| Author | Message | ||
     No_rice |
How many of you have had that done to your car/truck? How well did it go? Some girl decided to get in her car(while we were behind her waiting for some pedestrians to move) put it in reverse and back into my front fender last night... on my patina'd 70 GMC.... Not a happy guy... a new fender and paint isn't an option... the fender trim(grill surround) in a well weathered condition can be had though so I will probably replace that instead of trying to repair it    | ||
| Froggy |
I've had it done with my truck. Living in and near NYC has taken its toll on my truck due to ass hats that think their car doors should open 180°. I don't have any before/after pictures, but the place I had it done was a detailing shop that also offered the service. It was $150 a panel if I remember right, and the panels look as good as they did when I bought the truck. I'm probably going to do it again next spring as I recently got a few more, then I'll wrap my truck in packing foam or something. | ||
| Ceejay |
I don't know what Froggy's driving around but I'm guessing that it's a bit newer and it might be a bit tougher on the older steel panels. I don't know what thickness dent repair will work up to but I'm pretty sure that (excellent looking) truck has some nice thick steel on it. | ||
| No_rice |
Yes that has been one of my concerns. It is older and much heavier steel... :-( I really don't know exactly how they fix the damage. Especially when not removing any panels or anything. Obviously they are not with a hammer and dolly from the back side. | ||
| Hootowl |
Chevyduty.com | ||
| Brother_in_buells |
I think your best option is to do it yourself! Remove the fender and work gently with some pieces of wood or make some dolly from beech wood. If the dent has no sharp kinks then it should go well. | ||
| Natexlh1000 |
Older vehicles are welded together. You can't just pop it off and put it back on with bolts. My dad was a body man in the '70s and he would replace a panel as a last resort. He has teeny hole saws for removing the spotwelds. | ||
| Sifo |
I've used the "as seen on TV" pops-a-dent a few times with pretty good results. I was really skeptical at first, but it does allow you to undo the dent with pretty good precision. I even managed to straighten out a dent on a steel motorcycle tank that I though would be too thick to be pulled. I probably had to do about 20-25 pulls to get it looking good though. Don't set it up right in the middle of the dent and expect it to do magic, you have to work it from the edges. Experience as a body man will help to understand how the dent need to be worked. | ||
| Thumper74 |
...PDR doesn't really work there. By all means, get a quote, but it's generally meant for dings/small dents that are smaller than a business card. | ||
| Sifo |
I did it on a football sized dent in a door panel. It was a pretty smooth dent though, that happened from going sideways through a snow drift at about 50 MPH. The dent on the truck won't come back perfect. Painting just isn't an option though, so get it as close as possible and quite. | ||
| 86129squids |
Once again, give my buddy Vern a holler- that's what he does. | ||
| Etennuly |
PDR is more for hail dents or door dings. Not so much for a real dent involving a rolled in panel edge. Once the grille shell, side marker light, and bumper are removed there will nearly be "some" access to the inside of the fender for picking and dolly/hammering back into submission. Might even need to weld a few studs for pulling where access is too limited. For the paint I would spend some time making a blend/color match that would stay below the upper "patina". It would be very complicated to get a match there. I'd check around for some old style lacquer paint that was used when these trucks were new. Urethanes, single stage or base clear, would be too shiny for this application. It is also possible that the grill shell can be straightened/ fitted/ ground and polished back to looking good. | ||
| Hootowl |
The fender on that truck will come off by removing the bolts. It is not welded on. It is also made from 16 gauge steel. It's going to be a heck of a lot easier to get the dent out if you take it off. | ||
| No_rice |
Yes, I can pull the fenders off. No real problem with that. Assuming the bolts that have never been out in 45 years, decide they want to cooperate...! | ||
| Etennuly |
If you are all about saving the patIna leave it on. That repair is not that big of a deal. You are over thinking it. I'd put 5 hours on the repair and five on paint labor then look Into replacing the grille shell. 3 hours labor there and1 more to r&i the bumper. |
