Dent

[Tommy MM]

As i was blocking the bed of the truck that i am working on,I came across a dent the size of a football. I wanted to remove all the old body filler, and started to grind it off. The body filler was about a half inch deep.The question to all of you is,i don't have any pullers to speak of. What can i use to force the dent out. It is a double wall bed,and right where the dent is on the inside of th bed,i could cut a section out and have a clear shot at the dent from inside the bed. I don't want to create more work,but like i said i don't have any pullers and i am on a budget and i have to watch what i spend. I know there is allot of exsperience on this web site, and maybe you could tell me of an old way to pull the dent out please!

[Phil V]

Tommy, we used the screw type slide hammer dent puller for close to 20 years before they came out with the stud welder. A cheap slide hammer screw dent puller costs about $6 or less. You'll need a 1/8" drill bit and a drill motor. Drill the 1/8" holes as needed then screw in the dent puller and slide hammer the dent out. Not too aggressively or you'll rip the screw hole out.
When the get the dent pulled to your satisfaction then grind the sharp edges of with 36 or 40 grit on a grinder disc. Use a water proof filler like Duraglas, Marglas, Bondoglas etc for your first application of filler to seal out any moisture that could come through from the back side. Then use regular lightweight filler to finish off the repair area. Make sure and use some spray type rubberized undercoating on the backside of the repair area to seal up the screw holes from the backside. That repair should last longer than the rest of the sheetmetal on the vehicle.

[Len]

For most dents that don't need a heavy pull to bring the metal back you can use Pull Hooks. Like Phil, we used a slide hammer before the stud welder came along but between the slide hammer and the stud welder we mostly used these Pull Hooks because the inflected much less damage to the metal than a slide hammer. The process is similar to the slide hammer in that you drill a small hole but the actual pull doesn't distort the metal as much as a slide hammer... you pull on the hook while tapping the surrounding metal with a body hammer.

Pull Hooks Link

[John Kelly]

I prefer to push or bump dents out from behind rather than pull if possible...seems to be closer to reversing how the dent was made in the first place. Working from both sides of the panel give you better control over the contours. Here is an article with a few links to others that might help you in dent repair:

http://metalshapers.org/101/jkelly/index.html

John www.ghiaspecialties.com

[Tommy MM]

I don't kow how to thank all fo you for the information,other than to show you the finished product when completed. Thanks again!

[AlexeiVT]

If you have a MIG welder on hand, you could just weld on some small nails, to use as points of leverage for pulling (sort of like a substite stud gun).

Depending on how far you want to go, and if you have apop rivet gun handy, you could weld the equivalent diameter nails that the rivet gun accepts, span the area w/ a rigid piece of metal and hole drilled through, and then use the rivet gun to suck up the nail at a controlled rate.