Five Gallons of Bondo enough?

What do you think? Cut and patch with section I removed from a donor car or can a good body man straighten this out? By the way, Dent was there when we got the car.

Cut and patch, it'll be much easier.

Cut and patch with patch panel. Steel is always better. Spent the last 5 months cutting, pulling and pounding steel to replace the 5 gallons of bondo the DPO had piled on.

Cut and patch, that panel is fubar.

Might as well convert to CB as the bumper is shot too. Order the CB fender patch and your 1/2 done. :)

A good body shop could straighten this out pretty quickly. Even with a sheet metal patch for the outer skin you're going to have to do some pulling on the inner panels to get everything back in alignment before welding the outer skin on. With a good hydraulic jack system and a slide hammer when you got the inner parts straight I think you'd find that the outer skin was not out of alignment very far and easy to metal work.

Did yo notice that ding before you paid the guy? :)

Well, it is always a good time to learn something new. Have a look at the following video:

http://video.aol.com/video-detail/shrinking-disc-demo/198805196

The danger you have when you pound all that mess out is the you are going to stretch the steel and end up with a bunch of lumps and bumps that will not go away.

I bought one of these disk and have to say that they are great. Yes there is a learning curve, that is why we all keep scrap panels around (You DO keep scrap panels around dont ya?)

Do not use one of those silly pullers where you drill holes in the panel to pull it all out. By the time you finish welding the holes you have a big mess.

I would start by pushing it out as much as possible from the inside. The goal is always to push it out in the same but reverse fashion of how it was created. Do not start just wanging on it with a hammer. Find a solid place to push from and work with as big a surface as you can.

What do you have to loose!

Aww, guys do you mean that one won't buff out? :D

Peter knows about as much as anyone about metal work on LBCs, you should see what he's done with his Sprite. If you get to the point where you have to pull some area out and can't get to the inside then I advise using a "stud welder" and slide hammer. At least no holes to fill, just studs to grind off flush. For the hobbiest with low usage the HF unit works pretty well for under a $100. http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=3223
Another neat tool for a job like this might be a slide hammer designed to drive not pull to reach tight spots where you can't get a good swing with a regular hammer. http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=96696
(Don't have this one yet, but it's on my wish list)
Remeber to work slowly from the edge of the damage towards the center. Pushing the center out without working the edges will only result in a lot of stretched metal which you'll eventually have to fix.

New panel, muffler saw and mig welder will give a much better long term result, and not take that much time. Shrinking stretching and pounding is OK for disposable cars (ones that you throw away within 5 years) or ones for which there is no alternative. It is so much better to have virgin metal under the paint, rather than a metal mess with plastic smeared over it.

Find a shop with frame and body puller machine can be done quickly. then heat and beat and weld.

I consider myself a "good" bodyman and I wouldn't even consider straightening that if the photo is acurate. My "magic wand" has been broke for a long time. Perhaps if it was a TR3 or something where panels are extinct. Stud guns are a great invention but they ain't gonna move that, trust me. Looks like it caught a gaurd rail or cable judgeing from that deep, sharp indentation. I can pretty much visualize what it looks like under the tail lamp. Most anything can be straightened but time = $$$. Then there's the factor of what sort of job you want and how long you expect it to hold up.

That could be fixed if you wanted to pay for the labor.

But, you have to consider a few things. First off, will the calue go down significantly if the panel is no longer original to the car. - Late Model MGB, I'd have to say NO to that question. Secondly, will a shop be fixing it? If yes, then you have to weigh the cost of labor to do the body work which will be a lot of labor. When you compare that to the cost of a new panel v.s. the cost of labor + consummables for fixing it, I think you come out WAAAAY ahead if you cut that out and put in a new panel.

But, I would necessarily take the panel from an old car, why not just buy a new one? Cut out what you need and use that?

Now, if you have a crappy donor car lying around, well, that's a different story.

BOW, if YOU YOURSELF will be doing all the work, I think it's only a matter of where your experience and knowledge lie. Can you weld, can you straighten panels, can you do neither but you're willing to learn?

If I was to tackle this without any knowledge, I would cut it out and use a NEW panel for replacement.

Hope that helps, I'm sure I just reiterated what the others have said.

B

Take it to one of those paintless dent removal places! :D

JoeReed Wrote:

I'm back! Well, This was my wifes Grandpa's car. The dent is from her Uncles rear bumper on a full size pickup!
I think I will use the section I got from a guys car that was going to scrap to patch with. It will still need a bit of straightening.
Thanks.

Sounds like a good plan. And also plan on parking the 'B somewhere safe when Uncle comes for a visit, too.

Cut and paste is probably the best alternative, altho I have known body men who could knock it out and use remarkably little bondo to smooth it out. But they had experience, the right tools, and talent, none of which I possess and I doubt that there are too many, but a few, on this BBS who do. Most of us do this sort of work so infrequently and without training that it is just better if we keep the work and processes simple. And patching in a panel would seem like the best course to me for a novice (or even someone like myself who does this sort of work on average about every 6-10 yrs).