videos” section!
Ron Aschtgen really loves...
Ron Aschtgen really loves his work! Here, Aschtgen has attached the slide hammer tip to the stud by rotating the collar until it grips the stud shaft. Once it’s tight, lightly tap the slide until the metal is pulled out in the affected area. You don’t want to go overboard here—doing so will cause the sheetmetal to “volcano.” In the days before spot welders, it was common to drill a hole for the slide hammer to fit inside. This caused lots of jagged peaks that are much harder to level.
Removing dents is most easily...
Removing dents is most easily accomplished with a spot welder and slide hammer set, like Eastwood’s Unispotter Deluxe 9000 Stud Welder kit (PN 12374, $549.99). The kit comes with the 110V stud welder, a slide hammer, two boxes of copper-coated studs (2.2mm and 2.6mm), body side molding rivets, and a T-handle puller for hammer and dolly work.
With the depression area cleaned...
With the depression area cleaned of all debris, the spot welder was called into service. Just place one of the copper-coated steel studs in the tip of the Uni-Spotter. Unlike other spot welders, the 9000 Deluxe will hold the stud in place even when the Uni-Spotter is in a vertical position. It also plugs into any 110V outlet.
Once the metal is worked sufficiently,...
Once the metal is worked sufficiently, cut the studs off with some side cutters.
Any kind of serious bodywork...
Any kind of serious bodywork will also require a competent hammer and dolly set, like this seven-piece kit from Eastwood (PN 11979, $119.99). This pro quality collection contains a shrinking/skinning hammer, cross chisel curved hammer, pick, toe block, heel block, general purpose block, and light dinging spoon.
Position the head of the stud...
Position the head of the stud inside the dent where you want to attach it. Hold it there with light pressure. Warning: Just pull the trigger for one second—no more. Any longer and you risk melting right through the sheetmetal.
You can weld as many studs...
You can weld as many studs in the dent area as you like. We used two in this oblong-shaped dent.
The remaining stub of the...
The remaining stub of the weld can be ground down even with the rest of the surrounding metal.
Now you can begin to evaluate...
Now you can begin to evaluate and refine the surface flatness and work it with a different set of tools. Here, another stud has been welded to a low area and the T-puller has been attached to it (included with the Eastwood Uni-Spotter kit). This allows you to work any surrounding high areas with a hammer (the skinning hammer is used here). Locally high areas can then be worked lower without pushing the center area low.
After cutting the stud and...
After cutting the stud and grinding it flat again, a curved hammer was used with a general-purpose dolly on the inside of the trunk to work the entire area level.
As seen from the inside of...
As seen from the inside of the trunk, the general-purpose dolly was used with a combination of “hammer on” and “hammer off” techniques to arrive at a near perfect level. Note that at this point, very little force is actually being used with the hammer.
One last pass with the grinder...
One last pass with the grinder (36-grit disc) ensures that the affected and surrounding area is completely level.
Once several dents in a given...
Once several dents in a given area have been corrected—in our case the left quarter-panel—a small coat of polyester glaze can be skimmed on top of the repaired dents. Once the hardener is added, you will need to work quickly.
Fast-forward about four months,...
Fast-forward about four months, after the sheetmetal has been straightened, body filler skim coated, sanded, panels gapped, sealer and primer laid on, sanded again, jambs painted, color coat sprayed, sanded again, clearcoat sprayed, then wet sanded. We’re showing here the final stages of the cut and polish. All the hard work removing and leveling dents is finally paying off. We’ll have the complete body and paint story along with our finished results in the May ’12 issue!
This shows a nearby area that...
This shows a nearby area that was also repaired with the Uni-Spotter and subsequently glazed. This is after it has been leveled with a flexible sanding board using successively milder grits (40, 80, then 220). If everything is perfectly leveled, only the thinnest skim coat will remain to fill in low areas (high areas will have been leveled with the hammer, and then by sanding).